Brand in Konstantinopel

On the night of 16 October 1834 the Houses of Parliament in London burned down, and Turner went to the Thames with the crowds to watch it and fill a sketchbook. He was 59 and had been painting fire for years. This small canvas of Constantinople in flames is dated to about the same time, and the odd thing about it is that Turner never went to Constantinople, or anywhere else in the Ottoman lands. He had made eastern scenes before out of other men's drawings, supplying views for the illustrated editions of Byron that sold well in the 1830s. The minarets in the haze and the big wooden house going up at the centre come from second-hand sketches and printed descriptions. The painting passed through private hands in France before reaching Lille, where it hangs on the first floor.