The Belfry at Bruges, Belgium

Callow visited Bruges in 1844 on a trip to the Rhine and Moselle. He stopped at Bruges and Malines and made a number of sketches before journeying to Cologne, then up the Rhine by steamer to Coblenz. He then returned to Belgium with his wife, Harriet, in 1850, visiting Lille, Courtrai, Tournai, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp. He delighted in the architecture of the city, writing in his diary of the 1850 trip, 'I had little time for seeing the sights, as I found so many architectural subjects admirably suited for my pencil.' The extensive sketches he made on that tour were revisited and developed for later exhibition works such as the present sheet.