- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Barn with a Willow
- Date
- (?) 1802
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 8.7 × 11.4 cm, 3 ⅜ × 4 ½ in
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Picturesque Vernacular; Rural Labour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1786
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 502
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
Chambers Hall (1786–1855); presented to the Museum, 1855
Bibliography
Binyon, 1898–1907, no.59b
Other entries in Later Sketches:
Taken on the Spot and Worked in the Studio
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1323-pi.jpg)
Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert (page 15, reverse, of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1324-pi.jpg)
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1404-pi-uploaded-22-08-01.jpg)
Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection
![]( /media/thomasgirtin_placeholder/w450.png)
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1530-pi.jpg)
An Extensive Landscape with the Ruins of Mitford Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1552-pi-2.jpg)
Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Private Collection
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1575-pi.jpg)
A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Private Collection
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1600-pi.jpg)
John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1601-pi.jpg)
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1602-pi.jpg)
The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1603-pi.jpg)
Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1604-pi.jpg)
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1607-pi.jpg)
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1608-pi.jpg)
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1609-pi.jpg)
Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1610-pi.jpg)
Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1611-pi.jpg)
A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1612-pi.jpg)
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1613-pi-uploaded-22-08-01.jpg)
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
British Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1615-pi.jpg)
An Interior View of the Choir of Bolton Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1616-pi.jpg)
Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe (page 37 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1617-pi.jpg)
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe (page 38 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1618-pi.jpg)
The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1619-pi.jpg)
A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground (page 41 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1620-pi.jpg)
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1621-pi.jpg)
A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1622-pi.jpg)
Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1623-pi.jpg)
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1624-pi.jpg)
Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1625-pi.jpg)
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1626-pi.jpg)
Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
British Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1629-pi.jpg)
The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1632-pi.jpg)
Kirkstall Abbey, with a Canal Barge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1670-pi.jpg)
The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1720-pi.jpg)
The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1769-pi.jpg)
A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
Private Collection
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1770-pi-1.jpg)
A Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1772-pi.jpg)
A River Valley and a Distant Hill Seen through Trees
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1779-pi.jpg)
A Shady Road Leading to Cottages
British Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1788-pi.jpg)
A Church in a Village, Possibly at Radwinter
British Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1794-pi.jpg)
A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream
British Museum, London
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1804-pi.jpg)
Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
Private Collection
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1806-pi-1.jpg)
A Schooner near the Shore
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1809-pi.jpg)
A Coast Scene with Two Beached Vessels
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
![]( /media/w450/primary/tg1815-pi.jpg)
A Shipping Study: Five Craft on a Calm Sea
British Museum, London
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About this Work
This simple view of a traveller passing a barn is one of fifteen generally slight colour sketches, all measuring roughly 8.9 × 11.4 cm (3 ½ × 4 ½ in), that appear to have come from a sketchbook worked late in Girtin’s career. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak thought that these works ‘represent the fruits of local sketching trips taken during the summer of 1802’, and they argued that the fact that none of them were used as the basis for studio watercolours supported a late date (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.84–85). However, only one of the scenes can be identified as a local view, Copenhagen House, Islington (TG1783), and although some of them appear to be imaginary, as in this case, others almost certainly represent picturesque subjects sketched in Essex three or four years earlier. Thus, whilst the sketches were evidently created at speed, it is unlikely that they were worked up on the spot, being produced instead in the studio to satisfy the market for the less formal aspects of the artist’s output. The evidence that they come from a sketchbook is also ambiguous, since, as the paper historian Peter Bower has pointed out, specialised books for the use of artists were not manufactured at this date, and they either used pocketbooks or they themselves gathered together sheets of paper (Bower, 2002, p.141). New evidence, in the form of the account of John Girtin (1773–1821) of the material that he removed from his brother’s studio at his death, suggests that the latter was the case here. John records that amongst the items that he appropriated to settle his brother’s extensive unpaid debts were ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’, and it seems likely that these included the group of small drawings now in the British Museum, which would, indeed, date from late in his life (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804). John Girtin was thus responsible for splitting up the ‘little Books’ and selling the sketches to collectors such as Chambers Hall (1786–1855), the generous patron of the museum (Smith, 2017–18, pp.35–36).
Such is the slight manner in which a limited number of washes have been added to the still-prominent pencil work here that I wonder whether such modest sketches would have been attributed to Girtin were it not for the provenance and the visual links with other works in the group. Indeed, such is the relatively crude way in which the washes have been added to the sheet that, as with a number of the other sketches from the ‘little Books’, there is a lingering suspicion that John Girtin himself might have been responsible for adding the colour to make his stock more saleable.
(?) 1802
Copenhagen House, Islington
TG1783