This view of a boat-builder’s yard, one of two almost identical versions of the picturesque scene (the other being TG0832), displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here the two artists were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to copy ‘the outlines or unfinished drawings of’ principally John Robert Cozens (1752–97), but other artists too, including the patron’s neighbour, the amateur John Henderson (1764–1843), who lent his ‘outlines for this purpose’ (Farington, Diary, 30 December 1794). Henderson visited Dover in the autumn of 1794 and the ‘outlines of Shipping & Boats’ he made there, described by the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) as ‘Very ingenious & careful’, provided the basis for a substantial number of copies of marine views commissioned by Monro (Farington, Diary, 1 December 1795). As with the copies the artists made after the sketches of Cozens, ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’, with Turner receiving ‘3s. 6d each night’ though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).¹

Girtin is not known to have visited Kent and his views of the county’s churches and marine scenery were copied after other artists. Though Turner travelled to Dover in 1793 and executed a series of studio watercolours after his own sketches, the majority of the coastal scenes sold from Monro’s collection that were associated with him, numbering as many as a hundred, were still produced from secondary sources (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 26 June 1833; Christie’s, 1 July 1833). Most of the Monro School coastal views were based on sketches made by Henderson in and around Dover, including A Boat on the Shore, near Shakespeare Cliff (TG0797), but there is no evidence that either this boat-building scene or two closely related drawings (TG0832a and TG0833) depict the south-coast port; indeed, these watercolours have traditionally been said to represent scenes on the river Medway. Though there is no internal evidence to link any of the group with the river in Kent, the identification was presumably based on a contemporary inscription and it is therefore likely to be correct. Girtin’s views of nearby Rochester (such as TG0057), also on the Medway, are based on compositions by his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Though it is possible that these watercolours too were copied from one of the numerous sketches by Dayes that are known to have been in Monro’s collection (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 2 July 1833, lot 44), I suspect that they were executed from lost sketches by Henderson. The likelihood of Henderson being the source for this distinct group of Monro School subjects is enhanced by the existence of another version of this composition by the amateur artist himself (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (3270)). It is possible that Henderson copied either of the two Monro School versions of the composition, but it is more likely that it was executed from his own outline drawing and that it was from this untraced sketch that the Monro School artists also worked.

All of the coastal views and scenes of shipping sold at Monro’s posthumous sale in 1833 were attributed to Turner alone, and this watercolour was catalogued as solely by Turner when it last appeared in public at an auction, in 1976. The work is known only in the form of a black and white photograph, therefore, and at this distance all that can be said with any confidence is that there is nothing to suggest that it is anything other than a typical collaborative effort between Turner and Girtin. The issue of authorship is further complicated by the existence of an almost identical version of the composition (see the overlayed images in the entry for TG0832) that Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak catalogued as one of a handful of Monro School subjects that were ‘wholly the work of Girtin’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.205). Believing this to have been the case, I initially suggested that TG0832 was a second copy made by Girtin for his own purposes, perhaps as a model for a studio watercolour, and that the work discussed here is the collaboration with Turner executed for Monro. However, the very summary nature of the washes on the drawing in the Fitzwilliam Museum might equally have been as a result of Turner not taking the drawing through to its customary level of finish and the establishment of the precise relationship between the two versions of the composition must therefore await the reappearance of TG0832b or the procurement of a much better image.

1795 - 1796

A Boat-Builder’s Yard, Possibly on the River Medway

TG0832

1795 - 1796

A Boat on the Shore, near Shakespeare Cliff, Dover

TG0797

1795 - 1796

A Boat-Builder’s Yard, Possibly on the River Medway

TG0832a

1795 - 1796

A Boat-Builder’s Shed, Possibly on the River Medway

TG0833

(?) 1791

Rochester Castle, from the River Medway

TG0057

1795 - 1796

A Boat-Builder’s Yard, Possibly on the River Medway

TG0832