This view of a wharf with a warehouse and a working barge was not included in the catalogue of Girtin’s watercolours produced by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and Derek Loshak (Girtin and Loshak, 1954) and, given that it came from the collection of James Leslie Wright (1862–1954) which was well known to them it must mean that they doubted the attribution. This is understandable and I too had my doubts when compiling this catalogue entry from a small image, describing the drawing as by an anonymous artist painting in Girtin’s style. However, the opportunity to view the work at first hand has allayed my suspicions about its authenticity and I now think that the uneven manner in which the watercolour has faded led me to underestimate its quality. The loss of colour on the warehouse to the left, for instance, has resulted in a distortion in the perspective, whilst the buildings on the far bank, together with the foliage in front and beyond, have lost any cogent sense of depth. The clouds too have lost their modelling and appear merely bland in their effect. This, however, still leaves some attractive areas, particularly in the water where the broad reflections retain a spontaneous and decorative quality. Moreover, although the figures in the boat may be perfunctory, their action of raising the mast at least hints that the artist has observed a working landscape. Confirmation of the attribution comes in the form of a comparison with Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage (TG1804) which has faded in a similar manner with a comparable loss of spatial definition and the same compensation of attractive surface patterns.

A view of commercial traffic on an inland waterway is not entirely without precedent in Girtin’s work, the celebrated studio watercolour of the Ouse Bridge at York (TG1649) springs to mind, but the combination of a working subject and a sketch-like approach is much less common and perhaps this too informed Girtin and Loshak’s decision to omit it from their catalogue. Moreover, the other obvious subject comparison, A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream (TG1794), points to another unusual aspect of the wharf scene. That work 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 been produced late in Girtin’s career. At a sizeable 27 × 35.8 cm (10 ⅝ × 14 ⅛ in) this studio work appears to be something of a one-off in comparison. No doubt created to meet the market for Girtin’s more informal sketch-like works, it is on a scale that is disconcertingly close to one of the standard sizes he adopted for finished watercolours around 1799.

(?) 1800

TG1804

1800

The Ouse Bridge, York

TG1649

(?) 1802

A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream

TG1794