- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
- Date
- 1800 - 1801
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 9.9 × 15.2 cm, 3 ⅞ × 6 in
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Lake Scenery; Trees and Woods; Unidentified Landscape
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1769
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2004
Provenance
Herbert Horne (1864–1916); bought from him by Sir Edward Marsh (1872–1953), May 1904; Dr Henry Alexis Chodak-Gregory (1889–1964); his sale, Sotheby's, 20 July 1949, lot 21; bought by Ruth J. Emilie Lowinsky (1893–1958), £40; Sotheby's, 26 November 1952, lot 80 as 'Trees on the bank of a lake, with a view of a town beyond'; bought by 'Rushton', £24; Sotheby's, 1 July 2004, lot 177 as 'Trees on a Riverbank'; Lowell Libson Ltd, 2004
Exhibition History
Lowell Libson, 2004, no.21 as ’A Clump of Trees by a Lake’
Other entries in Later Sketches:
Taken on the Spot and Worked in the Studio

Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert (page 15, reverse, of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Extensive Landscape with the Ruins of Mitford Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Private Collection

A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Private Collection

John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
British Museum, London

An Interior View of the Choir of Bolton Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe (page 37 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

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

The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

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

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

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

Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
British Museum, London

The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Kirkstall Abbey, with a Canal Barge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
Private Collection

A Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White

A River Valley and a Distant Hill Seen through Trees
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

A Shady Road Leading to Cottages
British Museum, London

A Church in a Village, Possibly at Radwinter
British Museum, London

A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream
British Museum, London

Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
Private Collection

A Schooner near the Shore
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Coast Scene with Two Beached Vessels
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Shipping Study: Five Craft on a Calm Sea
British Museum, London
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
The central motif of this fine study of a clump of trees by the waterside bears some resemblance to the group of trees that frames one side of Girtin’s celebrated image A Rainbow over the River Exe (TG1730), and it was perhaps this that prompted the suggestion that it was sketched on the spot in the West Country (Exhibitions: Lowell Libson, London, 2004, no.21). The drawing, which probably dates from around 1800, is a studio work, however, being altogether too carefully planned and evenly worked, with a wide range of tints, to have been coloured on the spot. In particular, each of the multiple layers of wash that Girtin employed to create the skyscape and the complex reflections in the water would have needed to dry before work could proceed, by which time the light and weather effect shown here would have long since changed. The sense of immediacy and dispatch is an illusion, therefore, created by an artist who was aware that there was a ready market for his less formal creations, and for whom an on-the-spot sketch was an altogether messier effort, produced for himself alone, as with A Farmhouse (TG1439). Only the work’s small scale suggests that it might have been removed from a sketchbook, and its modest size, in any case, might be more readily explained by the sector of the art market that the sketch-like commodity was aimed at: namely, collectors who were themselves amateur artists. I am not even sure that the drawing is not an imaginary scene, created perhaps with a nod to the famous etching by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–69) The Three Trees (see figure 1), which contains many of the same landscape elements. Certainly, there is little point in trying to establish a location for a view that because it could be anywhere, is probably nowhere, despite purporting to having been sketched on the spot.
A similar tree motif dominates a larger sketch that has been attributed to Girtin in the past (see figure 2). The rapidly applied washes bear some resemblance to Girtin’s work, but whilst his economical style typically conveys a logical distance and sense of space in the landscape as a whole, as well as a convincing three-dimensional character to the trees, here it is impossible to read the spatial logic of the scene. The Victoria and Albert Museum is typical of the major public collections of Girtin’s work in owning a number of imaginary sketch-like compositions that were previously attributed to the artist, but which now seem all too obviously to be by amateur followers. With no inscription or signature, attaching a name to works such as this and another drawing probably by the same artist (see TG1795 figure 1) is not therefore feasible. The evening effect referred to in the title may actually be a result of the work’s faded condition. The unfaded strip to the left of River Scene with a Windmill illustrates how this drawing might have looked in its original state.
1800
A Rainbow over the River Exe
TG1730
1798 - 1799
A Farmhouse
TG1439
(?) 1802
A Windmill behind a Barn
TG1795