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