- 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 (1864–1917); 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, University of Manchester
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection
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, University of Manchester
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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, 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, University of Manchester
The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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, University of Manchester
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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 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
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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.
1800
A Rainbow over the River Exe
TG1730
1798 - 1799
A Farmhouse
TG1439