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Works Thomas Girtin

A Hilly Landscape, with a Two-Arched Bridge

1797 - 1798

Primary Image: TG0791: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), A Hilly Landscape, with a Two-Arched Bridge, 1797–98, graphite and watercolour on laid paper (card), 7.7 × 12 cm, 3 × 4 ¾ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of Christie's (All Rights Reserved)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
Title
  • A Hilly Landscape, with a Two-Arched Bridge
Date
1797 - 1798
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on laid paper (card)
Dimensions
7.7 × 12 cm, 3 × 4 ¾ in
Object Type
Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
River Scenery; Unidentified Topographical View

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0791
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 1999

Provenance

Walter C. Hetherington (d.1978); his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 14 February 1978, lot 59 with TG1387 as 'A Bridge in Wales', £240; Tom Girtin (1913–94); his sale, Sotheby’s, 14 November 1991, lot 103 as 'A bridge in a landscape, possibly Wales'; Christie's, 8 June 1999, lot 32; Priory Fine Art as 'A Bridge in North Wales'

Bibliography

Wilton, 1984a, p.12

About this Work

This unidentified landscape is likely to have been amongst the sixty ‘Coloured Drawings on Cards’ sold from the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 7 May 1808, lots 60 and 61; Christie’s, 26 June 1833, lots 80–83). A group of the cards was bought by Girtin’s collaborator at Monro’s home, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), and they now form part of the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. The watercolours, all painted on card measuring roughly 3 × 4 ¾ in (7.6 × 12.1 cm), were executed around 1795–96 after a set of Girtin’s outline drawings of predominantly antiquarian subjects, which are also now in the Turner Bequest. This example, however, is one of only a handful that seem to have been painted a little later (Wilton, 1984a, p.12), from sketches that Girtin himself made on the spot (two others being TG0850 and TG0906). Rather than being copied from the drawings of his first significant patron, the amateur artist and antiquarian James Moore (1762–99), or his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804), the subject was probably therefore studied at first hand, possibly during his trip to the north east and the Scottish Borders in 1796 or, as Tom Girtin (1913–94) who owned the work towards the end of his life, in Wales in 1798. As a result, the small watercolour retains the sketch-like character of earlier antiquarian views such as The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt (TG0291), but it adds a new concern with weather effects and with the capacity of light to evoke associations. It may therefore be that what began as a commission from Monro for material for a possible topographical publishing project changed character and latterly included landscapes, as here, where the subject is less important than the manner in which it is depicted.

1796 - 1797

A Distant View of Tynemouth Priory, from the Sea

TG0850

(?) 1798

Bridgnorth, on the River Severn

TG0906

1795 - 1796

The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt

TG0291

by Greg Smith

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