- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A House and Garden at Winster in Derbyshire
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 26.7 × 35.7 cm, 10 ½ × 14 in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower centre, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Derbyshire View; The Smaller House and Garden
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1573
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 311i as 'House at Winster, Derbyshire'; '1799'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
William Ward (1829–1908); bought from him by the Museum, 1890
Exhibition History
London, 1936, no number; London, 1953a, no.33
Bibliography
Binyon, 1898–1907, no.29 as 'Dr. Monro's House at Fetcham'; Davies, 1924, pl.34; British Museum, Collection as 'Dr Monro's House at Winster, Derbyshire' (Accessed 18/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in Edward Lascelles and Harewood, Together with Other Houses of the Gentry
The Summer House in the Garden of Samuel Wood at Southgate
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Alnwick Castle, from Brizlee
Private Collection, Northumberland
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Estuary Scene, Probably in the West Country
Harewood House, Yorkshire
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
A Circular Temple, Said to Be in Harewood Park
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Lake Scene with Cattle, Said to Be in Harewood Park
Private Collection
A Close View of Harewood House, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Harewood House, from the South West
Harewood House, Yorkshire
Harewood House, from the South East
Harewood House, Yorkshire
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
Toledo Museum of Art
Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
On the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A Reconstruction of the Elizabethan Wing of Moreton Corbet Castle
Private Collection
A Reconstruction of Moreton Corbet Castle, from the West
Private Collection
A Landscape with an Unidentified House
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
An Unidentified House in an Open Landscape
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
An Unidentified Small Country House or Lodge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The North Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from the Lake
Private Collection
The South Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from across the Lawn
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The South Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from across the Lawn
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Chalfont House, from the North East, with Fishermen Netting the Broadwater
Private Collection, Herefordshire
Chalfont House, from the North West
Private Collection, Herefordshire
Melville Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Distant View of Arundel Castle, from the South
Private Collection, Sussex
A Lake Surrounded by Trees, Known as 'The Silent Pool'
Private Collection
A Lake Scene with Two Herons, Possibly in Cassiobury Park
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Hatfield House, from the South East
British Museum, London
A House and Garden at Winster in Derbyshire
British Museum, London
A House at Winster
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Unidentified Georgian House, Said to Be Lobes Hill in Shropshire
Private Collection
A Distant View of a Castle, Said to Be Lowther in Westmorland
Private Collection
An Ornamental Ruin in a Park; A Tree on a Mound
British Museum, London
A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Jedburgh from the River, with the Abbey Beyond
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
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About this Work
This view of a house and garden was thought to be the home of Girtin’s early patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) until it was correctly identified by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak from a photograph of an oil painting inscribed ‘at Winster, Derbe’ (see the source image above) (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.176). Girtin is not known to have visited that area of Derbyshire, near Matlock, and it is almost certainly the case that his view was based on the painting, rather than, as Girtin and Loshak suggested, that the latter copied Girtin’s watercolour. That, for me, is the logical explanation for why the oil painting contains more of the landscape to the right, so that Girtin reshaped the composition, cutting it and adding framing trees to create a more compact and focused effect that is demonstrably more successful than its source. The watercolour has faded to a certain degree, causing some flattening in the foliage and leaving the yellow highlights too prominent, but it was arguably never one of Girtin’s finest achievements, and there is more than a whiff of hack work about it. However, there is no question about the attribution to Girtin, unlike the anonymous copy in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with its fake signature (TG1574). Here, the authentic signature in the foreground has been cut slightly, suggesting that the work was originally mounted and that Girtin’s name, which must have strayed onto it, was partly lost when the support was removed.
It has not been possible to establish the precise circumstances that saw Girtin receiving a commission to paint a modest country house after the work of an unknown regional artist, but there is nonetheless evidence to link the image with Oddo House, the home of the solicitor William Brittlebank (1765–1848), who lived in Winster. The house was demolished sometime after 1891, and it has not been possible to definitively confirm the identification of the property. However, I suspect that it was not a coincidence that Girtin’s watercolour was acquired by the British Museum in the same year that the contents of Oddo House were sold at auction (by George Marsden, 18–21 June 1890), and further work in Derbyshire Record Office might well establish the provenance of the work for certain as well as confirming its presence in the 1890 sale.
1800 - 1810
A House at Winster
TG1574