- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Lake Scene with Two Herons, Possibly in Cassiobury Park
- Date
- 1798 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 26.2 × 30.9 cm, 10 ¼ × 12 ⅛ in
- Inscription
‘no 17’ on the back
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Hertfordshire; Lake Scenery; The Landscape Park
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1570
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 418 as 'Lake with Herons ... Possibly at Cassiobury Park'; '1800-1'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839); given to Richard Ford (1796–1858), 1824; then by descent; Sotheby's, 19 October 1949, lot 90; bought by P & D Colnaghi & Co., £170; James Leslie Wright (1862–1954); presented to the Museum, 1953
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1953a, no.43 as ’A lake with Herons’; Worthing, 1960, no.65; Lyons, 1966, no.61; Bourges, 1970, no.55
Bibliography
Davies, 1924, p.26, pl.16 as 'Lake with Herons (probably at Cassiobury)'; Rose, 1980, p.57
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 extremely faded watercolour of a lake scene came from the collection of Girtin’s important late patron George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839), and consequently it has been suggested that it shows a view on his estate at Cassiobury in Hertfordshire. This is entirely plausible, but, given that the drawing neither is inscribed with a title nor contains any distinctive topographical features, the location cannot be confirmed. The drawing’s uncharacteristic square format, combined with the unique focus on a wildlife subject, also makes it difficult to place in the context of Girtin’s career. The heron amongst the reeds to the left is just about satisfactory, but the bird in flight does the work no favours, and the artist does not appear to have made any effort to study the effect, making it look as though the poor animal has just been shot. The difference between this substandard effort and the lovingly detailed ornithological drawings of Girtin’s contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is particularly striking (Lyles, 1988, pp.36–37). Clearly, ornithology was not amongst Girtin’s interests, and I am loathe to be too judgemental on the basis of what must be one of the most extreme cases of fading in any of the artist’s watercolours, where the vegetation, water and sky have all suffered equally, and I would not go as far as Paul Oppé (1878–1957), who questioned the attribution (Girtin Archive, 27).
Although the Earl of Essex was identified in early biographies as one of Girtin’s most important patrons, it has been surprisingly difficult to pin down precisely which works were originally in his collection; indeed, this is one of only two watercolours that can definitely be shown to have come from Cassiobury Park (the other being TG1571). None of the six watercolours by Girtin that Essex lent to an exhibition at the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1823 can be identified, for instance, and there must have been other important works that did not pass to his heir, Richard Ford (1796–1858), and that left his collection in an as yet unidentified manner (Exhibitions: SPWC, 1823).
1800 - 1801
The Sawmill, Cassiobury Park
TG1571