- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Landscape with a Shepherd and Flock
- Date
- (?) 1795
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and brush and ink on wove paper (watermark: J WHATMAN)
- Dimensions
- 13 × 19.4 cm, 5 ⅛ × 7 ⅝ in, on paper 15.3 × 21.4 cm, 6 × 8 ½ in
- Object Type
- Copy from an Unknown Source; Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Rural Labour; Trees and Woods
-
- Catalogue Number
- TG0191
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 143 as 'The Shepherd'; 'c. 1795–6'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Squire Gallery, London, 1948; Gilbert Davis (1899–1983); bought from him by the Gallery, 1959
Other entries in First Steps as a Professional Artist:
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An Interior View of the Ruined East End of Tynemouth Priory Church
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Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
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The Mellon Bank Collection, Pittsburgh
Stonehenge during a Thunderstorm
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The East End of Tynemouth Priory Church
Private Collection
Kidwelly Castle
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
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Dumbarton Rock and the Castle, from the North West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Interior of the Albion Mills, Southwark, after the Fire
Private Collection
Kinloss Abbey: The Abbot's House
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Conwy Castle, Looking West
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Duff House, from the South
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Unidentified Round Tower
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of Alton Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Albion Mills, Southwark, after the Fire
Newport Museum and Art Gallery
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Ruins of the East End of St Andrews Cathedral
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
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Touchstones Rochdale
Colchester Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Great Keep, Kenilworth Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Castle Rock, Edinburgh
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
London: The Demolition of the Old Porch of the Guildhall
London Metropolitan Archives
The Gatehouse, Denbigh Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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Private Collection
Buildwas Abbey
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
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Private Collection
The Great Gate, St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury
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Private Collection
Lindisfarne Priory Church, Looking West from the Choir
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Kirkstall Abbey, from the North West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Tithe Barn at Abbotsbury, with St Catherine's Chapel on the Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kirkstall Abbey, from the South East
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of Croxden Abbey, from the East
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
The Gatehouse, Denbigh Castle
Private Collection
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Private Collection
Ewell Church, with a Funeral Procession Approaching
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St Peter's Church, Bexhill, from the East
Private Collection
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Cow Grazing near a Pond, with a Church Tower Beyond
Private Collection
Duff House, from the River
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Landscape with a Shepherd and Flock
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Melrose Abbey, from the South West
Private Collection
A Cottage, Said to Be near Battle in Sussex
Private Collection
Ely Cathedral, from the South East
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Private Collection
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Private Collection
Lindisfarne Priory Church, Looking West from the Choir
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Pevensey Castle: The North Tower with the Gatehouse in the Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Spire of Salisbury Cathedral, from Chorister's Green
Private Collection
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Landgate, Rye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Gatehouse, Saltwood Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Strand Gate, Winchelsea
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The West Tower, All Saints' Church, Hastings
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Byland Abbey
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Kenilworth Castle: The View from the South
Private Collection
Tolleshunt D’Arcy Church
Private Collection
St Peter's Church, Bexhill, from the South East
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Ruined Gatehouse, Pevensey Castle, from the East
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Ruined Gatehouse, Pevensey Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Gatehouse, Battle Abbey
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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Private Collection
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Private Collection
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Private Collection
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Refectory, St Martin’s Priory, Dover
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Saltwood Castle: The Gatehouse from a Farmyard
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Spynie Palace: A Coastal View
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Clement's Church, with Hastings in the Distance
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The East End of the Church of St Thomas, Winchelsea
Private Collection
The East End of the Church of St Thomas, Winchelsea
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Tower, St Clement's Church, Hastings; Studies of a Horse in Harness and Numerous Architectural Details
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Hastings Castle and Priory Bridge
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery
Tolleshunt D’Arcy Church
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
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Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Clement’s Church, Sandwich, from the North
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Peter's Church, Bexhill: The West Tower
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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A Thatched Barn with Farm Animals
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About this Work
This economical sketch does not fit easily into any category of Girtin’s work at the outset of his career, though it does seem to have been copied from another artist and it may therefore tentatively be linked to similar-sized rural views produced for Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), such as A Village in a Wood (TG0236). Certainly, it is too artfully composed for an on-the-spot sketch and, tellingly, it contains a carefully placed figure and animal group of a type that formed no part of Girtin’s sketching practice in the field. The drawing’s most idiosyncratic feature, the use of brush and ink to outline the forms, may hold the key to understanding its function, however. The crude way that the monochrome works over and simplifies the pencil lines raises initial doubts about the attribution to Girtin, though the manner in which the figure of the shepherd is captured with just a few touches allays such suspicions. The reason for the adoption of such an uncharacteristic technique is therefore presumably down to the model that Girtin worked from. It has not proved possible to trace the exact source of the drawing, but it seems likely that Girtin copied one of the more than five hundred ‘pen studies of landscapes’ by ‘Kobel’ that were listed as being in the Monro collection at the time of his death (see figure 1) (Christie’s, 26 June 1833). This was probably Franz Kobell (1749–1822), who is reputed to have produced twenty thousand pen and ink drawings in his career, and it looks as though Girtin not only copied the landscape from one of his works but also replicated aspects of his characteristic medium. Only the shepherd and his flock strike a more characteristic Girtin-like touch.
1794 - 1795
A Village in a Wood
TG0236