- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Landscape with a Statue
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 20.3 × 15.9 cm, 8 × 6 ¼ in
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- The Landscape Park; Unidentified Landscape
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1543
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue
Provenance
Janet Margaret Holmes; her posthumous sale, Christie’s, 13 November 1953, lot 4 as 'A Landscape with a Statue'; bought by the Squire Gallery, London, £35 14s (with a work by William Turner of Oxford); John Trevor Roberts Roberts, 2nd Baron Clwyd (1900–87); bought by Spink & Son Ltd, London, 1958 ... Halls Auctioneers, Shrewsbury
Place depicted
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, The University of Manchester
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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, The University of Manchester
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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, The 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, The University of Manchester
The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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, The University of Manchester
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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 Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
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
This sketch of parkland, with an antique sculpture of indeterminate gender looking incongruously across water, has been dated to around 1798, with the added suggestion that it was made by Girtin on a trip to Harewood House (recorded on the mount of a photograph in the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art). The estate in Yorkshire of Girtin’s major patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) would indeed be the logical location for a parkland scene of around this date or later, but the topography shown is not distinctive enough to support any such identification, and, in any case, no such monumental sculpture appears to have graced the wilder parts of the grounds at Harewood. Indeed, it may even be that, although the artist employs washes in a rapid and summary manner that is readily associated with a sketch coloured and worked on the spot, we are actually looking at a studio drawing, and an imaginary scene at that, though any judgement is hampered by the fact that the work has not been seen in public since 1958 and is known only from the image seen here. However, it is, in any case, often very difficult to distinguish between sketches that Girtin coloured on the spot and others, on the same intimate scale, that were made in the studio to satisfy the demand from collectors for less formal examples of his output as a landscape artist. Features such as the rapidly washed foreground and the treatment of the foliage as broad, blocked-out areas of colour could equally be a sign of an artist seeking to capture a transient light effect or a means to persuade a potential client that they are not actually buying a studio fabrication. Similarities with a contemporary ‘sketch’, A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep (TG1575), suggest that the latter may be the case here, though confirmation of my suspicion that this is a studio work must await its reappearance.
1799 - 1800
A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
TG1575