- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Mill near Dolgellau
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and scratching out on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 30.8 × 24.7 cm, 12 ⅛ × 9 ¾ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin (the signature has been cut, suggesting that it once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Hills and Mountains; River Scenery; Wind and Water Mills; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1762
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 402 as 'Mountain Stream and Bridge (probably Yorkshire)'; '1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and from the Collection Website as 'A Bridge in a Wooded Valley'
Provenance
Alan Douglas Pilkington (1890–1973); bequeathed to the College, 1973
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1946, no.82; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.93 as 'A River and a Bridge'
Place depicted
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About this Work
The form of the bridge in this very faded watercolour initially suggested that this might be a Lake District scene, perhaps worked up from a sketch by Girtin’s patron Sir George Howland Beaumont, 7th Baronet (1753–1827), or perhaps a Yorkshire subject as suggested by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.189). However, recent research has shown that the view depicts a watermill on the river Mawddach near Dolgellau in North Wales, close to the The Cain Falls depicted in TG1319. The identification was made on the basis of a print after a work by Mary Smirke (1779–1853) which was published in 1799 as 'A Mill near Dolgellie'. This entry will be substantially revised in the January update of the site.
The condition of this watercolour, even by the standards of so many of the artist’s later works, is very poor, having faded and discoloured to a distressing degree. The sky, which presumably mixed a range of grey clouds and blue spaces, has disappeared completely, whilst the vegetation has changed to a dull monochrome so that the forms of the hills are flattened out, and any sense of recession within the composition has been compromised. Some fine passages of fluent pattern-making remain, however, and these, together with what appears to be a genuine signature and some characteristic pencil drawing (made more prominent by the fading), mean that there is no doubt that the work is by Girtin. This is confirmed by the form of the highly compressed composition, which, like A Mountain Stream in Spate (TG1675), another work that has been cautiously identified as showing a Yorkshire view from about 1800, sees a piling-up of hills. The fact that the signature to the left has been partially cut is also characteristic of authentic works by Girtin, since it follows his typical practice of signing works so that the inscription strays onto an original washline mount, which has subsequently been removed.
The bridge resembles that seen in a slight sketch in the collection of The Whitworth, Manchester (see figure 1). It has not been possible to identify this view either, though it possible also shows the bridge adjacent to the watermill near Dolgellau.
(?) 1798
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
TG1319
(?) 1800
A Mountain Stream in Spate, Possibly the River Wharfe
TG1675