- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 21.6 × 31.7 cm, 8 ½ × 12 ½ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Picturesque Vernacular
-
- Catalogue Number
- TG1436
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 454 as '"The House on the Moor"'; '1801 or 1802'
Provenance
Part of the collection of Indiana University at Bloomington by 1918
Exhibition History
Indiana, 1986 (catalogue untraced); Indiana, 1996 (catalogue untraced)
Bibliography
Brooks, 1918, pp.144 and 149; Museum Website as 'The House on the Moor' (Accessed 17/09/2022)
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection
Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection
The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection
A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection
A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey, Seen from Green Park and the Queen's Basin
National Gallery of Art, Washington
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection
London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk
Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London
A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection
A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington
The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection
Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection
The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Study of a Woman Reading; A Slight Study of a Seated Woman
Private Collection
Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection
A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection
An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London
A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection
The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
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About this Work
This badly faded watercolour depicts an unidentified house overlooking a meandering river in an open landscape, and, in terms of the subject and the palette it employs, it appears to form a pair with the similarly sized A House by a River (TG1437). Both drawings have been adversely affected by fading, though to what extent they were originally monochrome is not entirely clear. In this case, areas of pink and brown used for the roof suggest that the different brown tone in the sky is the residue of dark grey clouds that have faded, though whether the work has also lost blues from the sky, together with greens from the foreground, is difficult to say; certainly, the way in which the pencil underdrawing has become all too apparent suggests that the work has changed significantly. That this is not entirely to the detriment of the work stems from the fact that the artist developed a bold and dramatic composition, with the house viewed in isolation against a low horizon, and the scene lacks any of the conventional framing elements that typically feature in views of picturesque buildings at this date. Moreover, the predominantly dark tones suit the gaunt and monumental image, and perhaps not surprisingly the work is also known as ‘The House on the Moor’, though the scene in the distance is quite clearly a lowland view. The inclusion of two windmills to the right on a strip of land between two bodies of water suggests that, although the building has the same idiosyncratic air of having been studied from nature that is found in so many of Girtin’s views of picturesque vernacular buildings, the landscape setting was either the artist’s own invention or adapted from elsewhere with not entirely satisfactory results.
A slightly smaller version of the composition was sold with an attribution to Girtin in 1974 (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 4 June 1974, lot 121). However, with no illustration it has not hitherto been possible to comment on the authorship of the work. The drawing reappeared on the art market in 2023 now attributed to Girtin’s best known pupil Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough (1772–1837), though with no reason given for the change of authorship (see figure 1). The watercolour is certainly not by Girtin and comparisons with other copies by Long of Girtin’s works such as A Barn (TG1418 figure 1) confirms the plausibility of the new attribution. If this was indeed the case it might suggest that Girtin’s original was either at some time in Long’s possession or that she was given access to the drawing to copy as part of her tuition from the artist.
1798 - 1799
A House by a River
TG1437
1799 - 1800
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
TG1418