- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Watermill 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 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
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
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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