- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
- Date
- (?) 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 7.6 × 16.8 cm, 3 × 6 ⅝ in
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Docks and Canals; Somerset and Bristol
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
(TG1728)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1288
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Tom Girtin (1913–94); bought by John Baskett, on behalf of Paul Mellon (1907–99), 1970; presented to the Center, 1975
Exhibition History
New Haven, 1986a, no.50
Bibliography
YCBA Online as 'Bristol: Sketch of Boats and Buildings' (Accessed 16/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1797 West Country Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
The Ruined Chancel, Netley Abbey
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Gateway of the Bishop's Palace, Wells
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Southampton
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bursledon Ferry on the River Hamble, near Southampton
Private Collection
The Hamble River, near Southampton
Private Collection
A Cliff-Top View, Probably on the Coast of Dorset
Leeds City Art Gallery
The Market Rooms, Weymouth
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Private Collection
The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Leeds City Art Gallery
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Private Collection
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Private Collection
A Panoramic View near Lyme Regis
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Above Lyme Regis, Looking across Marshwood Vale
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
The Interior of Exeter Cathedral, Looking from the Nave
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter, from Trew’s Weir
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter Cathedral, from the South
Koriyama City Museum of Art
On the River Exe, Exeter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear, from Dartmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear, from Dartmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Sharpham House on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
Okehampton Castle, from the West Okement River
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Cattle by a River with a Castle Beyond, Probably Okehampton Castle
Private Collection
The Estuary of the River Taw
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wells Cathedral, from the Moat of the Bishop's Palace
Private Collection
St Vincent's Rocks from Nightingale Valley, near Bristol
Private Collection
Bristol Cathedral, from College Green
Private Collection
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Bristol Harbour and St Mary Redcliffe
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Unidentified Estuary, Probably in the West Country
Tate, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly a West-Country Tor
Tate, London
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
A House Reflected in the Waters of an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This slight pencil sketch of shipping beached next to a wharf has been identified as showing a scene at Bristol, though no evidence has been provided to substantiate this (Morris, 1986, p.50). The drawing certainly resembles a number of other harbour and shipping scenes that Girtin sketched in the nation’s second largest port, including Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour (TG1286), apparently on the return leg of his 1797 tour of the West Country. However, the identification of the scene as Bristol has been thrown into some doubt by the discovery during the preparation of this online catalogue that the drawing formed the basis for a watercolour hitherto titled ‘A Boatyard by an Estuary’, dating from 1800 (TG1728). The expanse of water shown in the watercolour is much more substantial than the stretch of the Avon at Bristol, though it is of course possible that the pencil drawing was made there after all and that the coastal setting was improvised for the studio work. In the absence of any inscription that might substantiate its location, it is perhaps fairest to retitle this drawing and the watercolour that was derived from it to reflect the fact that, whilst a West Country location is very probable, uncertainty continues to surround the specific site, with the coastal ship-building activities at Instow on the north coast (TG1736) and Shaldon on the south (TG1263) making them credible alternatives.
(?) 1797
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
TG1286
1800
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
TG1728
(?) 1800
On the River Taw, North Devon, Looking from Braunton Marsh towards Instow and Appledore
TG1736
1797 - 1798
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
TG1263