This colour sketch of the great tithe barn at Abbotsbury, the only significant survival of the Benedictine abbey, appears to have been executed on Girtin’s West Country tour in the autumn of 1797. Girtin is documented as having been in Exeter in early November and it seems that his visit there, to sketch an interior view of the cathedral, was preceded by a journey along the Dorset coast that took in Weymouth and Lyme Regis, as well as Abbotsbury, where he produced another on-the-spot colour study of the early fifteenth-century tithe barn (TG1246) (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹ The fact that Girtin coloured two views of the barn suggests that, unlike the other occasion when he made multiple on-the-spot sketches, in Weymouth, he had a commission for a studio watercolour, and there is in fact a work based on this study (TG1248). Certainly, that is the logical explanation for a visit to a site that Girtin had actually already depicted in a watercolour made for the antiquarian and amateur artist, James Moore (1762–99) (TG0146), and it was his patron’s on-the-spot sketch that provided the basis for a scene that predated Girtin’s visit to Abbotsbury by five or so years (see source image TG0146). In contrast to that work, however, the artist here adopts a viewpoint looking across the pond to the porch of the barn. Seen from straight on and from further away, the building loses some of the imposing, almost castle-like monumentality that characterises the other sketch. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that when the artist came to produce a studio watercolour from this study (TG1248), he chose to work on a relatively small scale, emphasising the site’s picturesque qualities in a way that is closer to what is seen in the scene he produced for Moore.

Although there is little doubt that the work was coloured on the spot, it lacks many of the qualities that makes the other sketch of the barn at Abbotsbury such a compelling example of Girtin’s working practice. Indeed, in its current state the sketch resembles more the monochrome on-the-spot studies that he made on his northern tour in the previous year (such as TG1076), but that is no doubt down to the fact that the drawing has faded considerably. Two colour tests on the unused part of the paper below the image give an idea of the scale of the changes that the watercolour has undergone. The same margin also includes a fingerprint, which helps to confirm that this is a sketch made on the spot, where such accidents tend to occur.

1797 - 1798

The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury

TG1246

1797 - 1798

Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond

TG1248

1792 - 1793

The Tithe Barn at Abbotsbury, with St Catherine’s Chapel on the Hill

TG0146

1792 - 1793

The Tithe Barn at Abbotsbury, with St Catherine’s Chapel on the Hill

TG0146

1797 - 1798

Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond

TG1248

(?) 1796

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir

TG1076