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Works Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) John Robert Cozens

An Archway through a Building, with a Round Tower

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0582: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752–97), An Archway through a Building, with a Round Tower, 1794–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an eary mount, 27.2 × 18.7 cm, 10 ¾ × 7 ⅜ in. Tate, Turner Bequest CCCLXXIII, 48 (D36461).

Photo courtesy of Tate (All Rights Reserved)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752-1797)
Title
  • An Archway through a Building, with a Round Tower
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an eary mount
Dimensions
27.2 × 18.7 cm, 10 ¾ × 7 ⅜ in
Mount Dimensions
36.3 × 49.5 cm, 14 ¼ × 19 ½ in
Part of
Object Type
Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
Unidentified Topographical View

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0582
Description Source(s)
Viewed in November 2017

Provenance

Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 28 June 1833, lot 78 as ‘A book containing 62 interesting sketches in the neighbourhood of Rome and Naples, by Turner, in Indian ink and blue’; bought by Thomas Griffith on behalf of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), £21; accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856

Bibliography

Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1229 as 'A gateway flanked with circular tower' by Thomas Girtin; Turner Online by Joseph Mallord William Turner and Thomas Girtin (Accessed 07/09/2022)

About this Work

This view of an archway in an unidentified town, presumably in Italy, is mounted in an album of watercolours bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the posthumous sale of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 28 June 1833, lot 78). The sixty-four drawings were the outcome of a unique collaboration between Girtin and Turner working together at Monro’s London home at the Adelphi. Here the artists were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1

The drawing lacks an inscription and, not surprisingly, its subject has not been identified, despite considerable efforts. Neither has a source been found amongst the compositions of John Robert Cozens (1752–97), nor, indeed, any of the numerous British artists, amateur and professional, working in Italy at this date. The round tower bears a superficial resemblance to the Rocca Pia, the fifteenth-century castle in Tivoli that appears in two Monro School drawings in the same album (TG0580 and TG0581), but the archway connecting it makes that identification untenable. It is possible that this image is an imaginary one, with echoes of the Rocca Pia incorporated into it, but I suspect that further research will reveal a specific location in the vicinity of Rome.

The album of drawings was sold in 1833 as the work of Turner, but the cataloguer of the Turner Bequest, Alexander Finberg, thought that Girtin alone was responsible for the watercolours, whilst more recently Andrew Wilton has established their joint authorship (Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1229; Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). Identifying the division of labour within Monro School drawings is considerably helped, as here, when the colour washes leave much of the pencil work showing through. An architectural subject generally requires a more detailed underdrawing than a landscape, and in this case Girtin’s inventive and fluent hand is clearly apparent under Turner’s economical use of a simple monochrome palette.

1794 - 1797

Tivoli: The Rocca Pia, from the North West

TG0580

1794 - 1797

Tivoli: The Rocca Pia, from the South West

TG0581

by Greg Smith

Footnotes

  1. 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – Item 2).

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