- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after Marco Ricci (1676-1730)
- Title
-
- An Italianate Landscape with Two Monks
- Date
- 1800 - 1801
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 31.1 × 50.3 cm, 12 ¼ × 19 ¾ in
- Subject Terms
- Classical Buildings: Imaginary
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1916
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2016
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie's, 1 July 1833, lot 105 as 'A pair of Italian landscapes'; bought by 'Monro', £2 12s 6d; Alexander Monro (1802–44); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie's, 19 May 1845, lot 142 as 'An Italian landscape'; ... Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 18 February 2010, lot 123 as 'Landscape near Rome with Figures', 'Manner of' Thomas Girtin, £5,875; James Mackinnon; online auction, Sotheby's, 25 November – 4 December 2020, lot 206 as 'Classical Landscape', unsold
Other entries in Late Watercolours:
Samuel William Reynolds and Painting for the Art Market
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Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Ancient Ruins, with an Obelisk
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ancient Ruins, with a Gothic Church
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
A Classical Composition, with a Church and Column
Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
The Arch of Janus, Rome
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Temple of Clitumnus
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Rome: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Rome: The Temple of Saturn, with the Arch of Septimius Severus
Private Collection
A Town on an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
A Lagoon Capriccio
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
An Unidentified Coastal Landscape with a Windmill
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight
Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle upon Tyne
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Lindisfarne Priory, Northumberland (English Heritage)
Kelso Abbey: The West Front
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
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The Higgins, Bedford
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Private Collection
Bisham Abbey, on the River Thames
Private Collection
A Classical Composition, with Figures Admiring the Sculptures
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
An Unidentified Ruin next to a Bridge over a Stream, Said to Be Furness Abbey
Touchstones Rochdale
The Gatehouse of Morpeth Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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British Museum, London
Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill
British Museum, London
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Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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Private Collection
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Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
An Unidentified Scene, Formerly Known as ‘Kirkstall Village’
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
British Museum, London
Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
Leeds Art Gallery
Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
York: The New Walk on the Banks of the River Ouse
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
Private Collection
York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Private Collection
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Courtauld Gallery, London
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Leeds Art Gallery
Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
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Private Collection
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National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Ripon Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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Private Collection
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Eton College, Windsor
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
Leeds Art Gallery
Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
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Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection
The Banks of the River Wharfe, with Bolton Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Richmond Castle, from the River Swale
Leeds Art Gallery
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham'
British Museum, London
An Ancient Oak, Said to Be on the River Ure
Private Collection
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection, Norfolk
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Tate, London
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory; The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
Private Collection, Norfolk
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle upon Tyne
Private Collection
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Upland Landscape, Said to Show Etal Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The River Tweed at Kelso, Looking Upstream
Courtauld Gallery, London
The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey, with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Private Collection
The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Village of Jedburgh
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Southampton: The South Gate and Old Gaol
Private Collection
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Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Art Institute of Chicago
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National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
A Rainbow over the River Exe
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Rainbow over the River Exe
Graves Gallery, Sheffield
Lydford Castle, from the River Lyd
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
St Vincent’s Rocks and the Avon Gorge
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
On the River Taw, North Devon, Looking from Braunton Marsh towards Instow and Appledore
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Conwy Castle, from the River Gyffin
Private Collection, Norfolk
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)
Tate, London
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
Private Collection, Norfolk
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Private Collection
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Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington
British Museum, London
The Thames from a Window of the Old Toy Inn, Hampton Court
British Museum, London
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British Museum, London
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Art Institute of Chicago
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Aberdeen Art Gallery
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British Museum, London
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Private Collection
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Eton College, Windsor
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National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
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Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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About this Work
This Italianate landscape, with two monks in the foreground and an imaginary town beyond, is one of six watercolours that were painted by Girtin from etchings made after the architectural views of the Italian artist Marco Ricci (1676–1730) (see the source image above). The etchings were executed by Davide Fossati (1708–95) and published in Venice in 1743 as 24 Landscapes after Marco Ricci. The Venetian artist enjoyed considerable popularity in England following his two stays (1708–11 and 1712–16), and his Vedute – imaginary architectural views combining ruined buildings and sculptures in a generic classical, Italianate style – found a ready market, first as bodycolours and then as etchings published by Fossati and others after his death. The identity of Girtin’s model for this example was only identified during the preparation of this online catalogue, however, no doubt because the architectural element in this classical landscape forms, unusually for Ricci, a less significant part of the composition. In fact, Girtin followed Fossati’s image very closely, retaining the various figure groups, including the monks and the agricultural workers, and only simplifying the vegetation to the right. The result is a timeless image of a landscape as a place of quiet contemplation, and a site of rural labour that is picturesque rather than physically taxing.
All six of the copies after Ricci’s compositions were executed on similar laid paper, each measuring roughly 32 × 48 cm (12 ½ × 19 in) – that is, larger than the originals – and it is therefore tempting to characterise them in the same terms as the set of watercolours that Girtin produced after the compositions of Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721–1820) (such as TG0888). However, although the Ricci copies are also based on prints, there is no evidence that they were produced on commission for a patron such as John Henderson (1764–1843). Indeed, appearing to date from later on stylistic grounds, say around 1800–1801, the watercolours were probably made for sale on the open market. The fact that the works were not acquired directly from the artist by a patron who had a say in their production is, I suggest, of some importance, as it significantly increases the possibility that Girtin bought the Fossati prints himself, just as he was to do with a group of French architectural views published in twelve volumes as Voyage Pittoresque de la France (La Borde and others, 1781–1800). Moreover, he did so with the intention of making saleable commodities, and there is certainly no question of his having produced the copies for his own study.
Girtin’s watercolour was copied at some point by Alexander Monro (1802–1844) (see figure 1), son of the artist’s early patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Given that the copy was gifted by his descendant May Le Geyt (d.1942) to Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) in 1929, it is likely that the original drawing was once in the patron’s collection. Indeed, a number of items in his posthumous sale in 1833 might be identified with this work, and one pair of ‘Italian landscapes’, in particular, was bought by Alexander Monro and later reappeared in his own posthumous sale in 1845 (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 1 July 1833, lot 105; Christie’s, 19 May 1845, lot 142). Stylistically, the watercolour appears to date from after Thomas Monro’s patronage of Girtin had ended, however, and it has nothing in common with the works that the patron commissioned from Girtin in terms of size, palette or indeed subject matter. The elder Monro presumably acquired the work from the artist in the same way as any other collector at this date. He is known to have owned a number of drawings by Ricci, but all of Girtin’s watercolour copies follow the sense of the Fossati etchings, and it is unlikely that the artist worked from an example in Monro’s collection as it would have required him to reverse the composition.
1799 - 1800
Rome: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
TG0888