- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 31.4 × 50.8 cm, 12 ⅜ × 20 in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- North Wales; River Scenery
-
- Catalogue Number
- TG1338
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 455 as 'View near Bromley'; '1801 or 1802'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2002
Provenance
Possibly Sir Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (1760–1838) and Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough (1772–1837); ... Dr Collwen Thompson; his sale, Sheffield, 23 June 1876, unknown lot; ... Richard G. Briscoe (1893–1957); then by descent to Michael Guy Molesworth Bevan (d.1992) of Longstowe Hall; Thos. Agnew & Sons, 1994; Spink-Leger Pictures, 1998
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1953a, no.71 as ’Near Bromley’; Agnew’s, 1994, no.36 as ’View near Bromley’; Spink-Leger, London, 1998, no.17 as ’Extensive View, formerly Near Bromley’; Spink-Leger, London, 2000, no.24 as ’An Extensive View in the North with Distant Hills Beyond’; London, 2002, no.123
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, pl.2 as 'Near Bromley, Kent'; Bauer, 1998, p.73
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
This unidentified landscape was titled ‘View near Bromley’ by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, who thought that it was ‘probably made for Girtin’s patron, Sir Charles Long, who lived in the neighbourhood’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.196). However, they provided no evidence that the work was ever in the collection of Sir Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (1760–1838) and his wife Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough (1772–1837), one of Girtin’s most talented pupils, and the suggestion that the landscape shows Bromley in Kent otherwise appears to be groundless. More recently, it has been proposed that the work was ‘derived from Girtin’s northern tour’ and it went under the title ‘An Extensive View in the North’ (Exhibitions: Spink-Leger, London, 2000, no.24), whilst at an earlier date Paul Oppé (1878–1957) argued that it is an imaginary ‘composition’ (Girtin Archive, 27). The latter option would be uncharacteristic of the artist’s practice, but it might explain the anomaly of a ford that is rendered superfluous by the abrupt termination of the body of water in the foreground, which is not, it seems, a river. This in itself does not mean that the work was not based on an on-the-spot sketch, however. On the basis of its similarity to A View of Hills and a River (TG1336), which may show a scene in North Wales, I have concentrated my efforts to identify Girtin’s location on areas he visited in 1798. So far, the most promising lead is the Vale of Clwyd, which appears in the background of an on-the-spot colour sketch of Denbigh Castle (TG1337), and Paul Joyner has confirmed that the ford in the foreground here might be on the river Clywedog, near Llanynys, and that we are therefore looking east with the Clwyd Hills in the distance (Smith, 2002b, p.159). The fertile valley depicted in the work does indeed fit the descriptions of many tourists who, after experiencing the privations as well as the grandeur of the mountains in North Wales, praised the contrasting charms of the Clwyd countryside. According to Joseph Hucks (1772–1800), the vale ‘appeared like a moving picture’; ‘Hamlets, villages, towns, and castles’, he enthused, ‘rose like enchantment upon this rich carpet, that seemed covered with wood and enclosures’ (Hucks, 1795, p.38). This is not enough to clinch the identification, of course, but it does suggest that we might be on the right lines.
(?) 1798
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
TG1336
(?) 1798
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
TG1337