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

An Unidentified Valley with Travellers, Possibly in Switzerland

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0600: (?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752–97), An Unidentified Valley with Travellers, Possibly in Switzerland, 1794 –97, graphite and watercolour on paper, 23.5 × 36 cm, 9 ¼ × 14 ⅛ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of Sotheby's (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 Unidentified Valley with Travellers, Possibly in Switzerland
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
23.5 × 36 cm, 9 ¼ × 14 ⅛ in
Inscription

'14' lower right

Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
Unidentified Topographical View

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0600
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2002

Provenance

John Lascelles, July 1888; ... Tom Girtin (1913–94); his posthumous sale, Sotheby's, 14 July 1994, lot 70 as 'Travellers in a Swiss Valley' by Joseph Mallord William Turner, unsold; Sotheby's, 21 March 2002, lot 171 as 'Travellers in a Swiss Valley' by Joseph Mallord William Turner; bought by a UK private collector, £7,200

About this Work

This view of an unidentified valley has a number of features in common with the work produced at the house of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) by Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) in the winter months of the years between 1794 and 1797. In particular, the composition of the landscape resembles some of the views made after the sketches and tracings of John Robert Cozens (1752–97) dating from his two trips to the Continent. Although it has not been possible to identify the subject, the fact that the watercolour conforms to one of the standard formats of the Swiss scenes – that is, worked on paper of about 9 ¼ × 14 in (23.5 × 35.6 cm) – indicates that there was a Cozens link and that the work may therefore represent one of the Alpine valleys he travelled along on his way through the country to Italy.

The watercolour appeared on the art market in 2002 with an attribution to Turner alone, and this was the opinion too of the artist’s last descendant, Tom Girtin (1913–94), who actually owned the work for a period. However, although the pencil work is neither prominent nor of outstanding quality, it does not mean that a collaboration between Girtin and Turner is out of the question. Turner’s subtle and economical use of washes of a limited palette of blues and greys certainly outshines the pencil drawing here, but a simple landscape such as this did not require much more than a bare skeleton for Turner to follow, and the subject afforded Girtin little or no opportunity to show off his skills as a draughtsman.

Unidentified Valley Scene (formerly Rocca del Papa)

There is another Monro School watercolour of the same composition (see figure 1), titled Rocca del Papa. Comparing the valley view in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum with the watercolour showing a view of Rocca di Papa by Girtin and Turner (TG0602), probably after a composition by Cozens, clearly shows that the title is incorrect as they have no topographical features in common. The quality of the washes in this version is also poor, featuring a mechanical downstroke and an unvarying tone that fails to convey any convincing sense of distance, all of which suggests that it was copied from the work by Girtin and Turner by an unknown visitor to Monro’s house.

1794 - 1797

Rocca di Papa, from Monte Cavo

TG0602

by Greg Smith

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