- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Bamburgh Castle, from the South
- Date
- 1796 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 19 × 26.5 cm, 7 ½ × 10 ½ in
- Inscription
'Girtin - 1794' lower left, by (?) Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; Coasts and Shipping; Durham and Northumberland
-
- Catalogue Number
- TG0183
- Description Source(s)
- National Trust Website; Photograph
Provenance
Anderson & Garland, 27 June 1995, lot 264 as 'Bamburgh Castle - a small boat approaching a shrimp-fisherman on the beach in the foreground', £5,000; bought by the National Trust
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside House, Northumberland (National Trust)
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery
York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire
The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London
Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire
A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection
Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London
Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham
Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection
A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds Art Gallery
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk
The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works
Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)
The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection
An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Gallery, Sheffield
St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works
York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
Private Collection
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About this Work
This view of Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast, seen from the south, is most perplexing. The drawing is signed and dated '1794', in which case it should predate Girtin’s visit to Bamburgh in 1796, when the site was one of a number of coastal locations that he sketched during his first independent tour. Girtin had made a view of Bamburgh as early as 1792–93 (TG0116), when he worked from a sketch by his earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), who visited the north east and the Scottish Borders in 1792 (see source image TG0116), and, if this watercolour does indeed date from 1794, we might expect it too to have been copied from a drawing by Moore. No such drawing appears to have survived, however, and in any case Girtin’s watercolour has so many features in common with a group of small watercolours that the artist made after his return from the 1796 northern tour that I am inclined to think that it too was made from an on-the-spot sketch from that trip and that either the date is not authentic or the artist himself added it later in error. Other north-eastern views, such as Bothal Castle (TG1089) and Seaton Sluice (TG1088), may not be dated either, but their close similarity with Pegwell Bay (TG0372), from 1796, helps to identify a significant group of small studio works that were created to replicate the spontaneity of an on-the-spot sketch. This watercolour has faded somewhat, with the sky suffering in particular, but the summary treatment of the water and the vegetation on the hill remains relatively unaffected and comparable enough with the similar areas in the view of Bothal to suggest that the two were executed at roughly the same time. A significant amount of the watercolour has been created from multiple layers of wash, and this, combined with the way in which the whole of the surface has been worked over in a uniform manner, suggests that, despite other signs of having been produced at speed, it too was produced in the studio. If I am right in suspecting the veracity of the date on this view, therefore, it has a claim to be amongst the first examples of a new kind of commodity, something I have termed the colour sketch–studio work, which Girtin developed around 1796–97. Smaller, less heavily worked and therefore cheaper to purchase, these less formal watercolours approximated the effect of the works Girtin actually coloured on the spot, and they therefore offered patrons and collectors the opportunity to buy a different aspect of the artist’s output.
1792 - 1793
Bamburgh Castle, from the East
TG0116
1792 - 1793
Bamburgh Castle, from the East
TG0116
1796 - 1797
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
TG1089
1796 - 1797
Seaton Sluice
TG1088
1796
Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate
TG0372