- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Boat-Building
- Date
- (?) 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 13.6 × 21.5 cm, 5 ⅜ × 8 ½ in
- Inscription
‘3.6’ on the back
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Docks and Canals
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1442
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 332 as 'c. 1799'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Dr John Percy (1817–89); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 17 April 1890, lot 505 (one of 9); bought by 'Vokins', £2 2s; J & W Vokins; John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929); his posthumous sale, Sotheby’s, 29 May 1935, lot 313; volume bought by Bernard Squire, £32; G. T. Smith; his sale, Sotheby’s, 24 January 1951, lot 95 as 'Boat Building, with figures and a background of trees'; bought by 'Milling', £4; Tom Girtin (1913–94); bought by John Baskett on behalf of Paul Mellon (1907–99), 1970; presented to the Center, 1975
Exhibition History
New Haven, 1986a, no.73
Other entries in The 1797 West Country Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
The Ruined Chancel, Netley Abbey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Gateway of the Bishop's Palace, Wells
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Southampton
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bursledon Ferry on the River Hamble, near Southampton
Private Collection
The Hamble River, near Southampton
Private Collection
A Cliff-Top View, Probably on the Coast of Dorset
Leeds Art Gallery
The Market Rooms, Weymouth
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Private Collection
The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Leeds Art Gallery
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Private Collection
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Private Collection
A Panoramic View near Lyme Regis
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Above Lyme Regis, Looking across Marshwood Vale
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
The Interior of Exeter Cathedral, Looking from the Nave
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter, from Trew’s Weir
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter Cathedral, from the South
Koriyama City Museum of Art
On the River Exe, Exeter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear, from Dartmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Sharpham House on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
Okehampton Castle, from the West Okement River
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Cattle by a River with a Castle Beyond, Probably Okehampton Castle
Private Collection
The Estuary of the River Taw
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wells Cathedral, from the Moat of the Bishop's Palace
Private Collection
St Vincent's Rocks from Nightingale Valley, near Bristol
Private Collection
Bristol Cathedral, from College Green
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Bristol Harbour and St Mary Redcliffe
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Unidentified Estuary, Probably in the West Country
Tate, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly a West-Country Tor
Tate, London
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
A House Reflected in the Waters of an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This rapid sketch of the earliest stages in the building of a boat, with the curved timbers of the keel laid on the stocks, is an unusual subject for Girtin, though familiar enough from the work of John Constable (1776–1837). The only other depictions of boat-building by Girtin, aside from small views within larger coastal and river scenes, date from his time working with Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (TG0818 and TG0832b), but this sketch is presumably later in date and was clearly made at some speed on the spot. It was dated by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak to around 1799, but, with no topographical information to guide us, we must concede that it could have been sketched at any time during the last five years of Girtin’s life (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.179). However, in what is admittedly no more than a hunch, I suspect that it might have been produced on his 1797 tour of the West Country. There is, I suggest, a passing resemblance to the equally sketchy view of Sharpham House (TG1273), and the drawing came from the same album of pencil drawings, collected by John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929), that contained at least four other West Country subjects, including other shipping scenes at Bristol (TG1286 and TG1287). Sketches such as this were presumably not made with a studio watercolour in mind, but they might have been useful adjuncts for topographical views such as Shaldon (TG1263) and Plymouth (TG1753), both West Country scenes with boats under construction on the stocks.
1795 - 1796
A Ship Drawn Up on a Beach Being Careened
TG0818
1795 - 1796
A Boat-Builder’s Yard, Possibly on the River Medway
TG0832b
(?) 1797
Sharpham House on the River Dart
TG1273
(?) 1797
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
TG1286
(?) 1797
Bristol Harbour and St Mary Redcliffe
TG1287
1797 - 1798
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
TG1263
1801
Plymouth
TG1753