- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- (?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 21.3 × 30.5 cm, 8 ⅜ × 12 in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales; River Scenery
-
- Collection
-
- Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
- (BIKGM1975)
- Versions
-
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
(TG1315)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1316
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 290ii as 'Caernarvon Castle'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
J. Palser & Sons, c.1900; ... Christie's, 15 April 1932, lot 121; bought by 'Squire', £13 13s; Squire Gallery, London; bought from them by the Gallery, 1932, £29 18s
Place depicted
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
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 small studio watercolour is one of two versions of a composition that Girtin presumably sketched on his tour of North Wales in the summer of 1798 (the other being TG1315). The view from the river Seiont shows the south flank of Caernarfon Castle with the Queen’s Tower to the right, and it therefore covers much the same extent of the building that is seen in a pencil drawing made at the same time (TG1308), though more of the estuary is visible as the view is taken from further away. The faded condition of the work perhaps confuses the issue somewhat, but, in comparison with the other version of the composition, which in itself is not one of the artist’s strongest efforts, the execution is so poor as to open up the question of its attribution. The depiction of the water is no more than satisfactory, whilst the handling of the architecture, in particular, is very weak, and there is no sense of a credible structure to the building. Moreover, the application of the washes throughout the drawing is very mechanical, and my first instinct was to suggest that it is a copy of the aquatint (see print after TG1315), presumably by an amateur artist. The fact that the first version of the composition must have been in the possession of the engraver Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835) suggests another idea, however. Reynolds is the suspected author of a string of more or less convincing copies of works by Girtin that he had in his possession, either in his role as a dealer or in his capacity as an engraver, including the second version of Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (TG1741). There is of course no way of knowing precisely, but Reynolds seems to have had the means to make a copy of the watercolour now in the collection of the British Museum (TG1315), and, if he found a buyer for the original, it may even be that it was made to facilitate the production of the aquatint rather than to contribute a fraudulent imposture to the market.
1798 - 1799
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
TG1315
(?) 1798
Caernarfon Castle, from the East
TG1308
1798 - 1799
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
TG1315
1800 - 1805
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
TG1741
1798 - 1799
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
TG1315