This badly faded watercolour shows a view of the village of Hawes in Wensleydale, though, unlike the other three authentic versions of the composition (TG1693, TG1694 and TG1695), it adopts a horizontal format that includes a little more of the building to the right. It is therefore much closer to the original pencil sketch, which was probably made on Girtin’s trip to Yorkshire in 1799 (TG1508a), though the artist added a square church tower to the right, which is not seen in any of the other watercolours either. Girtin’s visit to Hawes was presumably undertaken during his stay at Harewood House, the home of his patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814). None of the watercolours appear to have been commissioned, however, and they were certainly not owned by Lascelles; it seems, instead, that each was produced in response to sales on the open market, and only this, the latest of the versions, offers any significant variation on the basic composition. The church of St Margaret was rebuilt in the nineteenth century, and it is therefore not known whether Girtin’s view records the appearance of a building that he could not have seen from his viewpoint next to the beck, or whether he invented the tower to add interest and variety to his view. Hawes was not on the regular tourist itinerary and it is unlikely that any of the artist’s customers would have recognised the subject, though it is just possible that the view of the old packhorse bridge in the centre, with what appears to be a waterfall joining from the right and emptying into the river, would have had some topical interest. Thus, as David Hill has shown in his catalogue of Girtin’s northern subjects, the artificial watercourse that fed the village’s mills is shown broken, with water temporarily tumbling back into the beck, and so, given that the original sketch includes this feature, it appears that the watercolours depict an actual event. As Hill has again noted, there were major floods in Yorkshire in 1799 and a number of Girtin’s watercolours from the following year ‘recorded the damage being repaired’, including Harewood Bridge (TG1551) and Wetherby Bridge and Mills (TG1642). The views of Hawes likewise show the effects of what must have been a harmful incident for the village’s economy (Hill, 1999, p.42).

Such an occurrence, however topical, is unlikely to account, on its own, for the success of Girtin’s composition, even though it added interest to a fairly standard picturesque mix of water, vernacular buildings and bridge. Judging the subject’s attractiveness as a commodity is made considerably more difficult by the fact that all of the watercolours have faded, though arguably enough remains of the 1800 version to suggest that there was something in its original appearance that evoked a powerful set of associations, perhaps equivalent to the note of transient hope seen in Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea, the so-called White House at Chelsea (TG1740). Perhaps the development in the composition from sketch to watercolour, to include large areas of sky and water, provided the opportunity for the artist to create an evanescent effect that attracted sales but that we can only guess at today, when the solid realm of stone predominates.

There is another version of the composition, in the collection of Hull Museums, that has been attributed to Girtin, though it was not included in Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak’s catalogue of the artist’s watercolours (see figure 1) (Girtin and Loshak, 1954). Of all of the versions, it is the least faded and discoloured. Therefore, even if it is not by Girtin, it may give us some idea of the original appearance of the authentic watercolours. However, at this stage, the status of the view, which follows the horizontal format of this version (TG1696) but does not include the church tower, is not clear. Logic says that it was worked up from the original pencil sketch, but that does not explain why the figures on the bridge replicate those in two of the watercolours (TG1693 and TG1694). Perhaps a better illustration might help with the problem, but currently I suspect that the work is by an amateur artist who converted the vertical composition seen in three of the Hawes watercolours into a format that unknowingly approximates to the original pencil sketch.

1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1693

1800 - 1801

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1694

1800 - 1801

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1695

1799 - 1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1508a

1800 - 1801

Harewood Bridge

TG1551

(?) 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1642

1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)

TG1740

1801

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1696

1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1693

1800 - 1801

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1694