- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
- Date
- 1797 - 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 14.6 × 22.9 cm, 5 ¾ × 9 in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin (the signature has been cut, suggesting that it once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1120
- Description Source(s)
- Witt Library Photograph
Provenance
Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton (1884–1972) and Mary Constance, Countess of Swinton (d.1974); then by descent
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
The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Church Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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 the ruined south transept of Dryburgh Abbey, looking north across its wooded surrounds, was made from an untraced sketch that was presumably drawn on Girtin’s visit to the north east and the Scottish Borders in 1796. Girtin visited the Borders again in 1800, but a pencil drawing showing the west wall of the refectory at Dryburgh appears to have been worked on the earlier trip (TG1118). This watercolour has sufficient in common stylistically with the small sketch-like studio works that the artist executed around 1796–97, such as Bothal Castle (TG1089), for us to be reasonably sure that it was not produced following the later trip. Indeed, as far as I can tell from a black and white image, the work seems to date from the same time as a second, closer view of the south transept, which, though it adopts an upright format, is roughly the same size and likewise appears to have been produced in the studio in emulation of the less formal aspects of the on-the-spot sketch (TG1121). This view, in concentrating more on the distant view and the broader context of the ruins as part of the 11th Earl of Buchan’s (1742–1829) carefully landscaped estate, appears more conventionally picturesque, however, and it consequently lacks the mood of reverie that permeates the close-up of the ruins.
A careful inspection reveals another feature that is common to many of the works that resulted from the 1796 tour: the lower part of Girtin’s signature has been lost. This does not mean that the drawing has been cut down; rather, it indicates that it was initially surrounded by the artist’s original border, onto which the inscription had partly strayed, so that when the mount was removed, part of Girtin’s signature disappeared too.
Another slightly larger version of the composition is part of the collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery in New Zealand (see figure 1). The work was presented by Archdeacon Francis Smythe (1873–1966), an enthusiastic collector of English watercolours who did not always display the soundest judgement. This was certainly the view of Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), and the family archive includes a particularly harsh assessment of the ‘Girtins’ Smythe owned, which the artist’s descendant had an opportunity to view before the collection was broken up (Girtin Archive, 27). This view of Dryburgh Abbey was not therefore included in Thomas Girtin and David Loshak’s catalogue of Girtin’s watercolours (Girtin and Loshak, 1954), and, though as far as I can tell from the colour image shown here it is not the weakest of the Smythe works, it appears to be a less panoramic copy of the work catalogued here.
(?) 1796
Dryburgh Abbey
TG1118
1796 - 1797
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
TG1089
1797 - 1799
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
TG1121