- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; An Unidentified Hilly Landscape
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 25.8 × 36.6 cm, 10 ⅛ × 14 ⅜ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
Provenance
Christie’s, 13 March 1823, lot 81; bought by James Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Wharncliffe (1776–1845), £9 9s; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 10 June 1847, lot 170; Charles Sackville Bale (1791–1880) (lent to London, 1875); his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 13 May 1881, lot 94; bought by 'Norris', £141 15s; J. H. Baring; P & D Colnaghi & Co.; James Leslie Wright (1862–1954); presented to the Museum, 1953
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.72; Bucharest, 1935, no.142; Vienna, 1936, no.164; Paris, 1938, no.204; Birmingham, 1939, no.92; London, 1949, no.185; Arts Council, 1951, no.81; Birmingham, 1953, no.32; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.73; Geneva, 1955, no.65; Amsterdam, 1965, no.52; Arts Council, 1980, no.28; Birmingham, 1980, no.31; Birmingham, 1993, no.106; Harewood, 1999, no.4
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, p.106; Hill, 1999, pp.7–8
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, 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, Yorkshire

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 Museum & 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, 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; An Unidentified Hilly Landscape
Birmingham Museum & 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, 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, Yorkshire

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

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
Private Collection

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 Art 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 badly faded watercolour is the later of two views of Durham cathedral and castle taken from below the weir looking south east (the other being TG1077), both of which were executed from a monochrome study (TG1076) made on Girtin’s first independent tour, to the northern counties and Scottish Borders in 1796. The work’s very poor condition has led to some confusion about its function, with David Hill, in his book on Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) and the artist’s tour to the north of England in 1797, going as far as to suggest that Girtin’s watercolour was probably ‘a sketch from the 1796 tour, and possibly coloured on the spot’ (Hill, 1999, p.8). This thought may have been suggested by the presence on the reverse of the drawing of an unidentified hilly landscape, worked in watercolour over a pencil outline. The landscape bears some resemblance to the Eildon Hills (see TG1718), and it is therefore possible that the ruins depicted are of Dryburgh Abbey. Girtin visited Dryburgh on his northern tour in 1796 and again in 1800, and it may be that this drawing was indeed sketched on the spot on either of those dates, though I suspect that it is a studio composition that was abandoned incomplete.
Whatever the case, there is no question that the view of Durham is anything other than a faded studio watercolour and that it is the work’s poor condition that has distorted attempts to date it. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, for instance, suggested 1797–98, making it earlier than the larger view from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (TG1077) (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.166). However, the comparison that should be made to establish a more credible date is with the 1799 version of the close-up view Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear (TG1074). This too has lost all of the blues in the sky and the river, fading to an almost monochrome shadow of its former appearance. Fading to the degree seen in both watercolours can only partly be attributed to their exposure to high light levels, as it is highly unlikely that either work has been exhibited under significantly different conditions to the very well-preserved earlier version of the composition (TG1077); more significant was the artist’s choice of pigments. No technical analysis has been undertaken of the work, but the fact that a small patch of the sky remains, together with the blue clothes of the figure, suggests that the artist used a second and fugitive vegetable pigment, probably indigo, to work up the rest of the sky and the water. Girtin’s later palette is known to have included other evanescent colours, including two fugitive yellow pigments (gamboge and yellow lake), and their use here might also have contributed to the work’s almost monochrome appearance. The point is that, whilst the faded condition of the 1799 version of Durham Castle and Cathedral hardly seems to affect its impact (so strong is the composition and so well worked is the distribution of light and shade that the monochrome washes arguably enhance its monumentality), here the results are almost entirely deleterious. It is not possible to say how closely the work would have resembled the unfaded version when it first left Girtin’s studio, other than to conclude that the use of glazes of fugitive pigments must have given it a greater subtlety of colouring, and that this was of such an order that the artist believed that it was worth sacrificing the work’s long-term appearance.
1797 - 1798
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
TG1077
(?) 1796
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
TG1076
1800
The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed at Dryburgh
TG1718
1797 - 1798
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
TG1077
1799
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1074
1797 - 1798
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
TG1077