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Works Thomas Girtin

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond

1799 - 1800

Primary Image: TG1078: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir, 1799–1800, graphite and watercolour on laid paper, 25.8 × 36.6 cm, 10 ⅛ × 14 ⅜ in. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery (1953P220)

Photo courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust (All Rights Reserved)

Primary Image Verso: TG1078: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond, 1800–01, graphite and watercolour on laid paper, 25.8 × 36.6 cm, 10 ⅛ × 14 ⅜ in. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery (1953P220).

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
Title
  • Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond
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; Unfinished Watercolour
Subject Terms
Durham and Northumberland; Gothic Architecture: Cathedral View; River Scenery

Collection
Versions
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir (TG1076)
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir (TG1077)
Catalogue Number
TG1078
Girtin & Loshak Number
237 as 'Durham Cathedral'; '1797–8'
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2001 and April 2024

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.104; Birmingham, 1939, no.192; 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

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 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). Hill’s contention may have been suggested by the presence on the reverse of the drawing of a partially coloured sketch of a hilly landscape which at that point had not been identified. However, comparing the disposition of the landscape with The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed (TG1718) and the form of the ruins in the middle ground with A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey (TG1719) it becomes readily apparent that my initial suspicion that the scene depicted is Dryburgh in the Scottish Borders was correct and that what we are looking at is a more extensive version of the latter composition. Girtin probably visited Dryburgh on his northern tour in 1796 and is documented as staying there in 1800, and it is not inconceivable that this drawing was sketched on the spot most likely on the later trip. Nonetheless, a comparison with the only other finished watercolour with an incomplete draft of a very different subject on the back, TG1699 (A Distant View of Guisborough Priory with The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury on the reverse) suggests that the view of Dryburgh too was a studio composition that was abandoned at an early stage with just a few areas of colour blocked out. For whatever reason, Girtin, it seems, left off the Dryburgh composition and turned over the sheet to work on the other side where he completed the Durham view.

Identifying the view of Durham as a faded studio watercolour suggests that it is the work’s poor condition that has caused problems with its dating. Thus, in contrast to the 1796 proposed by Hill, Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak suggested 1797–98, making it earlier than the larger view from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London which they give as 1798 (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.1 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

1800 - 1801

A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey, with the Eildon Hills Beyond

TG1719

1800 - 1801

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory; The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury

TG1699

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

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

Footnotes

  1. 1 William Henry Pyne (1769–1843) witnessed Girtin at work and recorded in detail the pigments he used, including the evanescent blues and yellows the fading of which accounts for the impaired appearance of so many of his later watercolours. Pyne’s account is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1823 – Item 2).

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