- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
- Date
- 1795
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 26.5 × 39.6 cm, 10 ⅜ × 15 ½ in
- Inscription
‘T. Girtin ‘95’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0228
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 110 as 'Durham Cathedral'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2002
Provenance
Harold Hill; bought by the Museum, 1913
Exhibition History
Newcastle, 1957, no.30, catalogue untraced; Newcastle, 1982, no.74; Newcastle, 1993, no.33; London, 2002, no.52
Bibliography
Brown, 2014, p.496
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
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Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection
Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
Private Collection
The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
A Section of the 'Boiling Fountains' (Geysers) and the Surrounding Country, Iceland
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The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection
An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
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Rochester, from the River Medway
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St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
Private Collection
The Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
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The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
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Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
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An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
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The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works
The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
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The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
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The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
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The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
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The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
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The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
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A French Lady of Quality in 1581
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Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London
All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
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London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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Society of Antiquaries of London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
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Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
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About this Work
This view of Durham Cathedral from the river below Framwellgate Bridge is signed and dated 1795 and therefore predates Girtin’s first and only visit to the city in the following year. As with another watercolour showing Durham Cathedral, dating from 1790 (TG0012), Girtin based his composition on a work by his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804), who made a sepia sketch of this view during or following his 1789 visit (see the source image above). Girtin follows Dayes’ drawing closely, including details such as the scaffolding on the southern of the cathedral’s western towers, the smoke issuing from the riverside cottage and even the direction of the shadows cast by the bushes on the riverbank. There is, however, a possibility that Girtin worked from the studio watercolour that Dayes produced from his own sketch (see figure 1), which may have been the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795 as ‘Durham Cathedral and Castle’. The two watercolours are the same size and Girtin repeats the figure group of two fishermen in the punt with a boatman who is included Dayes’ studio watercolour but not shown in the sepia sketch. Comparisons with earlier Girtin watercolours produced from Dayes’ compositions when the young artist was still working in his studio – such as a 1790 Durham view (TG0012) or Rochester Castle, from the River Medway (TG0057) – illustrate just how unusual this work is. By 1795 Girtin had probably been working outside Dayes’ studio for a couple of years so that whilst his style had jettisoned most of the elements he had inherited from his master, he actually copied this composition with a fidelity that we do not find in his apprentice works. However, areas such as the water, with its bold patterns and impossible but attractively decorative reflections, have more in common with the views that he produced after his 1796 trip, such as Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir (TG1077) than the earlier versions of Dayes’ compositions. This is the only watercolour that Girtin is known to have dated in 1795 and perhaps this points to the nature of the exercise: a demonstration of the fact that even if he still relied on the compositions of Dayes to complete what was probably a commission, the characteristic bold economy of his mature style was already partly in place and clearly distinguishable from the manner of his master.
The location of the cathedral and the castle on a rocky spur above the river Wear afforded travellers and artists alike a wide range of picturesque views, and Dayes exhibited three Durham views at the Royal Academy in the early 1790s. The Revd Richard Warner (1763–1857) explained the attractions of the walks that follow the bends along the river and that command ‘singular and interesting peeps at the city and its august ornaments’. The writer of popular walking guides was particularly taken with one view that combined ‘trees and buildings, water and rock’ to create an impression of ‘inconceivable majesty’, and it was just these qualities that Dayes’ compositions were calculated to realise and that presumably encouraged Girtin to make his own visit to Durham in 1796 (Warner, 1802, pp.293–94).
1790
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
TG0012
1790
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
TG0012
(?) 1791
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
TG0057
1797 - 1798
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
TG1077