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Works Thomas Girtin

Etal Castle

1796 - 1797

Primary Image: TG1115: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), Etal Castle, 1796–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 23.4 × 28.6 cm, 9 ¼ × 11 ¼ in. British Museum, London (1855,0214.14).

Photo courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Print after: John Hill (1770–1850), after Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), etching and aquatint, 'Etell Castle, Northumberland' for Rudolph Ackermann's Four Views from Nature. From drawings by Mr. Girtin, no.4, 1 May 1800, 27 × 34.5 cm, 10 ⅝ × 13 ⅝ in. British Museum, London (1865,0610.1033).

Photo courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
Title
  • Etal Castle
Date
1796 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
23.4 × 28.6 cm, 9 ¼ × 11 ¼ in
Inscription

‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin

Part of
Object Type
Drawing for a Print; Studio Watercolour
Subject Terms
Castle Ruins; Durham and Northumberland; River Scenery

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG1115
Girtin & Loshak Number
186
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2001 and 2018

Provenance

Chambers Hall (1786–1855); presented to the Museum, 1855

Exhibition History

Newcastle, 1982, no.75; Nottingham, 1988, no.34

Bibliography

Binyon, 1898–1907, no.13; Davies, 1924, pl.22

About this Work

This view of Etal Castle on the river Till in Northumberland, close to the Scottish border, was based on a sketch that Girtin made on his tour to the north east in 1796. This may have been the pencil drawing of Etal that was sold at auction in 1982 (TG1114), but the work was not photographed and this cannot be confirmed (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 9 February 1982, lot 12). The watercolour was reproduced as an aquatint and published in 1800 as part of Four Views from Nature: From Drawings by Mr. Girtin (see print after TG1115). Two of the other watercolours used by the publisher, Rudolph Ackermann (1764–1834), survive: York Minster (TG1051) and Barnard Castle (TG1068). Although the three drawings are slightly different in size and the view of Barnard Castle is on a different laid paper, they possess a stylistic unity that suggests that they were produced at the same time, presumably as a commission. Given that all four of the ‘Views from Nature’ are of subjects that Girtin sketched during his 1796 tour, it follows that the drawings were made soon after his return – indeed, the style of the watercolours is consistent with a dating of, say, 1796–97. That said, I wonder whether the fact that the works were not published until 1800 is significant, and that the rapid and economical way in which the washes of a limited colour range are deployed might not be the result of an older artist tailoring his works to the limitations of the reproductive print trade. A commission for a watercolour for reproduction as an aquatint might have been expected to contain no more detail than was absolutely necessary for the task, and this could explain the relatively crude quality of all three watercolours, rather than reflect an earlier date of production. In the end, however, I am minded to stick with an earlier date for the three watercolours and attribute the time gap between their execution and publication to the sorts of delays that were common in the reproductive print trade.

The four subjects reproduced in Ackermann’s publication, other than the fact that they all derived from Girtin’s 1796 northern tour, seem an arbitrary selection. A distant view of a cathedral (TG1051), part of a ruined priory (TG1072), a lowland castle in its village setting (TG1068), and this, a view of a border castle caught up in the wars with Scotland at the time of the Battle of Flodden, do, however, represent a reasonable overview of the sorts of subjects that Girtin gathered on his trip. It must be stressed, however, that we should not interpret the statement that the ‘Views’ were taken ‘from Nature’ literally; they are all clearly studio works.

(?) 1796

Etal Castle

TG1114

1796 - 1797

Etal Castle

TG1115

1796 - 1797

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

TG1051

1796 - 1797

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees

TG1068

1796 - 1797

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

TG1051

1796 - 1797

Finchale Priory, near Durham

TG1072

1796 - 1797

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees

TG1068

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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