- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 33.3 × 46 cm, 13 ⅛ × 18 ⅛ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Picturesque Vernacular; Surrey View
-
- Collection
-
- The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
- (D.1887.3)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1432
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 277 as '"Surrey Farm Buildings"'; '1798'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and February 2020
Provenance
Miss James; her sale, Christie's, 22 June 1891, lot 105 as 'A Landscape, with cottage and shed' by Henry Edridge; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, £27 6s; bought from them by the Gallery, 1891
Exhibition History
Washington, 1962c, no.45; Amsterdam, 1965, no.54; London, 1967, no.30; Brussels, 1973, no.46; Manchester, 1975, no.44, Manchester, 1993, no.119; Oslo, 1995, no.68; London, 2002, no.140
Bibliography
Nugent, 2003, p.131
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection
Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection
The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection
A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection
A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey, Seen from Green Park and the Queen's Basin
National Gallery of Art, Washington
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection
London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk
Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London
A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection
A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington
The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection
Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection
The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Study of a Woman Reading; A Slight Study of a Seated Woman
Private Collection
Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection
A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection
An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London
A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection
The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
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About this Work
This view of farm buildings was identified as being by Girtin’s older contemporary Henry Edridge (1768–1821) until 1950, when Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) proposed the change in the attribution (Girtin Archive, 27). The surprise is that the work was not associated with Girtin earlier, as it is clearly related to a series of picturesque views of vernacular buildings that the artist made around 1798–99. Although the work has faded and lost much of its green tonality, the effect is still comparable to that of An Overshot Mill (TG1427), which, like A Cottage amongst Trees (TG1430), similarly shows vernacular buildings deeply embowered in foliage. As with those views, which may show buildings in Devon and Essex respectively, Girtin seems to have worked from an actual location in this case too. The unconventional composition, the less overtly picturesque appearance of the farmhouse and the curious form of the lean-to at the left all suggest that the watercolour was originally studied by Girtin on his travels, rather than being composed in the studio from a set of conventional parts. Indeed, although there is no surviving inscription to confirm the work’s traditional title, ‘Surrey Farm Buildings’, there is a good chance that it was worked from a sketch made in that county. Vernacular buildings rarely survive sufficiently unaltered as to be identifiable today, but in this case there is at least some evidence to suggest that the subject was studied by Girtin on a trip to the home rented by his patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) at Fetcham in Surrey. Monro lent a work by Girtin titled ‘Cottage Scene in the vicinity of Leatherhead’ to an exhibition in 1823, and his posthumous sale contained ‘A view at Leatherhead’ (Exhibitions: London, 1823, no.9; Exhibitions: Christie’s, 1 July 1833, lot 87). Monro certainly commissioned at least two views of churches in the vicinity of Leatherhead – Effingham Church (TG0345) and Capel Church (TG0857) – and, since he is said to have taken Girtin ‘out to one or other of his country houses or elsewhere to sketch for him from Nature’, it is entirely possible that this scene, like Capel Church, was ultimately one of the outcomes of this practice (Story, 1892, vol.1, p.41).
On a technical note, the paper historian Peter Bower has described the support used by Girtin as an off-white laid drawing cartridge paper, made by an unknown Dutch manufacturer, worked on the artist’s favoured wireside, where the surface is impressed with the lines of the mould used in its manufacture (Smith, 2002b, p.179; Bower, Report). This is the same paper used for Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills (TG1643), something that might confirm a slightly later date than the 1798 proposed by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.171–72).
1798 - 1799
An Overshot Mill
TG1427
1798 - 1799
A Cottage amongst Trees
TG1430
1797 - 1798
Effingham Church
TG0345
1797 - 1798
Capel Church
TG0857
(?) 1800
Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
TG1643