It is not difficult to see the attraction of Gordale Scar as a subject for Girtin’s attention, as the monumental limestone gorge, standing over a hundred metres high, had long been regarded as one of the most impressive natural sights in the north, attracting numerous artists, including Paul Sandby Munn (1773–1845), who sketched the scene in 1803 (see figure 1). Edward Dayes (1763–1804), Girtin’s early master, declared it to be one of the ‘grandest spectacles in nature’ when he visited in 1802, and he wrote a dramatic account of the ‘awful … sublime’ scene in which ‘rock is piled on rock’ and, ‘impending fearfully over the head of the spectator, seem to threaten his immediate destruction’. For Dayes, the ‘lover of drawing will be much delighted’ with a place which combines ‘immensity and horror’ (Dayes, Works, pp.62–64). It may be that Girtin made other sketches of the site that have not survived, but, as it stands, this close-up view of the lowest part of the waterfall captures only a little of the scene’s drama, and it seems an almost perverse rejection of the site’s potential as a sublime composition. Perhaps it is not surprising, therefore, that Girtin did not receive a commission for a large-studio watercolour (see figure 2) of the sort that Munn produced in 1803 from his own on-the-spot sketch. Munn’s watercolour, which was clearly influenced by Girtin’s example in work such as The Ogwen Falls (TG1330), suggests that it could not have been that the artist was overawed by the type of scenery, which he had already painted in watercolour to such effect.
On a technical note, the paper historian Peter Bower has identified the support used by Girtin as a white wove paper by an unknown manufacturer, though he observed that it was not typical of English production at this time (Smith, 2002b, p.162; Bower, Report). This is the same support that Girtin used for two other drawings that were probably removed from the Whitworth Book of Drawings, namely Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe (TG1613) and Mulgrave Park and Castle (TG1626).
(?) 1800
Kirkby Malham
TG1606
(?) 1800
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as ‘Kirkby Priory, near Malham’
TG1608
1800 - 1801
Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert
TG1323
1800 - 1801
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
TG1324
1798 - 1799
John Raphael Smith: ‘Waiting for the Mail Coach’
TG1600
(?) 1800
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle
TG1625
1800 - 1801
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as ‘Kirkby Priory, near Malham’
TG1689
(?) 1800
The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
TG1670
(?) 1800
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
TG1613
(?) 1800
A Distant View of Bolton Abbey
TG1614
1798 - 1799
The Ogwen Falls
TG1330
(?) 1800
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
TG1613
(?) 1800
Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
TG1626
About this Work
This fine on-the-spot coloured sketch of the lower part of the waterfall at Gordale Scar in Malhamdale was probably produced in the summer of 1800. Girtin is documented as having stayed with his patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) at Harewood House in that year, and it was presumably from there that the artist set out on a sketching trip north.1 Two pencil drawings – Kirkby Malham (TG1606) and A Farmhouse in Malhamdale (TG1608) – survive from the excursion, and both came from or are still in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–TG1625). They, unlike this drawing, formed the basis of studio watercolours (TG1689 and TG1670). It is possible that this sketch was also part of the book, as a number of on-the-spot colour drawings were detached for sale to collectors (such as TG1613), probably by Girtin himself. The sheet on which this image was created is smaller than those used for the other Malhamdale subjects, and it is possible that all three were simply produced at the same time on different sheets of paper. As the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, the ‘book’ initially took the form of an informal gathering of a number of different papers assembled by Girtin himself, to which were later added extra sheets, bound in after his death to create the curious hybrid we see today – a mix of copies and sketches made from life at different times (Bower, 2002, p.141). It is perfectly possible, therefore, that this drawing was sold by the artist, independently from the book, to one of the collectors who were willing to pay up to £8 8s for an on-the-spot colour sketch. Compared to A Distant View of Bolton Abbey (TG1614), which was sold for that sum, this study is more lightly worked, with the pencil showing clearly through the rapidly applied washes. It is more obviously a sketch made for the artist’s own reference – an interpretation that is supported by the way that Girtin has corrected his own inscription, so that ‘Scar’ overwrites and confuses the word ‘Cove’.