- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- 11.4 × 17.5 cm, 4 ½ × 6 ⅞ in
- Part of
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing; Replica by Girtin
- Subject Terms
- River Scenery; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
-
- Harewood House, Yorkshire
- (HHTP:2001.2.18)
- Versions
-
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough
(TG1604)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1509
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 372
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Bought by Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882–1947); then by descent
Exhibition History
Harewood, 1999, no.25
Bibliography
Borenius, 1936, no.313 as 'Grimbald Bridge, Knaresborough'; Hill, 1995, p.34, p.62
Place depicted
Footnotes
- 1 Details are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
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About this Work
This view of Grimbald Bridge is one of seven surviving sketches that Girtin executed on the river Nidd in and around Knaresborough, probably on his visit to Yorkshire in the summer of either 1799 or 1800 (the others being TG1510, TG1511, TG1512, TG1539, TG1542 and TG1589). Each of the drawings was executed on a piece of wove paper of the same vertical dimensions, and there is some evidence that they were removed from a sketchbook at some point. Two other drawings on the same paper have matching holes, which suggests that they had been bound into a book (TG1508a and TG1525). The latter sketch (Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea) is missing a small section, which, as a later copy indicates (TG1601), must have strayed onto the opposite page. It seems that on just this one occasion Girtin did execute his sketches in a book, though, as the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, it is unlikely that this was made commercially, and it may be that the artist himself assembled sheets of paper into a convenient gathering which would account for slight variations in their size (Bower, 2002, p.141). Whatever the case, this sheet is likely to have featured amongst the ‘180 Sketches’ or ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’ that John Girtin (1773–1821) records taking possession of following the artist’s death in November 1802 and which he subsequently sold on the art market (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1
One of the views on the river Nidd (TG1589) was used as the basis for a finished watercolour (TG1550), and a fine view titled The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (TG1672) was also based on what appears to have been another, lost sketch from 1799, which is today known from a copy in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1607). The same book (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–TG1625) also contains a replica of this view of Grimbald Bridge (TG1604). Slightly larger in scale, it must have been made freehand by Girtin rather than traced, as was the case with the replica of Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (TG1508). The likeliest scenario is that, as in the case of the Middleham sketch, Girtin found a purchaser for his on-the-spot drawing of Grimbald Bridge and that, prior to parting with it, he produced a replica that could be shown to potential clients and used as the basis for commissions similar to Abbey Mill. The bridge, which carries the old Knaresborough to Wetherby road, stands a few hundred metres downstream and might therefore have made a fine pair to the mill scene (Hill, 1999, p.44).
1799 - 1800
A Crag on the River Nidd
TG1510
1799 - 1800
Knaresborough Castle, from the High Bridge
TG1511
1799 - 1800
Bilton Banks, on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
TG1512
1799 - 1800
Knaresborough, from the North West
TG1539
1799 - 1800
Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks
TG1542
1799 - 1800
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
TG1589
1799 - 1800
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
TG1508a
1799 - 1800
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
TG1525
(?) 1801
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
TG1601
1799 - 1800
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
TG1589
1800
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
TG1550
1800 - 1801
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
TG1672
(?) 1800
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
TG1607
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
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough
TG1604
1799
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
TG1508