- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
- Date
- 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 14.6 × 21.7 cm, 5 ¾ × 8 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Harewood House. 1800’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin; ‘36’ lower left
- Part of
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Country House View; The Landscape Park; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1603
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 367 as 'Harewood House'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2022
Provenance
Sale at Platt Vicarage, Rusholme, Manchester, 1898; sketchbook bought by 'Shepherd'; then by descent to F. W. Shepherd; his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 July 1977, lot 46; bought by Baskett and Day; bought by the Gallery, 1977
Bibliography
Hardie, 1938–39, no.6, p.92 as 'Harewood House, 1800'
Place depicted
Other entries in Later Sketches:
Taken on the Spot and Worked in the Studio

Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert (page 15, reverse, of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Extensive Landscape with the Ruins of Mitford Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Private Collection

A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Private Collection

John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
British Museum, London

An Interior View of the Choir of Bolton Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe (page 37 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe (page 38 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground (page 41 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
British Museum, London

The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Kirkstall Abbey, with a Canal Barge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
Private Collection

A Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White

A River Valley and a Distant Hill Seen through Trees
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

A Shady Road Leading to Cottages
British Museum, London

A Church in a Village, Possibly at Radwinter
British Museum, London

A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream
British Museum, London

Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
Private Collection

A Schooner near the Shore
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Coast Scene with Two Beached Vessels
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Shipping Study: Five Craft on a Calm Sea
British Museum, London
Footnotes
- 1 YRK York Papers, Borthwick Institute, University of York
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About this Work
This view of Harewood House, seen from the south west across the ornamental lake formed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716–83), appears on page seventeen of the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–1625). This is a rare dated sketch, and consequently it is relatively straightforward to place it in the context of Girtin’s career. Thus, the artist is recorded in the diary of Mary Anne Lascelles (1775–1831) as staying at Harewood in August of 1800, and it is clear that this drawing was made as part of a campaign of sketching on the estate and its environs that Girtin undertook in preparation for a major commission from the artist’s important patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814).1 This resulted in four very large watercolours: a distant view of Knaresborough (TG1669); a depiction of the picturesque beauty spot of Plumpton Rocks, on an estate owned by the Lascelles family (TG1553); and two framed portraits of the family’s palatial mansion viewed from its extensive park, one from the south east (TG1548) and one from the south west (TG1547). The last of these shows a similar view of the house from further away, so it is a reasonable assumption that the composition seen in the pencil drawing was rejected in favour of the more distant scene, and that this may have been because Girtin’s rival, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), had already executed a close variation of the subject (see TG1547 figure 1).
If Girtin’s drawing did not secure a commission from Lascelles, then its position in the Book of Drawings suggests that the artist still had hopes of selling the sketch itself to another collector, someone who appreciated the informal aspects of his work but who might not be able to afford the twenty-guinea price of a finished watercolour on the scale ordered by his wealthiest patron. Two pages back from the sheet on which this view of Harewood appears is a short stub, which would have been the location of one of sixteen pencil drawings and colour sketches that have been cut out of the book, most, presumably, during Girtin’s lifetime. No doubt the artist found the sale of such sketches in this way a useful additional source of income. An inscription on page sixteen records that the missing drawing was a similar ‘Sketch of Harewood House in Pencil’ and that it fetched the not inconsiderable sum of ‘£1.1.0’. Perhaps it was this sale that encouraged the artist to add to the view of the mansion from the south west, in a neater hand than was often the case, ‘Harewood House, 1800’; certainly, the artist himself did not need a reminder of either the date or the location.
1801
A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East
TG1669
1800 - 1801
Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
TG1553
(?) 1801
Harewood House, from the South East
TG1548
(?) 1801
Harewood House, from the South West
TG1547