- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- (?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Hawarden Castle
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 26.7 × 42.5 cm, 10 ½ × 16 ¾ in
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch
- Subject Terms
- North Wales; Castle Ruins
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Hawarden Castle
(TG1350)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1350a
- Description Source(s)
- Girtin Archive Photograph
Provenance
Spink's, 1953
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 The financial records of John Girtin covering the income he received from the Eidometropolis and the twenty aquatints of the Picturesque Views in Paris, together with a detailed account of the expenses from both projects as well as various loans he made to Thomas Girtin, are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 2).
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About this Work
This view of Hawarden Castle near Chester in North Wales, titled ‘Weeds on the Wall’, is known only from a black and white photograph found in a file in the Girtin Archive (14). Here Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) assembled images of ‘Weeds’, watercolours that had been attributed to Girtin and that he thought might damage the artist’s reputation if not challenged. Not surprisingly, the watercolour was excluded from the catalogue of Girtin’s work that was published in 1954 and it has not subsequently featured anywhere in the literature on the artist (Girtin and Loshak, 1954). The fact that the subject of the work was not known to the artist’s descendent may have played a part in its rejection and it was only possible to identify the ruins from a sketch (see TG1350) that emerged at an auction in 1994. The outline drawing, enhanced with pen and ink, shares the same dimensions as this watercolour, and, as overlaying images of the two works demonstrates, it replicates the composition of the sketch even down to such small details as the position of the two goats at the top of the steps leading into the castle. The outline drawing is not particularly typical of Girtin’s manner of sketching, but on balance I am inclined to accept it as a being executed on the spot in 1798, whilst this watercolour appears to be by another hand working directly from the earlier sketch. Thus, although there are areas that at least betray a knowledge of Girtin’s characteristically economical use of washes of colour to depict the patterns found on ancient masonry, the more substantial areas of foliage are fussy and mannered, and they convey no sense of depth or structure. I am therefore no more minded to accept an attribution to Thomas Girtin than his earlier cataloguers, though the subsequent discovery of the on-the-spot sketch might suggest something more specific than the vague tag of ‘follower of’ or ‘pupil of’ for this watercolour. In particular, I am intrigued by the inscription on the back of the outline which reads ‘From my Brother’s Portfolio’ and is signed with the initials of John Girtin (1773–1821). We can say with some certainty, therefore, that it is one of the sketches that the artist’s brother appropriated from the studio after the death of Thomas and it may even have been amongst the unspecified ‘Sketches’ that John records as receiving ‘16. 16’ for on 21 February 1803 (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1 Could it follow from this that it was John Girtin who was responsible for copying the outline sketch when it was in his possession and that this watercolour is the outcome of his efforts to apply washes of colour in approximation of his brother’s manner of working?
(?) 1798
Hawarden Castle
TG1350