- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Horton in Ribblesdale
- Date
- (?) 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 14.5 × 20.3 cm, 5 ¾ × 8 in
- Inscription
‘Horton’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Gothic Architecture: Parish Church; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1633
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 446 as 'Horton, Yorkshire'; '1801'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2017
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known); bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851); accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Bibliography
Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1238 as '"Horton" Church'; Tate Online as 'Horton Church, Northumberland' (Accessed 18/09/2022)
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
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About this Work
This rapidly executed sketch of Horton in Ribblesdale, in Yorkshire, features the church of St Oswald, with Horton Beck running across the foreground. Horton is about ten kilometres northwest of the Malhamdale village of Kirkby Malham, which Girtin depicted in a sketch that is so similar, in terms of both its composition and subject, as to be confusing (TG1606). It is just as well that the artist inscribed both drawings, or the watercolour derived from the Kirkby sketch might still bear the wrong title, as it has done for most of its history (TG1690). The Kirkby sketch was in all likelihood executed on an excursion the artist made in the summer of 1800 from his base at the palatial home of his patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) at Harewood, and it is to be found in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–1625) along with other views of the area (such as TG1608). Girtin sold a number of pencil sketches from the book, one of which was noted as costing a guinea (£1 1s), and it may be that this view of Horton too was amongst the works detached from the gathering of drawings, as it is on a piece of paper that conforms to the general size of the pages bound into the book.
The first owner of the drawing was none other than Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), who famously employed Girtin and his colleague Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) to realise watercolour versions of the outlines and tracings of John Robert Cozens (1752–97), and the artists produced nearly four hundred works in the process. Monro also commissioned large-scale topographical watercolours from Girtin, and, as a keen amateur artist, he collected some of the mature artist’s pencil sketches. Three of Girtin’s drawings – The Market Square at Aylesbury (TG0369a), Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr (TG1313) and Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed (TG1331) – are now in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain, having been bought by the artist at Monro’s posthumous sale in 1833. A word of caution, though, for although the sketches were no doubt acquired by Monro as examples of the artist’s sketching practice, at least one of them, the Aylesbury view, was copied from the original on-the-spot drawing, and something similar might account for the cursory and rather stiff nature of the pencil work seen in this, far from top-drawer, work.
(?) 1800
Kirkby Malham
TG1606
1801
Kirkby Malham
TG1690
(?) 1800
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as ‘Kirkby Priory, near Malham’
TG1608
1798 - 1799
The Market Square at Aylesbury
TG0369a
(?) 1798
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr (The Great House)
TG1313
(?) 1798
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
TG1331