Although the attribution of the watercolour to the two artists working together is highly plausible, with the pencil work being highly characteristic of Girtin’s manner, it must be noted that it is more heavily worked than a typical Monro School not least in comparison with a second version of the composition (see figure 1) sold at auction in 1978 (Sotheby’s, 16 March 1978, lot 75). The Monro provenance of that work is confirmed by the existence of a very close copy by the amateur artist John Henderson (1764–1843), who inscribed his drawing ‘From a sketch by Turner belonging to T. Monro’ (see figure 2). Henderson was Monro’s neighbour and given that he actually lent many of his own outlines for Girtin and Turner to copy it is highly likely that he made his copy directly from the drawing at Monro’s home. In cases when there are two Monro School versions of a composition it is generally the least worked that comes under suspicion, though in this instance the documentary value of Henderson’s copy is such that we might reasonably suspect that the two artists were responsible for both the drawing shown in figure 1 and this larger more finished sheet (TG0784a).
1800 - 1801
Dovedale
TG1751
1800 - 1801
Dovedale
TG1751
1800 - 1801
Dovedale
TG1751
About this Work
This view of Ilam Rock, a limestone pinnacle in Dovedale in the Peak District, has until recently been attributed to Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), an outcome perhaps of his tour to the Midlands in 1794. However, the signature appears to be a later addition and when the work was sold at auction in 2022 (Christie’s, 5 July 2022, lot 133) it was given to Girtin and Turner working in collaboration at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here the two artists were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to copy ‘the outlines or unfinished drawings of’ principally John Robert Cozens (1752–97), but other artists too, including Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). The ‘finished drawings’ they were commissioned to produce were the result of a strict division of labour: ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. As the young artists reported to the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821), ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’ with Turner receiving ‘3s. 6d each night. – Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798). As with many of the other British views produced for Monro by the two artists the likely source for this work is a lost sketch by Dayes. His ecstatic description of the sublime scenery of Dovedale resulted from a tour undertaken in the autumn of 1803, but an earlier visit to the area resulted in a number of watercolours that depict some of the Peak District’s most spectacular limestone scenery.1 These include a similar river view featuring Church Rock (see TG1751 figure 1) and a Dovedale scene (see TG1751 figure 2) that Girtin himself may have reworked in a late watercolour (TG1751).