- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
- Date
- (?) 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 41.5 × 54.5 cm, 16 ⅜ × 21 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
-
- The Higgins, Bedford
- (P.72)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1233
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 286 as 'Jedburgh Abbey'; '1798–9'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Possibly bought by Peter Bluett (1767–1843) of Holcombe Court, Devon; then by descent to Peter Frederick Bluett (1806–84); Holcombe Court bought by the Revd William Rayer (1786–1866), 1858; his collection by descent to Revd George Morganig William Thomas Jenkins (1879–1952); acquired by Gooden & Fox Ltd., 1936; Sir George Davies; Thos. Agnew & Sons; bought from them, 1952, £700
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1952, no.53; Bedford, 1952, no.46; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.55; London, 1962b, no.59; Reading, 1965, no.19; Kendal, 1970, no.48; Manchester, 1975, no.47; Petworth, 2016, no.11
Bibliography
Bury, 1961, p.35, p.37; Joll, 2002, p.122
Place depicted
Other entries in Late Watercolours:
Samuel William Reynolds and Painting for the Art Market

An Imaginary City, with Antique Buildings
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Ancient Ruins, with an Obelisk
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Ancient Ruins, with a Gothic Church
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

A Classical Composition, with a Church and Column
Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool

The Arch of Janus, Rome
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Temple of Clitumnus
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Rome: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Rome: The Temple of Saturn, with the Arch of Septimius Severus
Private Collection

A Town on an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

A Lagoon Capriccio
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

An Unidentified Coastal Landscape with a Windmill
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Lindisfarne Priory, Northumberland (English Heritage)

Kelso Abbey: The West Front
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
The Higgins, Bedford

On the River Medway, with a Boatyard, Beached Vessels and Hulks
Private Collection

Bisham Abbey, on the River Thames
Private Collection

A Classical Composition, with Figures Admiring the Sculptures
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

An Unidentified Ruin next to a Bridge over a Stream, Said to Be Furness Abbey
Touchstones Rochdale

The Gatehouse of Morpeth Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
British Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill
British Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Bridge, Morning
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the Canal, Evening
Private Collection

A Distant View of Kirkstall Abbey
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead

An Unidentified Scene, Formerly Known as ‘Kirkstall Village’
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
British Museum, London

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
Leeds Art Gallery

Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

York: The New Walk on the Banks of the River Ouse
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
Private Collection

York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Private Collection

A Farmyard with Barns, Ladder and Figures; A Sky Study
Courtauld Gallery, London

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Leeds Art Gallery

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection

Ripon Minster, from the South East
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Ripon Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Mountain Stream in Spate, Possibly the River Wharfe
Private Collection

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church from across the River Wharfe
Eton College, Windsor

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
Leeds Art Gallery

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection

The Banks of the River Wharfe, with Bolton Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Richmond Castle, from the River Swale
Leeds Art Gallery

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham'
British Museum, London

An Ancient Oak, Said to Be on the River Ure
Private Collection

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection, Norfolk

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End
Tate, London

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory; The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
Private Collection, Norfolk

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Upland Landscape, Said to Show Etal Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The River Tweed at Kelso, Looking Upstream
Courtauld Gallery, London

The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey, with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Private Collection

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

Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Village of Jedburgh
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Southampton: The South Gate and Old Gaol
Private Collection

Bristol Harbour, with St Mary Redcliffe in the Distance
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Art Institute of Chicago

A Rainbow over the River Exe
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

A Rainbow over the River Exe
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

A Rainbow over the River Exe
Graves Gallery, Sheffield

Lydford Castle, from the River Lyd
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

St Vincent’s Rocks and the Avon Gorge
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

On the River Taw, North Devon, Looking from Braunton Marsh towards Instow and Appledore
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Conwy Castle, from the River Gyffin
Private Collection, Norfolk

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)
Tate, London

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
Private Collection, Norfolk

A Panoramic Landscape, with Figures Trawling a Pond
Private Collection

Landscape with a Distant Ridge, Possibly Hampstead Heath
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington
British Museum, London

The Thames from a Window of the Old Toy Inn, Hampton Court
British Museum, London

The Old Cottage, Widmore, near Bromley
British Museum, London

Shipping on the River Medway
Museum of New Zealand, Wellington

A Farmyard with Cattle, Poultry and Labourers Unloading Hay, Possibly Pinkney's Farm, Wimbish
Art Institute of Chicago

Farmhouse and Outbuildings, Possibly in Essex
Aberdeen Art Gallery

An Unidentified Village Street with a Church Tower in the Distance
British Museum, London

A Panoramic Landscape, Possibly Showing Primrose Hill, London
Private Collection

Unidentified Landscape with a Distant Rain Shower
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

Warkworth Church, with the Bridge Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Italianate Landscape with Two Monks
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 The letter detailing the sales of Girtin’s works by Reynolds is transcribed in full in the Documents section of the Archive (1803 – Item 3).
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This fine watercolour, showing Jedburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders, features a closer view of the southern flank of the partially ruined church from the banks of Jed Water than a companion work that was once in the same West Country collection (TG1722). The artist produced views of the celebrated abbey at three points during his career, beginning around 1792–93 with a group of compositions that were made after sketches by his earliest patron, the amateur and antiquarian James Moore (1762–99) (such as TG0104). Viewing the town and the ruins from a variety of angles, Girtin subsequently made a series of on-the-spot drawings during his stay in the town in 1796, producing three or four studio watercolours in the aftermath of the tour (such as TG1229 and TG1231). He returned to his sketches in the last years of his life, producing four more major works (the others are TG1722, TG1724 and TG1725), including this view, which typically combines the abbey with a prominent river scene, though the source has not been traced in this case.
The two late Jedburgh views, together with eight more watercolours, all dating from around 1800–1801, were discovered at Holcombe in the 1930s by Paul Oppé (1878–1957), mostly in the same poor condition as this work’s more distant companion. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), not unreasonably, concluded that they were acquired by the owner of the house during Girtin’s life, Peter Bluett (1767–1863), though I now suspect that in all probability they were bought by a member of the family of the Revd William Rayer (1786–1866), who moved into Holcombe in 1858 (Girtin Archive, 26). Whichever the case, it is unlikely that the first owner was a direct patron of Girtin in the traditional sense. The fact that the two Jedburgh scenes are not the same size, employ contrasting palettes and were evidently painted at different times underlines the random character of the Holcombe collection, which follows no particular pattern and contains subjects that are likewise a heterogeneous mix of antiquarian, genre and modern scenes. A comparison with the coherent group assembled by a more traditional patron such as Edward Lascelles (1764–1814), which is made up predominantly of local scenes and views that the patron in all probability saw on his own tours, makes this even clearer. Indeed, there is no evidence that either Bluett or any member of the Rayer family had any association with Jedburgh, or even that they might have been able to identify the subject of a work that, in many ways, is interchangeable with the other major site that was to provide so many subjects for Girtin in his last years – Bolton Abbey, on the river Wharfe (see TG1680). It is therefore unlikely that the first owner of the works had any input into the choice of subject or its treatment; indeed, it is possible that they had no contact with Girtin, probably buying the work through Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835), who acted on behalf of the artist in his final years in a role somewhere between agent and dealer, and this may indeed have occurred after the artist’s death. We can be reasonably sure that Reynolds was the intermediary because of the work’s close similarity with another view of Jedburgh that was sold in December 1801 by Reynolds for £10 to a different early collector of Girtin’s work, Elizabeth Weddell (1749–1831) (Reynolds, Letter, 1803).1 The two works are the same size, are in equally good condition (as the artist carefully chose a range of stable pigments) and include uncharacteristically detailed friezes of figures in the foreground, marking them out as upmarket versions of the standard commodity that Girtin supplied to Reynolds.
If it is not entirely clear whether the use of less fugitive pigments in these two Jedburgh subjects is related to their superior status as commodities, then the increased attention that Girtin paid to the figures is surely an unequivocal sign of their importance. Girtin’s figures, though often drawn with an exuberant economy of means, rarely suggest that they have been carefully observed on the spot, and their actions tend to be very generalised. In this case, although the washerwomen shown by Girtin owe something to the work of Marco Ricci (1676–1730) (see TG1723 figure 2), whose prints the watercolourist copied at this date, a similar view of the abbey, published after the work of Charles Catton (1728–98) in 1793 (see figure 1), suggests that the figures were indeed observed at work on the banks of Jed Water. Then there are the four workmen to the left, two of whom carry away what appears to be a rock, perhaps a millstone. If the author of the work was Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), one might have suspected a reference to the activities of the pioneering geologist James Hutton (1726–97), whose work at Jedburgh helped to inform his theories on rock formation; however, though the men shown here are presumably engaged in a rather more prosaic activity, there is still a strong sense that this is specific to the locality. And finally, it should also be noted that Girtin was careful to record the fact that although the abbey ruins made for a fine picturesque composition, the west end of the church was still in use as the parish church and was fitted up for the purpose. Moreover, although Girtin omitted the south wall of the cloister which would otherwise have interupted the view of the lower arcade of the church, in other respects he faithfully recorded the way that the monastic ruins had been adapted for domestic use so that, as the print after Charles Catton also shows, the scene depicted here is more orderd than it now appears following various archaeological interventions. Even in such late works, therefore, the artist could choose to retain a strong sense of place.
1801
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
TG1722
1792 - 1793
Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
TG0104
1797 - 1798
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
TG1229
1796 - 1797
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
TG1231
1801
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
TG1722
1800 - 1801
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
TG1724
1800
The Village of Jedburgh
TG1725
1801
Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
TG1680