This signed and dated study of Jedburgh Abbey, viewed from the river Jed, is one of a group of seven small monochrome watercolours that were sold together at auction in 1936 (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 27 March 1936, lot 1). Two of the drawings identified as part of the group are dated 1794, namely this work and A Cloud Study (TG0186). Given that all of them appear to be on the same laid paper of similar dimensions, it is possible that they came from a sketchbook that was split up. A later inscription on Jedburgh Abbey notes that it was once in the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) and there is anecdotal evidence that it went to New Zealand in 1841 after his death; it may have been at this stage, therefore, that the watercolours were mounted on uniform sheets of brown paper, as shown here.

The material from the sketchbook is of a disparate kind. Two of the sketches, showing carefully observed clouds, were apparently sketched on the spot (TG0186 and TG0199), whilst others, including An Unidentified Landscape, Known as ‘The Pool’ (TG1377) and A Landscape with a Distant Church (TG0185), appear to be imaginary. This 1794 view of the ruined abbey church at Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, in contrast, anticipates by two years Girtin’s visit to the site, and like the bulk of the material produced for Monro it must have been copied from the work of another artist. Girtin painted a watercolour of the abbey from the south east for another early patron, James Moore (1762–99) (TG0104), using as his source an on-the-spot pencil sketch made by the amateur on his visit to Scotland in 1792 (see source image TG0104). The source for this rather different view has not been traced, but it is possible that Moore was again the artist. Girtin visited Jedburgh in person in 1796, when he produced a number of pencil drawings of the village and the ruined abbey church. From these he created at least nine major watercolours, including another view from the river (TG1233), which actually replicates the composition shown here. There is no question of the artist using this colour sketch as his source for the later studio watercolour, however; the early drawing does not include enough of the details of the architecture for Girtin to have worked up his view.

Identifying this view of Jedburgh as a copy from another artist fits it into the general pattern of work that Girtin produced for Monro, but in other respects it differs from the material that he produced with his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), which primarily took the form of watercolour versions of the outline drawings of John Robert Cozens (1752–97) and the amateur artist John Henderson (1764–1843). Rather than translating a sketch into a more finished product, therefore, Girtin’s copy creates the illusion that it was sketched rapidly on the spot, and it is just as well that the work is dated 1794 because without that information it would have been very tempting to ascribe it to his 1796 tour. Another sketch of Jedburgh (TG1227) is typical of the sketches Girtin made on the trip, which are primarily in pencil with some monochrome washes added to delineate the distribution of light and shade. Just as important for our understanding of the work’s function as the date is the presence of Girtin’s signature to the bottom left. It seems that as early as 1794, right at the beginning of his association with Monro, Girtin had discovered that there was an outlet for his sketches and that this extended to works of imagination that purported to have been made on the spot, as well as more conventional nature studies.

1794

A Cloud Study

TG0186

1794

A Cloud Study

TG0186

(?) 1794

A Sky Study

TG0199

(?) 1794

An Unidentified Landscape, Known as ‘The Pool’

TG1377

(?) 1794

TG0185

1792 - 1793

Jedburgh Abbey, from the East

TG0104

1792 - 1793

Jedburgh Abbey, from the East

TG0104

(?) 1800

Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank

TG1233

(?) 1796

Jedburgh Abbey

TG1227