- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Pen and ink on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 18.7 × 14 cm, 7 ⅜ × 5 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Citizen’ upper centre, by Thomas Girtin; ‘Waiting for the / Mail Coach’ lower centre, by Thomas Girtin; ‘John Raphael Smith / Sketched from the life / by T. Girtin’ lower left, in another hand; ‘2’ lower left
- Part of
-
- Whitworth Book of Drawings
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Figure Studies
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1600
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 410 as 'Portrait of J. R. Smith'; '1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2022
Provenance
Sale at Platt Vicarage, Rusholme, Manchester, 1898; sketchbook bought by 'Shepherd'; then by descent to F. W. Shepherd; his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 July 1977, lot 46; bought by Baskett and Day; bought by the Gallery, 1977
Bibliography
Hardie, 1938–39, no.1, p.91
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, University of Manchester
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection
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, University of Manchester
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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, 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, University of Manchester
The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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, University of Manchester
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, 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 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
Hawes Fine Art
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
Footnotes
- 1 The National Archives (Prob 11/1534, f.303r)
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About this Work
This rapidly sketched study of the artist and engraver John Raphael Smith (1752–1812) is pasted onto the first page of the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–TG1625), though why it was added to a collection of Girtin’s landscape sketches is not clear. According to a later tradition, Smith employed the young artist, together with his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), to hand-colour prints, and it is clear that the association continued throughout Girtin’s career, partly it seems through their mutual friend and colleague George Morland (1763–1804), with whom both Girtin and Smith collaborated (Thornbury, 1862, vol.1, p.91). Moreover, Smith appears to have been an avid collector of Girtin’s works. His posthumous sale included nine lots totalling thirty-five items by Girtin, mostly sketches but also some ‘large landscapes’ and a ‘view, near Weymouth’, though Smith had first ‘left all the drawings in [his] possession by Girtin’ to his friend John Benson (1755–1811) (Exhibitions: Dodd and Holland, 28 May 1814).1 It is possible, therefore, that the book of drawings came from Smith’s own collection and that the portrait study was added as a frontispiece to mark his ownership.
This would certainly be in keeping with the very personal nature of a drawing that, as an inscription in Girtin’s hand records, was taken whilst Smith was ‘Waiting for the Mail Coach’. The engraver’s informal pose, with pipe in mouth, offers a charming contrast to his own self-portrait, which shows a younger man hard at work (see figure 1). Intriguingly, Girtin extends the pipe smoke above Smith’s head to form the word ‘Citizen’, presumably in reference to his republican sympathies, which he may well have shared with Girtin himself (D’Oench, 1999, p.98). Evidence of Girtin’s support for the radical implications of the French Revolution is not surprisingly piecemeal, but, collectively, this private image of Smith, the artist’s adoption of a cropped hairstyle in emulation of Roman republican busts (TG1933) and his association with the writer Thomas Holcroft (1745–1809), who gained much notoriety at the 1794 Treason Trials, all point to a political stance diametrically at odds with that of Tory patrons such as Edward Lascelles (1764–1814).
1800 - 1801
Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert
TG1323
1800 - 1801
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
TG1324
1798 - 1799
John Raphael Smith: ‘Waiting for the Mail Coach’
TG1600
(?) 1800
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle
TG1625
1798
Profile Portrait of Thomas Girtin
TG1933