For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.
Works Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) John Robert Cozens

Lake Como, Looking North to the Village of Bellagio

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0505: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752–1797), Lake Como, Looking North to the Village of Bellagio, 1794–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 23.7 × 33.6 cm, 9 ⁵⁄₁₆ × 13 ¼ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of Sotheby's

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752-1797)
Title
  • Lake Como, Looking North to the Village of Bellagio
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
23.7 × 33.6 cm, 9 ⁵⁄₁₆ × 13 ¼ in
Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
Italian View: The North; Lake Scenery

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0505
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2018

Provenance

Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 28 June 1833, lot 80 as 'A scrap-book, containing 66 sketches in Switzerland, in blue and Indian ink' by 'Turner'; bought by 'Hixon', £21 11s 6d; ... Clive Behrens (d.1935); then by descent; Sotheby’s, 5 July 2017, lot 181, as by Joseph Mallord William Turner, £16,250

About this Work

This view on Lake Como, looking towards Bellagio, displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here they were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1

Although no source has been found in the extant works of John Robert Cozens (1752–97), there is little doubt that this watercolour, one of six Monro School views of Lake Como, was copied from a composition the artist sketched on his journey to Italy in 1776. Another Monro School view of the lake, possibly showing Como itself (TG0503), was copied from a sketch that Cozens worked up into a finished watercolour, and there is no reason to suspect that the rest of the Como subjects had a different source. Cozens’ sketches from 1776 have not survived, but they were probably large in scale and little more than summary outlines, which would have needed careful interpretation to create the ‘finished drawings’ that Monro required for his collection. In all, there are as many as sixty Monro School views of the Alpine scenery of France, Switzerland and northern Italy that can, with varying degrees of certainty, be associated with Cozens’ first trip to the Continent in 1776. The subject of this watercolour was identified in a sale catalogue in 2017 and, though it is by no means certain, the suggestion has the merit of emphasising the links between Cozens’ works and those of Francis Towne (1739–1816), many of whose views of Como show lakeside villages (see Towne Online, FT353). The auction catalogue also suggests that the work formed a pair with another Lake Como view, Lake Como, Looking South, Possibly from the Foot of the Cliffs at Ca’ Bianca (TG0504), with which it was sold.

The exact division of labour in the Monro School watercolours is rarely straightforward, however. In this case, the execution of the work was described in an auction catalogue in 2017 as being by Turner alone, but, whilst the pencil work that is visible is not obviously by Girtin, equally it is not clearly by Turner either. My default position on the attribution of Monro School copies of Cozens’ works is to follow what the two artists stated to Farington in 1798 unless there is clear evidence that points to the sole authorship of either artist. In this and the case of the work’s possible pair (TG0504), I am minded to attribute the works to both artists, not least as a way of correcting an imbalance in the art market that has consistently put a higher premium on Turner’s sole authorship despite clear visual and documentary evidence of the extent of his collaborations with Girtin.

1794 - 1797

Lake Como

TG0503

1794 - 1797

Lake Como, Looking South, Possibly from the Foot of the Cliffs at Ca’ Bianca

TG0504

1794 - 1797

Lake Como, Looking South, Possibly from the Foot of the Cliffs at Ca’ Bianca

TG0504

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

Footnotes

  1. 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – Item 2).

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.