- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- Lancaster Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper (card)
- Dimensions
- 7.7 × 12 cm, 3 × 4 ¾ in
- Object Type
- Work from a Known Source: Contemporary British
- Subject Terms
- Gothic Architecture: Parish Church; The Lake District
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0358
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in January 2018
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 26 June 1833, lot 81 or 82 as 'Views and ruins, in colours, on cards 10'; bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), £8 18s; accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Exhibition History
National Gallery, London, on display up to 1904, no.818a
Bibliography
Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1243 as 'Lancaster' by Thomas Girtin; Tate Online as 'Lancaster Church and Bridge' (Accessed 06/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in Topography without Travel:
The British Landscape at Second Hand

Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Untraced Works

Windsor Castle: The Norman Gateway and the Round Tower, with Part of the Queen's Lodge
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

The Interior of Tintern Abbey, Showing the Choir and North Transept
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

A View in Windsor Great Park with Deer
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

An Ancient House, Possibly in Sussex
Private Collection

The Interior of Tintern Abbey, Looking towards the West Window from the Choir
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

The Ruins of Newark Priory Church
Tate, London

Lancaster Castle and Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
Private Collection

Barnard Castle and Bridge, from the River Tees
Tate, London

The Ruined West Front of Dunbrody Abbey Church, County Wexford, Ireland
Tate, London

The Refectory of Walsingham Priory
British Museum, London

The Ruined East End of Walsingham Priory Church
Tate, London

The West Tower of Rumburgh Priory Church
Tate, London

Dumbarton Rock, from the North
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Middleham Castle
Tate, London

Kidwelly Church, with the Castle Beyond
Tate, London

Kelso Abbey, from the North West
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Keep, Portchester Castle, from the North East
Tate, London

The Keep of Rochester Castle, from the South East
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Middleham Castle
Tate, London

Margam Abbey Church, from the North West
Tate, London

The Ruined East End of Walsingham Priory Church
Tate, London

The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke
Tate, London

The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Lewes Castle, from the West
Tate, London

Glasgow High Street, Looking towards the Cathedral
Tate, London

The Keep of Hedingham Castle, from the East
Tate, London

The South Transept, Much Wenlock Priory Church
Tate, London

Newport Castle, Monmouthshire
Private Collection

Portchester Castle, from the Outer Bailey
Tate, London

The Refectory of Walsingham Priory
Tate, London

An Unidentified Church close to a Road
British Museum, London

The Keep of Hedingham Castle, from the South West
Tate, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the North West
Tate, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the North West
Tate, London

The Ruined Gateway of Mettingham Castle
Tate, London

The Keep of Rochester Castle, Seen from outside the Walls
Tate, London

Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Private Collection

Tintern Abbey: The View from the Nave
Private Collection

The Market at Aberystwyth
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
Tate, London

Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
Tate, London

Lancaster Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
Tate, London

Buttermere Bridge, from the Fish Inn
Tate, London

The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt
Private Collection, Norfolk

Rochester Cathedral, from the North East, with the Castle Beyond
Tate, London

Glasgow High Street: Looking towards the Cathedral
Tate, London

A Distant View of Corfe Castle
Tate, London

Chichester Cathedral, from the South West
Tate, London

The Gatehouse of Amberley Castle
Tate, London

A Lake and Mountains, Possibly in the Lake District
Tate, London

A Lake and Mountains, Possibly in the Lake District
Tate, London

An Unidentified View across a Lake, or along a Coast
Tate, London

A Road by a Pond, with a Church in the Distance
Tate, London

A Road by a Pond, with a Church in the Distance
British Museum, London

A Church Tower amongst Trees, with a Cart in the Foreground
British Museum, London

An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Tate, London

Trees near a Lake or River, at Twilight
Tate, London

A Hilly Landscape, with a Two-Arched Bridge
Private Collection

A Distant View of Tynemouth Priory, from the Sea
Tate, London

An Upland Landscape, Possibly in Northumberland
Private Collection

A Bridge in the Lake District, Possibly Grange Bridge, Borrowdale
Private Collection

Bridgnorth, on the River Severn
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Knaresborough, from the River Nidd
Private Collection
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About this Work
This informal sketch-like view, looking across the river Lune to Lancaster Priory Church, is part of a group of twenty or so small-scale watercolours by Girtin in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain that also includes a second view across the river to the castle (TG0357). The watercolours, all painted on card measuring roughly 3 × 4 ¾ in (7.6 × 12.1 cm), were produced for Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) around 1795–96 and some sixty ‘Coloured Drawings on Cards’ were sold from his collection in all (Christie’s, 7 May 1808, lots 60 and 61; Christie’s, 26 June 1833, lots 80–83). The watercolours were made after Girtin’s own outline drawings, forty or so of which are also in the Turner Bequest. Generally, subjects such as this, which Girtin could not have sketched on the spot himself, were copied from the outlines of his first significant patron, the amateur artist and antiquarian James Moore (1762–99), though in this case the source for the image was probably an untraced sketch by Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Moore was no more than a competent amateur, and, even though he did visit Lancaster and no doubt made sketches there, this composition, which combines a complex mix of ancient and contemporary buildings into a well-balanced whole, would have been beyond his capabilities. Dayes seems to have relished the particular combination of buildings, bridge and river seen at Lancaster and in other cathedral towns, such as Hereford and Rochester, and he made the motif the subject of a number of his most impressive compositions, including a major exhibition piece depicting Lancaster from the other, downriver side of the bridge, painted in 1794 (see figure 1).
There are no fewer than three different views of Lancaster amongst the subjects produced by Girtin in colour on small cards for Monro (the others being TG0229 and TG0357). This is more than for any other location, begging the question of whether the town had a special significance for the patron; certainly, it is unlikely to have had any meaning for Girtin, who did not visit Lancaster or any adjacent region. But perhaps it is wrong to assume that the selection of subjects was Monro’s since, other than the choice of three views of Lancaster, there seems to be no discernible rationale that unites the outlines and the coloured cards, either by geography or building type – certainly nothing that might have made for a thematically unified publication, as has been suggested (Wilton, 1984a, p.12). It may be that Girtin was instead given the freedom to select from the vast range of sketches and outlines in Monro’s possession compositions that might work as small sketch-like watercolours, and that no particular significance should be read into his choices.
The paper is discoloured as a result of excessive exposure to light whilst on long-term exhibition. The card used here is also noticeably thinner than the other supports used in this group of watercolours.
1795 - 1796
Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
TG0357
1795 - 1796
Lancaster Castle and Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
TG0229
1795 - 1796
Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
TG0357