- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
- Date
- (?) 1800
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 14.9 × 17.2 cm, 5 ¾ × 6 ¾ in
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Picturesque Vernacular; Unidentified Landscape
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1804
- Description Source(s)
- Online Auction Catalogue
Provenance
Squire Gallery, London, April 1937; bought from them by Leonard Gordon Duke (1890–1971) as unattributed, £2 10s (D717); ... Woolley & Wallis, 14 September 2022, lot 1090; Hawes Fine Art, London
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, The University of Manchester
The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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, The University of Manchester
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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, The 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, The University of Manchester
The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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, The University of Manchester
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The 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 Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
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
Private Collection
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 Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804. John’s accounts, detailing the material he appropriated from his brother’s studio, are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
- 2 Quoted from Duke’s manuscript catalogue of his collection, held by the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.
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About this Work
This rather faded watercolour study, showing a farmhouse and cottage, is related to a group of sketches of rural buildings that Girtin made towards the end of his life, such as A Barn by a Road (TG1793), though it is slightly larger in scale. The group of fifteen drawings appear to have come from one of the 'little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper' that were probably split up for sale after his death by his brother, John Girtin (1773–1821).1 It is unlikely that this drawing also comes from a book, not sharing its dimensions with any other of the other sketches, but it employs a similar palette, and the subject too is closely related to a number of examples in the group at the British Museum, all from the collection of Chambers Hall (1786–1855). Some of these are clearly imaginary, but others, as here, resemble the picturesque vernacular subjects gathered by Girtin in Essex three or four years earlier (such as TG1757). The latter point has led me to conclude that, although they were evidently created at speed, studies such as this were not coloured on the spot and were painted instead in the studio to satisfy the market for the less formal aspects of the artist’s output. The first recorded owner of the sketch, the eminent collector Leonard Gordon Duke (1890–1971) believed that it was sketched from nature, however, and it was he who related it to one of the group in the British Museum, A Farm beyond a Field (TG1797), describing it as a 'companion' which 'may represent the same farm and have been made on the same day.2 Whilst acknowledging the similarities in the palette and the subject matter as well as the sense of dispatch with which they were painted, I still believe that such works were produced in the studio. Rather than being sketched from life 'on the same day', as Duke suggested, I suspect that Girtin worked on more than one sketch at the same time, with the artist moving from one sheet to another, adding a single tone to each in turn, and that this would more properly account for the visual similarities between works such as TG1797 and TG1804.
(?) 1802
A Barn by a Road
TG1793
1800 - 1801
A Farmyard with Cattle, Poultry and Labourers Unloading Hay, Possibly Pinckney’s Farm, Radwinter
TG1757
1801 - 1802
A Farm beyond a Field
TG1797
1801 - 1802
A Farm beyond a Field
TG1797
(?) 1800
TG1804