- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) James Moore (1762-1799)
- Title
-
- Leiston Abbey
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on card (laid paper)
- Dimensions
- 7.9 × 12.3 cm, 3 ⅛ × 4 ⅞ in
- Object Type
- Work after an Amateur Artist
- Subject Terms
- East Anglia: Norfolk and Suffolk; Monastic Ruins
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0327
- Description Source(s)
- Girtin Archive Photograph
Provenance
Squire Gallery, London, 1954
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 watercolour showing Leiston Abbey in Suffolk is known only from a poor black and white photograph found in the Girtin Archive (12/X), where it is described as being in ‘Pencil and grey wash only’ and dated, rather implausibly, to 1790–91. The fact that the work is painted on card (possibly made from layers of laid paper) measuring 3 ⅛ × 4 ⅞ in (7.9 × 12.3 cm) suggests a later date and that it was produced for Girtin’s important early patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Girtin painted a sizeable group of watercolours of mainly antiquarian subjects for Monro, including a view of Newport Castle, Monmouthshire, from the same unrecorded collection (TG0316), all of which were executed on a small scale on the same support. About twenty or so of these works were bought after Monro’s death by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Girtin’s collaborator at this date, and they are now part of the Turner Bequest. But other examples, which typically show some of the nation’s less well-known medieval monuments, still regularly turn up at auction, where they are often misattributed because they do not conform to the standard type of work that Girtin produced for Monro in collaboration with Turner.
The majority of the small cards from the Monro collection were made after pencil drawings that Girtin copied from the sketches of either his first significant patron, the amateur artist and antiquarian James Moore (1762–99), or his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804), and there is no question that he ever visited Leiston. Moore toured East Anglia in the summer of 1790 and two sketches that he made of Leiston, both dated 28 August, are in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (1975.3.598; 1975.3.599). Although close, neither drawing, nor the aquatint that was made from one of them for Moore’s publication Monastic Remains and Ancient Castles in England and Wales (Moore, 1792), quite shows the same view as here. Moreover, whilst it is possible that Girtin adapted Moore’s drawing to create a more picturesque view, his general practice was to copy the image faithfully and it therefore must be supposed that he worked from another untraced drawing by his patron.
1795 - 1796
Newport Castle, Monmouthshire
TG0316