This distant view of Lincoln Cathedral from the north west is dated 1794 and was therefore presumably made during Girtin’s first significant trip outside London, which was undertaken in the summer of that year in the company of his earliest patron, the amateur artist and antiquarian James Moore (1762–99). One of the engraved views of Lincoln that were made after a drawing by Girtin notes that ‘James Moore … visited this Cathedral in the year 1794, accompanied by Mr. Girtin’ (Howlett, 1805), and the trip is further documented by another view of the cathedral (TG1012), which appears to have been made on the spot. Lincoln was just one stop on a tour that took in other cathedral towns in the Midlands, including Peterborough, Southwell and Lichfield, and Moore no doubt took along his young protégé to make sketches from which Girtin might produce finished watercolours for the patron on his return. Girtin’s commissions for Moore – including the large watercolour Ely Cathedral, from the South East (TG0202), which was shown at the Royal Academy exhibition in late spring of 1794 – had hitherto been based on sketches made by the patron himself. Although a fine work for a young artist, the view of Ely shows up the limitations of working from a secondary source, and Girtin’s more detailed and accurate sketches of architectural subjects, such as Lincoln Cathedral, from the West (TG1007), led to altogether more satisfactory results (TG1008).

This sketch of the more distant view of the cathedral is smaller in scale, however, and it lacks the same sure touch as the view from the west. Girtin made two studio watercolours from the sketch (TG1005 and TG1006), both of which are on the same small scale. The latter was painted for Moore in a style that recalls the numerous works that replicate the amateur’s own on-the-spot sketches, such as Glasgow Cathedral, from the North East (TG0111), rather than the larger architectural views that stemmed from the more detailed of Girtin’s drawings made on the 1794 tour (such as TG1002). With this in mind, it is timely to consider the significance of the fact that the engraving that was made after Girtin’s second watercolour of the view from the north west (see the print after TG1006) is inscribed as being ‘from a Sketch by Ja^s. Moore Esq^r.’ This, of course, may simply have been a case of the publisher assuming that the lender of the drawing was the same as the person who produced it, but the fact that the watercolour and the sketch are in the same format as the earlier Girtin copies of Moore’s sketches suggests two other possibilities. On the one hand, it is perfectly possible that the pencil drawing was copied from an on-the-spot outline produced by Moore on his earlier visit to Lincoln in 1789, but, equally, and with Girtin’s practice in the case of the Sussex sketches in mind (such as TG0227), it may be that the young artist worked over and enhanced a slight sketch by the patron dating from the 1794 tour in order to provide the basis for his own watercolour. The engraving reproduces Girtin’s distinctive figure group and must be based on the watercolour, but, if the pencil sketch was worked over a Moore outline, the credit line on the print has at least some claim to be true, and on balance this is what I think happened here. The drawing is not an on-the-spot sketch, therefore, though this does not mean that the date of 1794 (presumably added by Moore) is wrong, and Girtin’s enhancements such as the addition of the horse and rider may even have been executed during the tour itself.

There is a slight and rapidly executed pencil drawing of an unidentified landscape on the back of the view of Lincoln Cathedral. The shapeless form of the trees to the right resembles Moore’s pencil work, and, although the subject is very different from the drawing on the other side, it may gives us an impression of what the sketch of Lincoln looked like before Girtin worked over the amateur’s outlines.

(?) 1794

Ely Cathedral, from the South East

TG0202

(?) 1794

Lincoln Cathedral, from the West

TG1007

1794

Lincoln Cathedral, from the West

TG1008

1795 - 1796

Lincoln Cathedral: A Distant View from the North West

TG1005

1794 - 1795

Lincoln Cathedral: A Distant View from the North West

TG1006

1792 - 1793

Glasgow Cathedral, from the North East

TG0111

1794

The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral

TG1002

1794 - 1795

Lincoln Cathedral: A Distant View from the North West

TG1006

1795

The West Tower, All Saints’ Church, Hastings

TG0227