This view of Lincoln Cathedral, shown from the west, is the later of two watercolours (the other being TG1008) that Girtin made after a detailed pencil sketch (TG1001) produced on his first significant trip outside London. The tour through the Midland counties in the summer of 1794 was organised by the artist’s earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), who accompanied Girtin to Lichfield, Southwell and Peterborough, as well as Lincoln, so that his young protégé might sketch at first hand a group of the nation’s finest Gothic buildings. The first version of the composition was painted in 1794 for Moore himself (TG1008), but this work was probably produced a few years later, when a more mature artist was able to reconcile the two different elements of the composition into a more harmonious whole. The picturesque row of cottages, set at a bold diagonal to the west facade of the cathedral, is thus more happily integrated into the composition, whilst the main focus of architectural interest – the three great towers and their spires – is rendered in a softer light, which is now better calculated to show each tower and spire in its correct position in relation to the foreground. It is not known whether this later view was, like the 1794 watercolour, a commission, but the shift in the focus of the work away from the detailed record of the cathedral’s architecture suggests that the subject of the work may have been of less concern to its owner than the way in which the artist treated the combination of a picturesque foreground and a complex and ornate architectural monument beyond.

It is unlikely that the owner of this later version of the Lincoln view knew the subject as well as Moore, who presumably dictated to the artist where to take his sketch from, and Girtin would therefore have been free to make the changes necessary to create a more satisfactory composition. Intriguingly, this did not extend to dealing with the problem identified by the anonymous author of the notes to Bartholomew Howlett’s Views in the County of Lincoln, which reproduced Girtin’s watercolour as an engraving (see the print after TG1008). The writer argued that the artist might have avoided the clumsy way in which the closer south-west tower overlaps with the crossing tower by simply moving the viewpoint to the right, but that would have meant that the effect of the ‘picturesque foreground … would have been lost’ (Howlett, 1805, no page numbers). The row of cottages in the foreground, which at first sight appears contrived if not actually invented, was therefore not only sketched on the spot (in TG1001) but also an integral part of the composition. Indeed, Girtin arguably achieves a greater sense of integration between the cottages and the background in this version of Lincoln Cathedral, from the West by actually increasing the prominence of the latter, so that the chimneys and dormers echo the Gothic structure beyond. The row of buildings is noticeably smarter and less ramshackle in this later version, and the two out-of-proportion figures in the earlier work painted for Moore are omitted in favour of a more genteel group. A couple of years on from his work for Moore, Girtin retained the accidental alignments generated by the on-the-spot sketch, whereby the humble cottages occupy as much of the area of the image as the cathedral, whilst softening the contrast between the two elements.

The fact that Girtin did not invent the picturesque foreground is confirmed by the appearance of exactly the same row of cottages in a sketch made on the spot by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) that also dates from the summer of 1794 (see TG1007 figure 1). Turner, however, employed a different view when it came to the production of a finished studio watercolour of the subject for his and Girtin’s mutual patron John Henderson (1764–1843) (see TG1007 figure 2). The medieval Exchequer Gate makes for a more conventional foreground and one more obviously calculated to attract the attention of a patron with antiquarian interests.

1794

Lincoln Cathedral, from the West

TG1008

(?) 1794

The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral

TG1001

1794

Lincoln Cathedral, from the West

TG1008

1794

Lincoln Cathedral, from the West

TG1008

(?) 1794

The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral

TG1001