- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- Llanthony Priory
- Date
- 1791 - 1792
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper (watermark: J WHATMAN)
- Dimensions
- 22.1 × 28.9 cm, 8 ¾ × 11 ⅜ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; South Wales
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0066
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 11 as '1791'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2016
Provenance
Revd Francis Milnes Temple Palgrave (1865–1955) and his sister Annora Georgina Palgrave (1872–1949); presented jointly to the Museum, 1941, as by Joseph Mallord William Turner
Bibliography
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1941, pp.17–18; Brown, 1982, pp.343–44, no.753 as 'Circle of Thomas Girtin'
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
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Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection
Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
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The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
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The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection
An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Private Collection
Rochester, from the River Medway
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
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The Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
Private Collection
The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
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An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Westminster Bridge, from the North East
Untraced Works
The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works
The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
Royal Collection Trust (Windsor)
The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
London Metropolitan Archives
The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
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The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Untraced Works
A French Lady of Quality in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London
All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
Private Collection
London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries of London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary's Church, Putney High Street
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About this Work
This view of the ruins of Llanthony Priory church seen from the south east was attributed to Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) when it was presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in 1941. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak catalogued the work as by Girtin, however, dating it to around 1791, and they argued that it was probably drawn from an untraced composition by Edward Dayes (1763–1804) (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.135). David Brown, in turn, in his 1982 catalogue of the collection of British eighteenth-century drawings at the Ashmolean, argued that although the work was probably after Dayes, it was ‘too pedestrian’ to be by Girtin himself, and he listed it as being from the ‘Circle of’ the artist (Brown, 1982, pp.343–44). The initial attribution of the work to Turner was no doubt made on the basis of its similarity to two watercolours by Girtin’s contemporary (see figure 1 and Tate, Turner Bequest XXVII R), which were based on a drawing made on his tour of South Wales in the summer of 1792 (Tate, Turner Bequest XII F). In fact, Turner’s view is taken from a more southerly position, from where the river Honddu plays a prominent role in the composition, and Girtin’s depiction of the ruined church is lacking in drama in contrast. Moreover, although the work may indeed be ‘pedestrian’, the adoption by the young apprentice artist of his master’s style, with its characteristic touches in the foreground and the distant lines of vegetation beyond, is typical of works executed in the earliest days of his work with Dayes, including Rochester, from the River Medway (TG0015), which is dated 1791. Indeed, it is the limitations of the work that offer the strongest evidence that the watercolour was made by a very young artist still apprenticed to Dayes and therefore unable, unlike Turner, to travel to the Black Mountains of South Wales to make an on-the-spot sketch. Thus, although Turner’s view has been criticised for the way it exaggerates the form of the foreground, the experience of visiting the spot gave the artist the confidence to develop a dramatic landscape setting that matched the sight of the ruined church amongst the mountains.
Dayes produced a number of close-up views of the ruined priory at Llanthony, but the only distant scene comes in the form of a watercolour dated 1800 (see figure 2). Earlier views are dated 1792, however, and it is reasonable to assume that this composition was gathered on a tour of South Wales in that year too, and, indeed, that it was based on the same sketch that Girtin adapted for his use. The conventional foreground of the river and the flanking trees in Dayes’ view therefore both show up the wild exaggerations of Turner’s scene and highlight the stark setting adopted by Girtin. Indeed, the featureless foreground depicted by Girtin arguably provides a more appropriate frame for the ruin than either a gentle, flowing river or a storm-tossed torrent.
1791
Rochester, from the River Medway
TG0015