- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and scratching out on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 28.5 × 45.5 cm, 11 ¼ × 17 ¾ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Lake Scenery; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1334
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 413 as 'Bala Lake, Merionethshire'; '1800–1'
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue
Provenance
Charles Robert Leslie (1794–1859); his posthumous sale, Foster's, 27 April 1860, lot 406 as 'Bala Lake, North Wales, with the Mountains Arran, Mowddy, Cader Idris, &c.'; bought by Sir Bradford Leslie (1831–1926) (lent to London, 1875); then by descent to Lydia Spence; Sotheby's, 27 June 1968, lot 52; bought by the Wren Gallery, London, £450; Edwin P. Rome; Sotheby's, 10 March 1988, lot 62, £7,480; Sotheby’s, 11 July 1991, lot 173, unsold; Christie's, 7 April 1992, lot 105, unsold; Abbott and Holder, London, 1993
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.35; Bucknell, 1990, p.22
Bibliography
Leslie, 1855, p.266, with an engraving; Binyon, 1900, p.19; Kauffmann, 1984, p.20, p.103; Lyles, 1984, p.5
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
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About this Work
This watercolour showing Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) was presumably painted from a sketch that Girtin took on the return part of his trip to North Wales in 1798, though the drawing has not been traced. The view, looking west across the lake with Cadair Idris in the distance, has faded badly so that the sky has almost completely disappeared and the greens of the fields and hillside, together with their reflections, have become dull and lifeless. Some of the attractive patterns seen in the fields and in the water remain, however, and in general this view of an area that was described by a contemporary text as ‘beautifully varied, rather than majestic’ is saved by a strong compositional device, which, unusually for Girtin’s Welsh scenes, references the work of an earlier artist, Richard Wilson (1713/14–82) (see figure 1) (Walker, 1792–1802, vol.4, no.95, pl.190). Wilson’s view of Snowdon seen from Llyn Nantlle, or more probably the engraving that was made from it, provided the model for Girtin’s treatment of the reflections in the water as bold diagonals, though Girtin avoided the temptation to bring forward Cadair Idris to provide a similarly dramatic focus.
John Varley (1778–1842) signed and dated a very similar view of Bala Lake (see figure 2). Although it repeats Girtin’s motifs of the rock in the foreground and the fishing boat on the water, together with the general form of the reflection on the lake’s surface, it brings Cadair Idris much closer to the viewer. Rather than being a copy of Girtin’s watercolour, therefore, it appears to be a variation on his composition, with the central mountain, some thirty kilometres away in reality, considerably enlarged for dramatic effect.