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Works Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) Edward Dayes

Looking South into Borrowdale, from the Shore of Derwentwater

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0769: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), after (?) Edward Dayes (1763–1804), Looking South into Borrowdale, from the Shore of Derwentwater, 1794–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 27 × 38.9 cm, 10 ⅝ × 15 ¼ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of Christie's (All Rights Reserved)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
Title
  • Looking South into Borrowdale, from the Shore of Derwentwater
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
27 × 38.9 cm, 10 ⅝ × 15 ¼ in
Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy
Subject Terms
The Lake District

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0769
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2000

Provenance

Christie's, 25 March 1899, unknown lot; William C. Ward; bought by Walter Manchester; his sale, American Art Association, 17 April 1913, lot 650 or 651 as 'The English Lake District' by Joseph Mallord William Turner; bought by a descendant of the Manchester family; then by descent; Christie’s, 28 November 2000, lot 138 as by Joseph Mallord William Turner and Thomas Girtin; bought by a UK private collector, £14,100

About this Work

This view into Borrowdale from the southern shore of Derwentwater was made at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), where Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797. Their task, as they recalled to the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821), was to copy ‘the outlines or unfinished drawings of’ principally John Robert Cozens (1752–97), but other artists too, including Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). The ‘finished drawings’ they were commissioned to produce were the result of a strict division of labour: ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. As the young artists reported, ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, with Turner receiving ‘3s. 6d each night’ whilst ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1 The outcome of their joint labours was substantial, amounting to several hundred drawings of which at least twenty are Lake District scenes after compositions by Dayes.

Girtin made a number of copies of his master’s views of the Lake District during his apprenticeship, including Lake Windermere and Belle Isle (TG0078). Since he was never actually to travel to one of the country’s most popular picturesque regions, for artists as well as their patrons and customers, he continued to base his Lake District views on the works of others throughout his career. As with the numerous copies that Girtin and Turner created from compositions by Cozens, it was the slight sketches and outlines that Dayes made on his travels that were used as the source for their more finished watercolours. Monro’s posthumous sale, in 1833, contained several hundred of Dayes’ sketches, including seven ‘Views on the lakes, blue and Indian ink’ as well as views of ‘Keswick, Glanton, Patterdale’, all presumably made on his only documented visit to the Lakes in 1789, but there is no evidence that Monro owned any of the older artist’s studio works (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 2 July 1833, lots 42 and 45). Typically, the Dayes source for this popular view of Borrowdale, with Castle Crag in the middle distance, has not been traced, though this does not mean we should look elsewhere for its model. Few of Dayes’ sketches have survived and, arguably, the fact that no source can be found in this case suggests that it was a thoroughly unprepossessing drawing that required considerable transformational skills from the young artists.

Monro’s posthumous sale contained more than forty Lake District views, all of which were attributed solely to Turner (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 26 June 1833; Christie’s, 1 July 1833). Unlike Girtin, Turner did visit the region, albeit briefly in 1797. However, whilst some of the items in the sale may have resulted from this trip, the majority were noted as being in ‘blue and Indian ink’ and therefore employed the same palette associated with the Monro School works. The attribution of the Lake District views to Turner alone has been challenged in recent years, following the publication of Andrew Wilton’s pioneering article in 1984, and this work last appeared on the art market in 2000 as a collaboration with Girtin (Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). In fact, Turner’s sparing use of a simple palette leaves extensive areas of the paper clear to act as highlights, with the result that Girtin’s distinctive pencil work is visible in many areas, particularly in the vegetation in the foreground.

1791 - 1792

Lake Windermere and Belle Isle

TG0078

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

Footnotes

  1. 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – Item 2).

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