- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Melrose Abbey, from the North East
- Date
- 1796 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 34.4 × 42.2 cm, 13 ½ × 16 ⅝ in
- Inscription
‘Melrose Abbey / on the Tweed’ on the back of the lining
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1124
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Thomas Brown; his sale, Christie's, 5 June 1869, lot 274 as 'A Ruined Abbey'; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, £54 (stock no.9313); bought by John Heugh (c.1813–78), 14 June; his sale, Christie’s, 24 April 1874, lot 80 as by Joseph Mallord William Turner; bought by 'Colnaghi', £136 10s; James Worthington (lent to London, 1884); Henry Worthington; ... Sotheby's, 10 October 1974, lot 27 as by Edward Dayes, unsold; Christie’s, 1 March 1977, lot 116 as by Thomas Girtin; bought by Spink & Son Ltd, London, £6,000; bought from them 1978, as the gift of Paul Mellon (1907–99)
Exhibition History
London, 1884, no.169, as by Joseph Mallord William Turner; Spink’s, London, 1978, no.8; New York, 1992, no.47; Brussels, 1994, no.46; New York, 1998, no.74; New York, 2010, no.39
Bibliography
Armstrong, 1902, p.266 as by Joseph Mallord William Turner, formerly in the collection of Henry Worthington; Mallalieu, 1985, p.81
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside, Northumberland (National Trust)
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery
York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection, Yorkshire
York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire
The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London
Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire
A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection
Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London
Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham
Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; An Unidentified Hilly Landscape
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection
A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds City Art Gallery
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk
Warkworth Castle, Sunset
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton
The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works
Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection, Yorkshire
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum
Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)
The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Private Collection
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection
An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield
St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works
York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
Private Collection
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About this Work
This view of the ruined abbey church in the Scottish Border town of Melrose was long attributed to Girtin’s contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), and, though it is now generally accepted to be by Girtin, Tom Girtin (1913–94) stated that ‘I still think this is by Turner’ (Girtin Archive, 32). I have some sympathy with the view, though not because I think Turner painted the watercolour but rather because there is something unsatisfactory about this image of one of Scotland’s finest Gothic monuments that does not quite do justice to the subject. In this respect, it is instructive to compare the work with another view of the exterior of Melrose that Girtin painted around 1793 for his earliest patron, the antiquarian James Moore (1762–99) (TG0196), which he worked up from a drawing that the amateur had produced on his own visit to Melrose in 1792 (see TG0196 figure 1). There is no question that Girtin’s later view of Melrose benefited greatly from being painted from his own, untraced, sketch, but it still shares with the earlier watercolour a certain earnestness to include everything – to add detail to detail to create a record of a building rather than to produce an attractive work in its own right. In contrast to the bulk of the views of the nation’s great Gothic monuments that Girtin produced subsequent to the tour, there is no attempt to dramatise the scene by cutting the view in a novel way or to seek out a new angle from which to show the building, and as a result the image seems a little bland. This is so much the case that I have toyed with the idea that it might also have been produced after a drawing by Moore. However, the firm grasp of the complex perspective of the building is arguably beyond the amateur’s capabilities, and the manner in which we can look into the building and get a real sense of depth ultimately convinces me that this is a work of about 1797–98 made from a Girtin on-the-spot sketch. Perhaps the problem lies with the artist’s choice of a smooth wove paper over the rougher cartridges that he was generally using by this date, which undermines the broader effects he increasingly looked to create. I think this is supposed to be an evening effect, as indicated by the lengthy shadow cast by the reclining figure, but the distribution of light and shade across the building is not entirely consistent with that. Moreover, the effect of the evening light means that the colour of the stone has taken on a rather jaundiced appearance that bears little resemblance to the rich red hue of the sandstone from which the abbey is built, and in other circumstances this might again raise the question of whether the artist had in fact visited the site when he painted this work.
(?) 1794
Melrose Abbey, from the South West
TG0196