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Works Thomas Girtin after James Moore

Pevensey Castle: The North Tower with the Gatehouse in the Distance

1792 - 1793

Primary Image: TG0218: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), after James Moore (1762–99), Pevensey Castle: The North Tower with the Gatehouse in the Distance, 1792–93, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an original mount, 16.4 × 22.3 cm, 6 ½ × 8 ¾ in. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (B1975.3.1162).

Photo courtesy of Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (Public Domain)

Artist's source: James Moore (1762–99), Pevensey Castle, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 16.5 × 24.3 cm, 6 ½ × 9 ⁹⁄₁₆ in. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (B1975.3.1163).

Photo courtesy of Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (Public Domain)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after James Moore (1762-1799)
Title
  • Pevensey Castle: The North Tower with the Gatehouse in the Distance
Date
1792 - 1793
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an original mount
Dimensions
16.4 × 22.3 cm, 6 ½ × 8 ¾ in
Mount Dimensions
19.2 × 25.3 cm, 7 ½ × 10 in
Inscription

‘Pevensey Castle 3’ on the back, by (?) Thomas Girtin (1874–1960)

Object Type
Work after an Amateur Artist
Subject Terms
Castle Ruins; Sussex View

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0218
Girtin & Loshak Number
98 as 'Pevensey Castle'; '1795'
Description Source(s)
Viewed in 2001

Provenance

James Moore (1762–99); his widow, Mary Moore (née Howett) (d.1835); bequeathed to Anne Miller (1802–90); bequeathed to Edward Mansel Miller (1829–1912); bequeathed to Helen Louisa Miller (1842–1915); bought by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), 1912, £15; given to Tom Girtin (1913–94), c.1938; bought by John Baskett on behalf of Paul Mellon (1907–99), 1970; presented to the Center, 1975

Exhibition History

London, 1912, no.35; London, 1962a, no.123; Reading, 1969, no.24; New Haven, 1986a, no.39

About this Work

This watercolour is one of two views of Pevensey Castle in Sussex that Girtin produced for his first significant patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99) (the other is TG0287). Girtin almost certainly did not visit the site himself and he based his work on a sketch that Moore probably made on the earliest of his visits to Pevensey in 1790 (see the source image above). Unusually for Moore, the amateur artist coloured his pencil drawing and in the process clearly demonstrated why he employed professionals to make more polished versions of his sketches. Moore’s colouring is completely devoid of any of the effects that Girtin uses to bring a bald record of fact to life, from the warm glow of the evening sky to the varicoloured stones in the walls and the sparkle of the water in the moat. Girtin is documented as having worked for Moore between October 1792 and February 1793 for a fee of six shillings a day, producing watercolours on paper generally measuring roughly 6 ½ × 8 ½ in (16.5 × 21.5 cm), as here, each with its own distinctive mount (Moore, Payments, 1792–93).1 In this case the colour from the drawing has seeped onto the mount, a good indication that it was conceived as an integral part of the watercolour. In all Girtin painted seventy or so small watercolours after Moore’s sketches and this example is characteristic of the works that he produced during the first phase of his working relationship with the antiquarian, in the winter of 1792–93.

Girtin’s watercolour depicts the castle’s North Tower with the Gatehouse Tower beyond and so we are looking south. The other Pevensey subject painted by Girtin shows the North Tower and East Tower looking east (TG0287), and the two works thus form a pair. Girtin made a third view after Moore’s sketches of Pevensey (TG0266), showing the gatehouse. Surprisingly, given Moore’s antiquarian interests, none of the views give any indication of the site’s most notable feature, the way that the castle makes use of the great Roman fort of Anderitum.

1792 - 1793

Pevensey Castle: View of the North and East Towers

TG0287

1792 - 1793

Pevensey Castle: View of the North and East Towers

TG0287

1793 - 1794

The Ruined Gatehouse, Pevensey Castle, from the East

TG0266

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

Footnotes

  1. 1 The document detailing the payments made to the young Girtin by Moore is transcribed in full in the Documents section of the Archive (1792–93 – Item 1).

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