- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Pinkney’s Farm, Wimbish
- Date
- (?) 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 30 × 41.6 cm, 11 ¾ × 16 ⅜ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Commissioned from Thomas Girtin; Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Essex View; Picturesque Vernacular
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1413
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 330
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
Phineas Borrett (1756-1843); possibly by descent to Mary Ann Girtin (née Borrett) (1781–1843) and Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–74); then by descent to George Wyndham Hog Girtin (1835–1911) (lent to London, 1875); by a settlement to his sister, Julia Hog Cooper (née Girtin) (1839–1904); her sale, Davis, Castleton, Sherborne, 2 December 1884, lot 45 as 'Turner’s Farm'; bought by the Museum
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.90 as ’Farm in Essex’; London, 1987, no.29
Bibliography
Davies, 1924, pl.29 as 'A Farm House'; V&A, 1927, p.231 as 'Farmhouse, "Turner's Farm"'; Lambourne and Hamilton, 1980, p.151; Krill, 1987, pp.84–89, figs.79–80
Place depicted
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views

Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum

Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk

Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)

The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

St Albans Abbey, from the North West
Private Collection

An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk

Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection

A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection

A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection

A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection

A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection

Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection

The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York

Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection

A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection

A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection

Westminster Abbey, Seen from Green Park and the Queen's Basin
National Gallery of Art, Washington

St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works

St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection

St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection

London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London

London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London

Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection

Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk

Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection

A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London

A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection

A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington

The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection

Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston

Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection

The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London

The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York

The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Study of a Woman Reading; A Slight Study of a Seated Woman
Private Collection

Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection

A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection

An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London

A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London

An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection

St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection

The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
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About this Work
This watercolour, one of two views of a substantial picturesque roadside farm (the other being TG1452), was painted for Girtin’s father-in-law, Phineas Borrett (1756–1843). He was a prosperous London goldsmith who invested in property in Essex, buying Pinkney’s Farm in Radwinter as well as the nearby Turver’s Farm (TG1414), and he appears to have commissioned views of both from Girtin around 1799. This presumably required a visit from the artist to Essex to record the subjects, and, though no sketches have survived, there is a series of other views from around this date, including A Mill in Essex (TG1416), which suggests that what appear to be generic picturesque scenes are based on actual sites; indeed, this building can still be recognised today. From a time when Girtin was producing both country-house views for wealthy patrons and images of picturesque vernacular buildings for the open market, these watercolours are a unique hybrid that held close personal associations for the Girtin family, who continued to own the properties well into the nineteenth century. The artist’s son, Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–74), sold Turver’s Farm in 1859, presumably having inherited it from either his mother, Mary Ann Girtin (1781–1843), or his grandfather, Borrett (Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, 10 September 1859). This must have been how he also came to own two other views of Borrett’s Essex properties, including what appears to be the pair of this work (TG1414), and they were not, as Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak thought, inherited from his father’s studio (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.179). Indeed, the personal family associations of these works may have gone even further, since the commission from Borrett was presumably the occasion of the artist’s first meeting with his future wife, Mary Ann. Girtin, it must be remembered, married the daughter of a wealthy London-based patron, and it is not surprising that of all of the artist’s works that featured in the family’s extensive collection, these Essex views appear to have remained in their possession for the longest period.
Even more so than its pair, this work is badly faded, with the blue of the sky, the grey of the clouds and the green of the vegetation having been lost or compromised completely. No doubt the watercolour has been exhibited in a strong light, and this has facilitated the fading process, but fundamentally it was Girtin’s choice of fugitive pigments used in multiple thin washes that caused the problem. Just two unstable pigments, probably blue indigo and yellow gamboge, would have been enough to account for the drastic deterioration seen here, though the artist did use another blue pigment, perhaps ultramarine, for the reflection in the pond, which has remained relatively unaffected. The comparison with the rest of the composition points up the sad consequence of its faded condition: it appears unfinished and sloppily produced. At least some impression of the work’s original appearance can be gained, however, from the other view of the farmhouse (TG1452), which, although not in perfect condition, has not deteriorated to such an inordinate degree.
(?) 1799
Pinckney’s Farm, Radwinter
TG1452
(?) 1799
Turver’s Farm, Wimbish
TG1414
(?) 1799
A Mill in Essex
TG1416
(?) 1799
Turver’s Farm, Wimbish
TG1414
(?) 1799
Pinckney’s Farm, Radwinter
TG1452