- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Powis Castle
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 20.3 × 27.9 cm, 8 × 11 in
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1351
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 289 as 'Powys Castle, Montgomeryshire'
- Description Source(s)
- Girtin Archive Photograph
Provenance
Arthur Mason Worthington (1852–1916); then by descent to Dr Robert Albert Worthington (d.1945); Mrs Gilson (Girtin and Loshak, 1954)
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
Interior View of 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 Powis Castle from the north east, has never been seen in public and is known only from a poor-quality black and white photograph (Girtin Archive, 12/6). The work was seen by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), however, and he included it in the catalogue of the artist’s watercolours that he created with David Loshak, dating it to 1798–99 and the aftermath of Girtin’s tour to North Wales in the summer of 1798 (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.173). Working from such a poor image, it has not been possible to confirm the attribution to Girtin, though equally there is no reason to question the opinion of the artist’s descendant.
Castell Powys, as the building is known in Welsh, was rebuilt in the sixteenth century, incorporating parts of the medieval structure. During the latter part of the eighteenth century it was a popular stopping point in mid-Wales on the way to or from North Wales to London, and Girtin’s associates at the Sketching Society Thomas Richard Underwood (1772–1836) and Robert Ker Porter (1777–1842) visited on their trip in 1799 (Porter, 1799). We know very little about Girtin’s itinerary in 1798, with just the one stop fixed by a dated sketch of Corwen on 16 August, so all that can be said for certain is that a visit to Powis was feasible logistically, but whether this occurred on the outward or the return leg of his journey is impossible to establish. Tom Girtin (1913–94), who travelled the country searching for the locations from which Girtin made his sketches, was able to pinpoint Girtin’s unusual viewpoint (see figure 1). Unlike Turner, whose drawing from the same year typically depicts the castle from the south west, with the famous terrace gardens seen below, Girtin chose a view looking across the lake with the building all but lost amongst the trees (Tate Britain, Turner Bequest (XXXVIII 61)). The photograph also shows that the artist considerably exaggerated the height of the hill, and that the reflection of the castle depicted in the watercolour is a fallacy, albeit an attractive one.