- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper (watermark: Fleur-de-Lys / LVG)
- Dimensions
- 28.7 × 39.6 cm, 11 ¼ × 15 ⅝ in
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch; Unfinished Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales; River Scenery
Provenance
Magdalen Colville (1878–1965); her sale, Sotheby’s, 12 December 1945, lot 23 as 'Chepstow'; bought by P & D Colnaghi & Co., £38; bought from them by Leonard Gordon Duke (1890–1971) (D718), £50; his sale, Sotheby’s, 29 April 1971, lot 70 as 'Rhuddlan Castle and the River Clwyd, Flintshire'; bought by the Museum, £320
Exhibition History
Stanford, 1985, no.194
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, p.108; Eitner and others, 1993, pp.108–9; Brooke, 2002, pp.208–9
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 view of Rhuddlan Castle, seen from the river Clwyd, may have been sketched on the spot during the early stages of Girtin’s visit to North Wales in the summer of 1798, though its extremely faded condition makes confirmation of its status problematic. If the work was executed on the spot, rather than being an unfinished studio work, it means that the artist adopted a position downriver from the castle so that, looking south east, the double tower of the gatehouse aligns vertically with the two arches of the bridge over the Clwyd. The result is a starkly symmetrical composition that, with ‘the nakedness of the terrain and the wide sweep of its vacant space’ is reminiscent of the ‘sense of romantic solitude’ of landscapes by John Robert Cozens (1752–97) (Eitner and others, 1993, p.108). This effect, the writer continued, was helped by the watercolour’s unfinished state, making it like one of the later ‘colour beginnings’ of Girtin’s contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). The trouble with this suggestion is that the effect might equally have occurred as the result of the radical change in the watercolour’s appearance due to fading, something of which can be gauged by examining the small strips on three sides, which were protected by a mount and thus retain traces of the original colours. Thus, on balance, and partly based on the fact that Girtin produced more colour sketches on the spot during the 1798 Welsh tour than at any other time in his career, I suspect that this work was indeed coloured in the open air and was therefore used as the basis for two other studio watercolours (TG1302 and TG1304). However, it is such a close call that I may change my mind once again, but perhaps that is the point since the problems we have in determining the status of Girtin’s more economical landscapes are symptomatic of one of the defining characteristics of the artist’s work at a crucial time in his development: namely, the effacement of the distinction between the sketch and the finished watercolour.
Turner too sketched the castle from a similar viewpoint on the west bank of the river Clywd during his tour of North Wales in 1798. Arriving perhaps a month or so later, Girtin’s contemporary made a rapid small scale sketch that includes shipping on the river and the prominent form of the west front of the church of St Mary’s to the left (Tate, Turner Bequest XXXIX 43). In comparison, Girtin omits the river traffic and cutting the composition to the left emphasises the ‘vacant space’ and ‘romantic solitude’ noted above.
1799
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
TG1302
1798 - 1799
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
TG1304