Girtin, as a London-based apprentice, would not have been able to travel to Rochester and he would therefore have had to base his watercolour on the work of another artist. As with many early works, such as Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear (TG0012), this meant a sketch by Dayes. A later watercolour by Dayes in the more summary style he deployed for smaller topographical works employs the same composition (see figure 1), and this, in turn, was presumably also based on the untraced source referenced by Girtin. A recent auction included a drawing attributed to William Alexander (1767–1816) which bears a startling resemblance to Dayes’ composition (Roseberry’s, 29 March 2023, lot 121). The likelihood is that the drawing was copied from Dayes’ watercolour and that it is not by Alexander, but it is not entirely out of the question that it is the original sketch by Girtin’s master. The fact that Girtin includes more of the buildings on both banks of the river Medway confirms that it was not based on either Dayes’ watercolour or the drawing illustrated here but another untraced sketch. Dayes’ composition, which shows an oblique view of the bridge cut by the Strood tide mill in the foreground so that only half of its length is visible, has the effect of bringing the massive form of the castle's Norman tower-keep into greater prominence, and this approach proved to be highly influential with a generation of artists, including even Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Girtin himself used it as the basis for a number of later works, not least for his celebrated view of Durham Castle (TG1075).
The very fine condition of the watercolour, testament to Dayes’ technical knowledge and abilities as a teacher, extends to the original washline mount, which has survived changes in fashion in the display of drawings. The artist’s signature, with its rare use of the Latin term ‘fecit’, meaning ‘Girtin made it’, illustrates that the mount was an integral part of the work’s conception, and this is confirmed by the manner in which areas of colour in the foreground stray onto the paper support. In other words, the watercolour was mounted before work was completed and it would have appeared with this support even when framed and glazed at the 1792 sale. Washline mounts such as that seen here were increasingly replaced with simple cream surrounds from the middle of the nineteenth century as it was felt that a neutral area around a watercolour provided more of an opportunity to appreciate the formal qualities of the work.
1790
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
TG0012
1796 - 1797
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1075
About this Work
The discovery in 2013 of an unrecorded early work by Girtin in perfect condition and with its original signed washline mount adds significantly to our understanding of the apprentice artist’s development in the studio of his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Of particular significance is the fact that the work can be linked with some degree of certainty to a sale at Greenwood’s auction house in January 1792, which included a drawing by Girtin, ‘Framed and Glazed’, of ‘Rochester castle, and bridge’ (Greenwood, 25 January 1792, lot 69). This and six other watercolours by Girtin were consigned to auction by Dayes, who, as an early biographer noted, ‘treated him as a mere means of making money’ (Thornbury, 1862, vol.1, p.102). Dayes’ belief that the watercolours of his sixteen-year-old apprentice had a significant commercial value, equal to his own, stemmed, no doubt, from the high quality of this work, which shows how Girtin had already mastered the various elements of his master’s practice. In fact, features such as the attractive patterning in the water, the broken, fluid treatment of the clouds, and the flashes of sunlight that enliven the stone of the castle and bridge, all realised in simple muted palette, illustrate how Girtin had even begun to put his own twist on his master’s style.