- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- Rochester, from the River Medway
- Date
- 1791
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 13.4 × 18.8 cm, 5 ¼ × 7 ⅜ in
- Inscription
‘Thos. Girtin. 1791’ lower right, by Thomas Girtin
- Subject Terms
- Dover and Kent
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0015
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 6 as 'View of Rochester'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Edward Coles (Davies, 1924 and Binyon, 1933); bought from him by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960); 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
Agnew’s, 1953a, no.45; Sheffield, 1953, no.35; Leeds, 1958, no.39; London, 1962a, no.113; Reading, 1969, no.19; New Haven, 1986a, no.3
Bibliography
Davies, 1924, p.25, pl.1; Binyon, 1933, p.104; Binyon, 1944, p.93; Mayne, 1949, p.25; Girtin, 1952, p.112; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.50-51
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
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Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
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Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
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The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
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An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
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Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
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The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
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Untraced Works
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The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
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The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
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The West Front of Westminster Abbey
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A French Lady of Quality in 1581
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A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
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Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
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'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
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'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
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First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
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'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
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'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
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Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries of London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Private Collection
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Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
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Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
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Private Collection
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About this Work
From the bank of the river Medway looking south west, the main monuments of the city of Rochester form a line from left to right: the cathedral, the eleventh-century castle keep and the medieval stone bridge with its eleven arches. There is no possibility that Girtin travelled to Rochester in the early years of his apprenticeship to Edward Dayes (1763–1804), and he almost certainly based his composition on an untraced sketch by his master. Dayes later painted an oil of the same view (figure 1); although the cathedral is not visible to the right, the compositions are in other respects close, and there is no doubt that both were made after the same sketch by Girtin’s master on a trip to the city, probably in the late 1780s. There are differences, however, and two are worth touching upon. Firstly, and very presciently, Girtin in one of his earliest dated works created a more panoramic scene than the more artfully composed view of his master by including the cathedral to the left and by not adding a framing tree to the right. Secondly, Girtin lowered the hill on which his figures are positioned, with the result that the river, as it meanders into the distance, is out of keeping with the viewpoint – a case, therefore, of altering one element of the composition without adjusting the consequences elsewhere. A print titled Rochester from Frindsbury Hill by Samuel Ireland (1744–1800) for his Picturesque Views, on the Medway, depicts the same view, neatly illustrating the point not only that Girtin’s low and flat foreground is fabricated but also that the scene in general could not have been derived from an on-the-spot sketch.
Girtin produced as many as four watercolour views of Rochester during his apprenticeship to Dayes and all of them were almost certainly made after his master’s sketches, including Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East (TG0076) and Rochester Castle, from the River Medway (TG0057), as well as a larger version of this composition, Rochester, from the North (TG0071). Although only Rochester, from the River Medway is dated – ‘1791’ is inscribed to the right of the drawing – the inclusion of two Rochester views by Girtin at an auction at Greenwood’s in January 1792 (lot 69 – ‘Rochester castle, and bridge’ and lot 72 – ‘Rochester castle’) suggests that Dayes, who consigned the works to the sale, saw a commercial opportunity in his young pupil’s work (Exhibitions: Greenwood, 25 January 1792). Just as significantly, Dayes’ sketches of the bridge, castle and cathedral in various combinations provided the fifteen-year-old Girtin with a series of picturesque compositions that collectively demonstrate an extraordinary level of artistic skill and maturity, even as he copied many of his master’s stylistic traits. This particular piece is smaller in scale than the other Rochester subjects, and because it is dated 1791 there is a temptation to regard it as simply less advanced. However, it would be more accurate to characterise it as a different type of commodity that was smaller, less fully worked up and therefore more suited to the lower end of the market for topographical subjects, and this was a feature of Dayes’ work that Girtin was to develop throughout his career.
1792 - 1793
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
TG0076
(?) 1791
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
TG0057
1791 - 1792
Rochester, from the North
TG0071