- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
- Date
- (?) 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 14.6 × 21.7 cm, 5 ¾ × 8 ½ in
- Inscription
‘b’ upper left; ‘52’ lower left; traces of two erased inscriptions to the bottom
- Part of
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- River Scenery; The Village; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Sandsend
(TG1702)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1609
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 426i as 'Sandsend, Yorkshire'; '1801'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2022
Provenance
Sale at Platt Vicarage, Rusholme, Manchester, 1898; sketchbook bought by 'Shepherd'; then by descent to F. W. Shepherd; his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 July 1977, lot 46; bought by Baskett and Day; bought by the Gallery, 1977
Bibliography
Hardie, 1934, p.1; Hardie, 1938–39, no.10, p.93
Place depicted
Other entries in Later Sketches:
Taken on the Spot and Worked in the Studio

Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert (page 15, reverse, of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Extensive Landscape with the Ruins of Mitford Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Private Collection

A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Private Collection

John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
British Museum, London

An Interior View of the Choir of Bolton Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe (page 37 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe (page 38 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground (page 41 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
British Museum, London

The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Kirkstall Abbey, with a Canal Barge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
Private Collection

A Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White

A River Valley and a Distant Hill Seen through Trees
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

A Shady Road Leading to Cottages
British Museum, London

A Church in a Village, Possibly at Radwinter
British Museum, London

A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream
British Museum, London

Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
Private Collection

A Schooner near the Shore
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Coast Scene with Two Beached Vessels
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Shipping Study: Five Craft on a Calm Sea
British Museum, London
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About this Work
This sketch of the village of Sandsend, north of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast, is found on page twenty-nine of the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–1625), and it formed the basis of a fine watercolour that is dated to Girtin’s last year, 1802 (TG1702). It shows the wooden bridge crossing the East Row Beck and was therefore taken only a few metres away from the beach viewpoint of Girtin’s memorable on-the-spot colour sketch A Distant View of Whitby (TG1628). Both Sandsend drawings were almost certainly executed during the artist’s stay with Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave (1755–1831), at nearby Mulgrave Castle, which also features in a number of pencil drawings in or from the Book of Drawings (such as TG1625 and TG1626). The famous diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) noted that Lord Mulgrave had recalled that Girtin ‘was with Him a little time at Mulgrave Castle’ at a point when he ‘laboured under symptoms of an Asthma which not long afterwards killed him’ (Farington, Diary, 24 May 1807), and Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak interpreted this to mean that the artist travelled north again in the spring of 1801 (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.41). Mulgrave’s testimony comes from five years later, however, and, though Girtin did not produce his watercolour of Sandsend until 1802, I suspect that the sketches were produced earlier in 1800, not least because Girtin was documented as travelling as far north as the Scottish Borders in that year, and Mulgrave Castle could have been taken in on the way (Jenkins, Notes, 1852). A date of 1800 appears to be more suitable for a whole group of drawings made in the area of Sandsend and Whitby, including a series of views of shipping on the coast (such as TG1623).
The fact that the watercolour of this view was produced a couple of years later is a reminder that the Book of Drawings, as well as being the repository of a stock of sketches that might be sold to discerning collectors, was also a pattern book from which patrons could choose a subject to be realised in watercolours. Certainly this was not a sketchbook in the sense that we understand it today as a sequential collection of on-the-spot drawings. Thus, the fact that the sketch A Distant View of Whitby once formed part of the previous page is misleading as it may have changed positions within the binding. This presumably occurred after Girtin’s death, when additional sheets were bound in with end papers with an ‘1803’ watermark and a hard cover, none of which would have been part of the ensemble during the artist’s lifetime. As the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, the ‘book’ initially took the form of a gathering of a number of different papers by Girtin, rather than being bought as a ready-made commodity, and it would have looked very different when used for sketching views such as this (Bower, 2002, p.141). This, I suspect, was done at the behest of the artist’s brother John Girtin (1773–1821) who appropriated material from the artist’s studio after his death including ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’, a combination that accords with the unusual makeup of the book (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).
1802
Sandsend
TG1702
(?) 1800
A Distant View of Whitby
TG1628
(?) 1800
The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle
TG1625
(?) 1800
Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
TG1626
(?) 1800
Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea
TG1623