- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Sharpham House on the River Dart
- Date
- (?) 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 13 × 19.9 cm, 5 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ in
- Inscription
‘Sharpham’ lower left by Thomas Girtin; ‘near Totness - Bastard Esq. 6’ lower centre, by Thomas Girtin; ‘T Girtin’ on the back
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- The West Country: Devon and Dorset
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1273
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 205 as 'Sharpham, near Totnes'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Dr John Percy (1817–89); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 17 April 1890, lot 505 (one of 9); bought by 'Dowdeswell', £2 2s; John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929); his posthumous sale, Sotheby’s, 29 May 1935, lot 313; volume bought by Bernard Squire, £32; bought 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
New Haven, 1986a, no.61
Bibliography
YCBA Online as 'Sharpham, near Totnes, Devon' (Accessed 16/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1797 West Country Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
The Ruined Chancel, Netley Abbey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Gateway of the Bishop's Palace, Wells
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Southampton
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bursledon Ferry on the River Hamble, near Southampton
Private Collection
The Hamble River, near Southampton
Private Collection
A Cliff-Top View, Probably on the Coast of Dorset
Leeds Art Gallery
The Market Rooms, Weymouth
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Private Collection
The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Leeds Art Gallery
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Private Collection
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Private Collection
A Panoramic View near Lyme Regis
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Above Lyme Regis, Looking across Marshwood Vale
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
The Interior of Exeter Cathedral, Looking from the Nave
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter, from Trew’s Weir
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter Cathedral, from the South
Koriyama City Museum of Art
On the River Exe, Exeter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear, from Dartmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Sharpham House on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
Okehampton Castle, from the West Okement River
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Cattle by a River with a Castle Beyond, Probably Okehampton Castle
Private Collection
The Estuary of the River Taw
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wells Cathedral, from the Moat of the Bishop's Palace
Private Collection
St Vincent's Rocks from Nightingale Valley, near Bristol
Private Collection
Bristol Cathedral, from College Green
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Bristol Harbour and St Mary Redcliffe
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Unidentified Estuary, Probably in the West Country
Tate, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly a West-Country Tor
Tate, London
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
A House Reflected in the Waters of an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Footnotes
- 1 The financial records of the artist's brother John Girtin (1773–1821) include two loans he made to Thomas Girtin during the trip. The records are transcribed in full in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
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About this Work
This slight sketch of Sharpham House, overlooking the river Dart in Devon, was almost certainly executed on Girtin’s West Country tour in the autumn of 1797. The artist is documented as having been in Exeter in early November where he sketched the interior of the cathedral and worked along the river Exe before journeying west along the south coast (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1 Sharpham, near Totnes, fits in with his known itinerary prior to turning north to stay at Bideford later in the month. Amongst the images of the region’s great medieval monuments and its coastal villages, ports and fashionable resorts, this sketch stands out as the only country house view. The way that the artist inscribed the drawing with the location of the house and the name of its then owner, Edmund Bastard (1758–1816), suggests that Girtin was hoping to attract a commission for a watercolour of Sharpham, though there is no evidence that one was forthcoming. There are a number of country house views by Girtin that are unidentified (such as TG1559), but none of them resemble the three-storey structure shown here. Sharpham House was designed by Sir Robert Taylor (1714–88) for Captain Philomen Pownall (c.1734–80), who made his fortune through the capture of a Spanish galleon, though work was only finished later by his daughter, Jane Pownall (unknown dates), who married Bastard in 1783. A newly completed mansion with a spectacular setting presumably suggested to Girtin that a commission might be forthcoming.
1798 - 1799
An Unidentified House in an Open Landscape
TG1559