- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour and pen and ink on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 31.9 × 24.6 cm, 12 ½ × 9 ⅝ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin in brown wash (the 'G' has been cut, suggesting that the signature once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Gothic Architecture: Cathedral View; Hertfordshire
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
(TG1035)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1036
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 212ii as 'St. Alban's Cathedral'; '1797'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Possibly bought by Peter Bluett (1767–1843) of Holcombe Court, Devon; then by descent to Peter Frederick Bluett (1806–84); Holcombe Court bought by the Revd William Rayer (1786–1866), 1858; his collection by descent to Revd George Morganig William Thomas Jenkins (1879–1952); acquired by Gooden & Fox Ltd.; presented to Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), 1935; 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
Cambridge, 1920, no.51; Sheffield, 1953, no.46; London, 1962a, no.128; New Haven, 1986a, no.59; London, 2002, no.49 as ’West Front of St Alban’s Abbey, Hertfordshire’
Bibliography
Leeson, 2021, pp.117–18; YCBA Online as 'St. Alban's Cathedral, Hertfordshire' (Accessed 15/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
Private Collection
An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection
Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection
The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection
A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection
A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey, Seen from Green Park and the Queen's Basin
National Gallery of Art, Washington
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection
London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk
Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London
A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection
A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington
The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection
Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection
The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Study of a Woman Reading; A Slight Study of a Seated Woman
Private Collection
Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection
A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection
An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London
A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection
The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
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About this Work
This view of the central porch of the west front of St Albans Abbey is closely based on a pencil drawing that was probably made around 1796 (TG1035), when Girtin was gathering material for a major exhibition watercolour of the interior of the church, The Interior of St Albans Abbey (TG1040). The porch, part of the early thirteenth-century west front, was in a poor condition at the time of Girtin’s visit and it was subsequently rebuilt in the 1880s. Girtin’s drawings have therefore become a valuable historical record of what was lost in the process, though there is an irony in this, since by the date of the watercolour’s completion, perhaps two or three years after the drawing, the artist was more concerned with the patterns made by the play of light on sculptural forms than with carefully noting architectural details. The later date of the watercolour view of the west porch is confirmed by the fact that it is one of ten works by Girtin that were discovered in Holcombe Court in Devon, possibly from the collection of Peter Bluett (1767–1863), all of which date from around 1799–1800 (for example, TG0880 and TG1233), and stylistically, this seems about right for this work too. The crucial point here is that because we know that the watercolour is based on an earlier drawing, and overlaying images of the two works confirms this, it is possible to reinterpret what initially seem to be clear signs that it was coloured on the spot. Thus, the way that the limited number of washes Girtin employed were added in a rapid and fluid manner is actually the result of careful and considered work in the studio, characteristic of a new type of commodity that Girtin pioneered from around 1796. Working from the earlier pencil outline of a part of the building, very different in character from the more formal composition of The Interior of St Albans Abbey, Girtin matched the fragmentary view with a sketch-like and improvised treatment that suggests a scene caught and represented by the speed of the artist’s brushwork, for which there was clearly a market.
In addition to the survival of the detailed pencil drawing on which this pseudo-sketch is based, there is one further sign that the watercolour was carefully worked in the studio. To the left, Girtin’s prominent signature has been cut, suggesting that the drawing was originally surrounded by a washline mount that has subsequently been removed, taking with it the part of the letter ‘G’ that had strayed onto it. It is not just that the artist regarded the mount as an integral part of the watercolour, but also the process of mounting must have preceded its completion, and therefore for practical reasons works such as this could not have been achieved anywhere else but in the studio.
Image Overlay
(?) 1796
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
TG1035
1796
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
TG1040
1800 - 1801
An Imaginary City, with Antique Buildings
TG0880
(?) 1800
Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
TG1233