- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Samuel Howitt (1756-1822)
- Title
-
- Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour and pen and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- 22.9 × 30.2 cm, 9 × 11 ⅞ in
- Inscription
‘Howitt’ lower right; ‘Howitt / Girtin’ lower left
- Object Type
- Collaborations; Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Animal Study; The Landscape Park; Windsor and Environs
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1373
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue
Provenance
John Bannister (1760–1836); his posthumous sale, Foster's, 28 March 1849, lot 53 as 'A pair of Views in Windsor Great Park with deer' by Samuel Howitt and Thomas Girtin, £4 14s 6d; ... Christie’s, 9 July 1985, lot 91, £1,836
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
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 unusual collaboration between Girtin and the animal painter Samuel Howitt (1756–1822), his older contemporary, is one of a pair of views that shows herds of deer in Windsor Great Park and Richmond Park (the other being TG1374). The watercolours, which are signed by both artists, are marked by a strict division of labour, with Girtin producing the landscape and Howitt painting the animals. Both works are only known through black and white photographs, and it is therefore not possible to say how the two artists worked – that is, whether Girtin began by producing a landscape leaving gaps for Howitt to add in the animals or whether, instead, Howitt initiated the process, with Girtin improvising the landscape around the forms of the deer. The latter option seems the more likely as, although the castle in the distance here is recognisably that of Windsor, there is nothing in the landscape to suggest that the work was based on an on-the-spot sketch – and, indeed, Girtin’s contribution would seem to predate, on stylistic grounds, the artist’s possible visit to the site around 1797–98. The likeliest scenario, therefore, is that the young Girtin was employed around 1795–96 by Howitt to add a landscape to a study of stags fighting, and that he included a view of Windsor from a secondary source, together with a generalised piece of forestry scenery. Howitt’s deer may have been the result of the diligent work of a specialist animal painter, but there is no evidence that they were the direct result of studies made on the spot either, and the scene as a whole is no more than a confection based on the association of Windsor Great Park with the ancient royal hunting grounds.
1795 - 1796
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
TG1374