- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
- Date
- 1800 - 1801
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 28.3 × 41.8 cm, 11 ⅛ × 16 ½ in
- Inscription
'Plinlimmon - North Wales / T. Girtin' on a label on the back, in a later hand
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Hills and Mountains; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1686
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 487 as 'Storiths Heights, Bolton (Generally known as Plinlimmon)'; '1802'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2002
Provenance
Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–74); then by descent to George Wyndham Hog Girtin (1835–1911) (lent to London, 1877); by a settlement to his sister, Julia Hog Cooper (née Girtin) (1839–1904); her sale, Davis, Castleton, Sherborne, 2 December 1884, lot 55 as 'Unfinished sketch, “Plynlimmon”'; Thomas Girtin (1874–1960); given to Tom Girtin (1913–94), c.1938; accepted by H. M. Governement in lieu of Inheritance Tax, and allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1997
Exhibition History
London, 1877, no.315 as ’Plynlemmon’; Norwich, 1903, no.55; London, 1906, no.98; Grafton Galleries, London, 1911, no.179; Cambridge, 1920, no.44 as ’Plinlimmon’; London, 1934b, no.751; Leeds, 1937, no.21; New Haven, 1950, not in the catalogue; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.32 as ’Plynlimmon’; Leeds, 1958, no.58; London, 1959, no.724; London, 1962a, no.163 as ’Storiths Heights, Bolton’; Reading, 1969, no.54; Paris, 1972, no.132; Manchester, 1975, no.102 as ’Storiths Heights, Wharfedale, Yorkshire’; Hamburg, 1976, no.328; Manchester, 1983, no.27; London, 1993, no.153; London, 2002, no.171 as ’Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire’; Cambridge, 2015, p.45
Bibliography
Binyon, 1900, pl.11; Sparrow, 1902, p.91; Finberg and Taylor, 1917–18, p.14; Grundy, 1921b, pp.69–70; Binyon, 1931, p.112; Johnson, 1932, p.146; Binyon, 1933, p.105, p.107; Binyon, 1939, p.7; Binyon, 1944, p.94; Mayne, 1949, pp.65–66, p.104; Hughes and Mayne, 1950, pl.17; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.90–92; Lemaître, 1955, pp.192–93; Girtin, 1962, p.130; Louden, 1969, pp.90–97; Wilton, 1977, p.32, p.188; Morris, 1987a, p.55; Wilton and Lyles, 1993, p.177
Place depicted
Other entries in Late Watercolours:
Samuel William Reynolds and Painting for the Art Market

An Imaginary City, with Antique Buildings
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Ancient Ruins, with an Obelisk
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Ancient Ruins, with a Gothic Church
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

A Classical Composition, with a Church and Column
Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool

The Arch of Janus, Rome
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Temple of Clitumnus
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Rome: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Rome: The Temple of Saturn, with the Arch of Septimius Severus
Private Collection

A Town on an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

A Lagoon Capriccio
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

An Unidentified Coastal Landscape with a Windmill
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Lindisfarne Priory, Northumberland (English Heritage)

Kelso Abbey: The West Front
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
The Higgins, Bedford

On the River Medway, with a Boatyard, Beached Vessels and Hulks
Private Collection

Bisham Abbey, on the River Thames
Private Collection

A Classical Composition, with Figures Admiring the Sculptures
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

An Unidentified Ruin next to a Bridge over a Stream, Said to Be Furness Abbey
Touchstones Rochdale

The Gatehouse of Morpeth Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
British Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill
British Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Bridge, Morning
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the Canal, Evening
Private Collection

A Distant View of Kirkstall Abbey
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead

An Unidentified Scene, Formerly Known as ‘Kirkstall Village’
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
British Museum, London

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
Leeds Art Gallery

Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

York: The New Walk on the Banks of the River Ouse
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
Private Collection

York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Private Collection

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Courtauld Gallery, London

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Leeds Art Gallery

Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection

Ripon Minster, from the South East
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Ripon Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Mountain Stream in Spate, Possibly the River Wharfe
Private Collection

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church from across the River Wharfe
Eton College, Windsor

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
Leeds Art Gallery

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection

The Banks of the River Wharfe, with Bolton Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Richmond Castle, from the River Swale
Leeds Art Gallery

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham'
British Museum, London

An Ancient Oak, Said to Be on the River Ure
Private Collection

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection, Norfolk

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End
Tate, London

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory; The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
Private Collection, Norfolk

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Upland Landscape, Said to Show Etal Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The River Tweed at Kelso, Looking Upstream
Courtauld Gallery, London

The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey, with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Private Collection

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

Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Village of Jedburgh
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Southampton: The South Gate and Old Gaol
Private Collection

Bristol Harbour, with St Mary Redcliffe in the Distance
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Art Institute of Chicago

A Rainbow over the River Exe
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

A Rainbow over the River Exe
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

A Rainbow over the River Exe
Graves Gallery, Sheffield

Lydford Castle, from the River Lyd
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

St Vincent’s Rocks and the Avon Gorge
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

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National Gallery of Art, Washington

Conwy Castle, from the River Gyffin
Private Collection, Norfolk

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)
Tate, London

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
Private Collection, Norfolk

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Private Collection

Landscape with a Distant Ridge, Possibly Hampstead Heath
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington
British Museum, London

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British Museum, London

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British Museum, London

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Museum of New Zealand, Wellington

A Farmyard with Cattle, Poultry and Labourers Unloading Hay, Possibly Pinkney's Farm, Wimbish
Art Institute of Chicago

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Aberdeen Art Gallery

An Unidentified Village Street with a Church Tower in the Distance
British Museum, London

A Panoramic Landscape, Possibly Showing Primrose Hill, London
Private Collection

Unidentified Landscape with a Distant Rain Shower
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

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Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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About this Work
This engaging watercolour was for a long time thought to represent ‘Plinlimmon’ in Wales, but Girtin did not visit the location, and shortly before the publication of Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak’s catalogue in 1954 it was identified by a local collector as showing the moorland and hills above Storiths, near Bolton Abbey (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.90). This certainly seems plausible given the way in which Girtin explored the landscape, both in the immediate vicinity of the ruins and further afield in Wharfedale, but initially, at least, the topographical elements included in the view did not appear specific enough to prove the identification beyond reasonable doubt. This is not the only uncertainty surrounding a work that Girtin and Loshak described as ‘amazing’ and as one of the crowning achievements (if not the most important) of the artist’s career. Thus, not only is it unclear whether it is a late studio work or a sketch made on the spot, but there has also been some dispute as to whether it was finished or left incomplete at the artist’s death in November 1802, and was therefore his last work. The notion that this was a very late studio work was elaborated at length by Girtin and Loshak, who suggested that the newly identified view of Storiths Heights represents a balance between Girtin’s skill as a naturalistic artist whose ‘subtleties of atmosphere and aerial perspective’ could capture the effect of a ‘wet moorland mist’, but whose personal expression of his hankering ‘for the loneliness of boundless spaces’ was symptomatic of his realisation ‘that death was not far off’. All of this was wrapped up by the two authors in a complex formalist reading of the ‘endless refinements of composition’ displayed in a composition where the ‘very anonymity of the scene’ allowed the artist to focus on its basic elements and ‘manipulate lines and shapes’, free from any descriptive function, and thus produce a work of ‘abstract character’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.90–92). Their thesis is attractive because it fits neatly with the myth of the romantic artist who dies young. However, as Andrew Wilton has argued, it ignores some details, such as the foreground, which, rather than being a ‘masterstroke of calculated obscurity’, was, he thought, simply left unfinished at Girtin’s death. According to Wilton’s reading, the work would have gained a ‘greater circumstantial concreteness’ if finished, though whether the imagination would have had such free rein to recreate the grandeur of a ‘wild north country scene’ is questionable (Wilton, 1977, p.188).
Wilton’s seems a more credible reading of the effect of the work; however, as I suggested in 2002 in the catalogue to Girtin’s bicentenary exhibition, the state of the foreground arguably resembles that found in on-the-spot sketches such as A View of Hills and a River (TG1336), so it may be that the work is incomplete only in the sense that a sketch includes just what is necessary to realise the artist’s purpose (Smith, 2002b, p.222). The idea that this is an on-the-spot sketch, dating from around 1800, is strengthened by the work’s limited palette, though how that might have been affected by the fact that the watercolour has almost certainly faded is not clear. However, thinking again about the issue twenty years later, it strikes me that whilst I am still confident that this was not Girtin’s last work, interrupted by death, and that any personal meanings it may have had are frankly unknowable and tell us more about our own times and preoccupations, the idea that this is an on-the-spot sketch may equally be unprovable. Indeed, that is what I now see as the key to the work’s significance: namely, Girtin’s success in closing the gap between the sketch and the studio work will inevitably throw up examples of works that, perhaps due to changes in their condition, means that their status cannot be definitively resolved, and as cataloguers and viewers we have to accept uncertainty as a defining characteristic of the artist’s contribution to the art of watercolour. But, just for the record, my current thinking on the status and the subject of the work can be summarised as follows. In the first instance, I now think that the sky is just too carefully refined for an on-the-spot sketch and I therefore describe the work as a faded studio watercolour, produced in the smaller of the standard sizes that Girtin supplied to Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835), who acted on behalf of the artist in his final years in a role somewhere between agent and dealer. And, on the question of the subject of the work, my rediscovery of a photograph taken by Tom Girtin (1913–94) along the river Wharfe between Bolton Abbey and Bolton Bridge has finally convinced me that we are indeed looking at a view of the hill above and beyond the hamlet of Storiths to the north east (see figure 1). As Tom Girtin noted on his photograph, the artist certainly 'made something out of nothing', enhancing the feeling of isolation to dramatic effect, but the image also suggests that Girtin faithfully records the way that the Wharfe appears to disapear out of view as the bank at this point slopes upwards so that what initially appears in the watercolour to be a small body of water is revealed to be a river (Girtin Archive, 35). And knowing that the flat area of earth colour in the foreground represents a grassy riverbank, in turn, confirms my original suspicion that what we are looking at is a very faded and discoloured work and not therefore an unfinished on-the-spot sketch. Girtin, it seems, used two different blue pigments, one for the river and another fugitive one for the green of the grass and this, combined with the use of an evanescent yellow, is enough to account for the overwarm foreground much as is the case with a nearby view, Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe (TG1685).
(?) 1798
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
TG1336
1800 - 1801
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
TG1685