- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The Beach at Teignmouth
- Date
- (?) 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper (watermark: J WHATMAN)
- Dimensions
- 16.4 × 27 cm, 6 ½ × 10 ½ in
- Inscription
'Teignmouth' on an old border
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Coasts and Shipping; The West Country: Devon and Dorset
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1457
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 203 as 'Teignmouth'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2015
Provenance
Henry Peter Standly (1782–1844); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 16 April 1845, lot 397 as 'a sketch in pencil, of Teignmouth'; bought by 'Palser', 8s; J. Palser & Sons; 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 (1913–94); Sotheby’s, 14 November 1991, lot 109, unsold; his posthumous sale, Sotheby’s, 14 July 1994, lot 107, unsold; Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, 2015, £2, 750; Ewbanks, 25 March 2021, lot 1256, £700
Exhibition History
Guy Peppiatt, London, 2015, no.16
Place depicted
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About this Work
After a stay at Exeter in early November 1797, where Girtin studied views on the river Exe and sketched the city’s medieval monuments, the artist travelled west along the Devon coast, stopping at Teignmouth, twenty kilometres to the south. The old port stands on the north bank of the river Teign, but the focus of Girtin’s view is the town’s growing status as a resort, as we look north along the Promenade with a group of bathing machines on the beach to the right, though the old church of St Michael (which was rebuilt in the nineteenth century) is also visible amongst a group of houses to the left. The drawing was executed at some speed, and one can well imagine that it was taken during a brief break in the journey from Exeter. However, a little later Girtin appears to have gone back to his sketch and worked over it with a sharper piece of graphite to fix the details, and it was possibly at this point that he added a series of notes – ‘w’ for white, ‘b’ for brick and ‘H’ for hut – and it seems that he had a finished watercolour in mind from an early point. Indeed, a small watercolour measuring 10.5 × 14.6 cm (4 ⅛ × 5 ¾ in) was recorded by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak as being for sale at Leggatt Brothers in 1916, though it was not photographed and there is no way of knowing whether it was based on this drawing (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.210). However, it is unlikely that the artist produced more than one drawing of Teignmouth, not least because it also seems to have provided the viewpoint from which he sketched the neighbouring coastal village of Shaldon, an outline that was realised as a more substantial studio work (TG1263).
1797 - 1798
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
TG1263