- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and George Morland (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- The Earth Stopper
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Animal Study
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0875
- Description Source(s)
- The original known only from the print
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 collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary George Morland (1763–1804) is known only from a poor-quality anonymous etching that was published in The Sporting Magazine in 1805 with the inscription ‘The figures by Morland, Landscape by Girtin’ (see print after TG0875). Although there is no other evidence of either the form the original work took or how and why the artists worked together, there is no reason to doubt the claim that the lost drawing was the result of a collaboration. Early sales of Girtin’s works thus included ‘Sheep in a Landscape’, said to be ‘A fine specimen of these two great Masters united’ (Henry Jeffrey, Salisbury, 1 May 1809, lot 139), and ‘Morning and Evening’, said to be ‘Most spirited unrecorded Etchings by Morland, the colouring executed by Girtin, as drawings’ (Sotheby’s, 13 February 1896, lot 106), though no trace of either of these items has been found. Girtin and Morland were also linked together in some of the earliest biographical accounts of the artist (Pyne, 1832a, pp.315–16), and a number of the former’s watercolours (such as TG0122 and TG0874) copy details from the older man’s compositions, whilst Dogs Hesitating about the Pluck (TG0874) appears to have reproduced a lost Morland painting (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.25). Furthermore, two other drawings by Girtin ‘after Morland’ were sold from the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (Christie’s, 23 March 1804, lot 100).
Given all of this, it is perhaps wise to look at Girtin’s watercolours for other signs of collaboration beyond the most famous example of his work with Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Monro. So far this has proved fruitless, though the late Andrew Wyld did draw my attention to a watercolour view of a coastal scene attributed to Morland in the collection of the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, which he thought showed signs of being co-authored by Girtin. So far it has not been possible to check this possibility, though my initial impressions are that, if anything, the work may in fact be by Girtin alone.
1798 - 1799
The Earth Stopper
TG0875
1792 - 1793
Helmsley Castle
TG0122
1796 - 1797
Dogs Hesitating about the Pluck
TG0874
1796 - 1797
Dogs Hesitating about the Pluck
TG0874