- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
- Date
- 1792 - 1793
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 35.1 × 47 cm, 13 ⅞ × 18 ½ in
- Inscription
'Warwick Castle / T Girtin' on the back, not in the artist's hand
- Object Type
- Exhibition Watercolour; Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; The Midlands
-
- Collection
-
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- (1967.17.79)
- Catalogue Number
- TG0168
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 54 as 'Warwick Castle'; '1793'
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue; Gallery Website
Provenance
Walker’s Galleries, London, 1921, £130; Sidney Lovell Phipson (1851–1929); his sale, Anderson Galleries, New York, 15 November 1923, lot 74; George de Batz; bought from him by the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 1967 (then a department of the De Young Museum, San Francisco)
Exhibition History
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
Private Collection
Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection
Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
Private Collection
The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
A Section of the 'Boiling Fountains' (Geysers) and the Surrounding Country, Iceland
Private Collection
The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection
An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Private Collection
Rochester, from the River Medway
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
Private Collection
The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
Untraced Works
An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Westminster Bridge, from the North East
Untraced Works
The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works
The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
Royal Collection Trust (Windsor)
The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
London Metropolitan Archives
The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Untraced Works
A French Lady of Quality in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London
All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
Private Collection
London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, Providence
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, Providence
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, Providence
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries, London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary's Church, Putney High Street
Private Collection
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This view of the Gatehouse and Barbican of Warwick Castle, with Guy’s Tower beyond, is one of eight watercolours sold at Walker’s Galleries in London in 1921 that were said to have been commissioned from the young Girtin and remained in the same family collection for generations (Exhibitions: Walker’s Galleries, 1921). The group included views of Chepstow Castle (TG0170), Hereford Cathedral (TG0070), Lindisfarne Priory (TG0210), Warkworth Castle (TG0177) and Vale Crucis Abbey (TG0208), none of which the young Girtin could have visited, and most, if not all, seem to have been made after compositions by his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804), around 1792–93. The evidence that this work was copied after another artist is particularly compelling and it centres on the problems Girtin had with the depiction of a building he had not seen. For instance, the slightly projecting towers flanking the Barbican should be hexagonal and not square, and Guy’s Tower, to the right, is far too far forward; it is part of the castle’s outer walls and is actually about thirty metres away from the gatehouse. Such inaccuracies are not without their benefits, however, as a comparison with Giovanni Antonio Canale’s (Canaletto) (1697–1768) famous but more literal view of the east front of the castle illustrates. The close and oblique viewpoint adopted by Girtin for his composition creates a more dramatic effect where the trees and bushes that dominate the foreground appear ready to take over the structure. The encroaching vegetation actually obscures the bridge over the dry moat surrounding the castle, enhancing the impression that the building is cut off from the outside world, something that the shadowy figures in the foreground do nothing to undermine.
Dayes certainly visited Warwick and one of his views of the castle was engraved for The Copper-Plate Magazine in 1797 (Walker, 1792–1802), but a prototype of this composition has not been traced amongst his works. This is not unusual in that it was often his lost on-the-spot sketches that provided Girtin with his models; however, uniquely amongst the group of watercolours sold in 1921, there is a possibility that this work was made after another artist. An aquatint titled The Entrance of Warwick Castle from the Lower Court (see figure 1), published by Paul Sandby (c.1730–1809) in 1776, shows the same view, albeit with much less vegetation, and it is possible that Girtin adopted this composition. It is more likely, however, that the print influenced an amateur artist such as James Moore (1762–99) to take up the same viewpoint and that Girtin worked from one of the sketches made by his early patron that has not been traced. Certainly, Girtin’s composition lacks the clear lucidity of parts that characterises Dayes’ compositions, with their generally unerring perspective, and the fact that Moore provided the model for Girtin’s first exhibit at the Royal Academy, Ely Cathedral, from the South East (TG0202), supports the possibility that Girtin worked from his sketch in this case as well. Girtin actually showed a view of Warwick Castle at the Academy exhibition in 1795, but this work, together with the rest of the Walker’s Galleries group, dates stylistically from around 1792–93 and it cannot therefore have been an outcome of the tour of the Midlands that he undertook with Moore in the summer of 1794.
1792 - 1793
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
TG0170
1792 - 1793
Hereford Cathedral
TG0070
1792 - 1793
Lindisfarne Priory Church, Looking West from the Choir
TG0210
1792 - 1793
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
TG0177
1792 - 1793
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
TG0208
(?) 1794
Ely Cathedral, from the South East
TG0202