- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- (?) John Henderson (1764-1843)
- Title
-
- The Gateway of the Bishop's Palace, Wells
- Date
- 1797 - 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper, on an original washline mount
- Dimensions
- 10.2 × 16.3 cm, 4 × 6 ⅜ in
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0925
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 133 as 'The Gateway of Tichfield House, Hampshire (formerly called St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell)' by Thomas Girtin; '1795–6'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
J. Palser & Sons (stock no.17926) as 'Tichfield House'; bought by Francis Henry Hill Guillemard (1852–1933), 16 April 1918 (lent to Cambridge, 1920); bequeathed to the Museum, 1933
Exhibition History
Cambridge, 1920, no.29 as 'Gateway (locality and date uncertain).'
Bibliography
Grundy, 1921b, p.68; Fitzwilliam Museum Online as 'Gateway of Tichfield House' by Thomas Girtin (Accessed 14/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1797 West Country Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
The Ruined Chancel, Netley Abbey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
The Gateway of the Bishop's Palace, Wells
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Southampton
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bursledon Ferry on the River Hamble, near Southampton
Private Collection
The Hamble River, near Southampton
Private Collection
A Cliff-Top View, Probably on the Coast of Dorset
Leeds Art Gallery
The Market Rooms, Weymouth
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Old Bridge, Possibly near Abbotsbury
Private Collection
The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Leeds Art Gallery
Abbotsbury: The Tithe Barn, with a Pond
Private Collection
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Coast of Dorset, with Lyme Regis Below
Private Collection
A Panoramic View near Lyme Regis
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Above Lyme Regis, Looking across Marshwood Vale
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
The Interior of Exeter Cathedral, Looking from the Nave
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter, from Trew’s Weir
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter
Exeter Cathedral, from the South
Koriyama City Museum of Art
On the River Exe, Exeter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Shaldon, Seen from Teignmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear, from Dartmouth
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Kingswear on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Sharpham House on the River Dart
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
Okehampton Castle, from the West Okement River
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Cattle by a River with a Castle Beyond, Probably Okehampton Castle
Private Collection
The Estuary of the River Taw
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wells Cathedral, from the Moat of the Bishop's Palace
Private Collection
St Vincent's Rocks from Nightingale Valley, near Bristol
Private Collection
Bristol Cathedral, from College Green
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Bristol: St Mary Redcliffe, from the Harbour
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Bristol Harbour and St Mary Redcliffe
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Unidentified Estuary, Probably in the West Country
Tate, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly a West-Country Tor
Tate, London
The Marine Barracks at Stonehouse, Plymouth
Private Collection
A House Reflected in the Waters of an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
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About this Work
The attribution of this work to Girtin was questioned by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, who, though they incorrectly titled it ‘The Gateway of Tichfield House, Hampshire’, wisely identified it as being ‘probably by John Henderson’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.133). The watercolour actually depicts the gateway into the cathedral close at Wells in Somerset, and this identification was confirmed during the preparation of this online catalogue by the discovery of a watercolour by William Alexander (1767–1816) of the same view, or at least part of it (see figure 1). Girtin visited Wells in 1797 and sketched the cathedral from the moat of the Bishop’s Palace (TG1283), but Girtin and Loshak’s misgivings about the attribution still ring true and John Henderson (1764–1843) now seems an even stronger candidate as the artist of this work. Relevant here is a copy of a later print of Flint Castle produced from the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1852) (see TG1363 figure 1), which was also said to be by Girtin until near the completion of the preparation of this online catalogue. This is unquestionably by Henderson, and therefore it provides a good yardstick against which to measure the Wells view and another work formerly attributed to Girtin, An Unidentified Village Street with a Church Tower in the Distance (TG1760). Both works, though they have stylistic features in common with Girtin’s practice of around 1797, are compromised by poor perspective and a crude and unvarying use of colour that lacks vitality, and in general the watercolours display many signs of being the work of an amateur, albeit a perfectly competent one.
(?) 1797
Wells Cathedral, from the Moat of the Bishop’s Palace
TG1283
1800 - 1801
An Unidentified Village Street with a Church Tower in the Distance
TG1760