- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- (?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
- Date
- 1791 - 1792
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 26.7 × 39.7 cm, 10 ½ × 15 ⅝ in
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; Shropshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0023
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 55 as 'Buildwas Abbey' by Thomas Girtin; 'c. 1793'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001; Gallery Website as by Edward Dayes
Provenance
James Moore (1762–99); his widow, Mary Moore (née Howett) (d.1835); bequeathed to Anne Miller (1802–90); bequeathed to Edward Mansel Miller (1829–1912); bequeathed to Helen Louisa Miller (1842–1915); bought by Leggatt Brothers, London, 1915, £35, as by Thomas Girtin; ... Fine Art Society, London, 1965; bought by Paul Mellon (1907–99); presented to the Center, 1975
Exhibition History
New Haven, 1982, III.8, as by Edward Dayes; New Haven, 1986a, no.123 as ’Formerly Attributed to Thomas Girtin’
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 Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
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
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'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
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'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
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
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 Museums & 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, The 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 of 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
The view from the interior of the nave of the ruined abbey church at Buildwas, looking towards the east end, was catalogued by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak as by Girtin (Girtin and Loshak, 1954). They argued that it was based on a composition by Edward Dayes (1763–1804) that was known from an untraced watercolour that appeared on the art market in 1952 (Christie’s, 14 March 1952, lot 221). However, the attribution of The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church was changed to Dayes after the work entered the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, and Susan Morris accepted this with the proviso that the figures could ‘possibly’ be ‘by Girtin and the background by Dayes’ (Morris, 1986, p.51). The publication of an on-the-spot colour sketch of the interior of the abbey church (figure 1), which Dayes inscribed on the back, has confirmed that the watercolour was based on a composition by Girtin’s master, though to my mind it has not conclusively established him as the author of this finished studio work (Consagra, 1999, pp.9–10).
Figure 1.
Edward Dayes (1763–1804), The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church, graphite and watercolour on paper, 22.2 × 48.3 cm, 8 ¾ × 19 in. Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Gift of Matthew Vassar (1864.1.235).
Digital image courtesy of Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (All Rights Reserved).
The key to the attribution may lie, as Morris suggests, with the figure and the farm animals in the foreground, which, characteristically for Girtin, are rapidly dashed in with bold lines defining the forms against the ground colour. Given that it is inconceivable that an established artist would allow his apprentice to add figures to a finished composition – and Dayes was more than competent in that area himself – it is more probable that Girtin was able by the end of his apprenticeship to replicate his master’s touch in the sky, the foliage, and the treatment of light and shadow on stone, and add his own characteristic approach to figure drawing. Other copies by Girtin of compositions by Dayes were consigned to early auctions by his master, and those watercolours that it has been possible to identify were often carefully signed and sometimes also dated by the young artist. Rochester Castle, from the River Medway (TG0057) is signed on its original mount and it may be that The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church was likewise inscribed on a decorative support that was later discarded. That would explain why earlier commentators were so confident about the attribution to Girtin despite the fact that it displays the closest of stylistic debts to Dayes in every area except for the figures. Girtin’s other view of Buildwas (TG0136) is after the sketch of the amateur artist James Moore (1762–99) and is much smaller. In contrast, the larger size, the greater care taken over the finish of the work and the more sophisticated composition are all characteristic features of the versions of Dayes’ watercolours that Dayes himself consigned to auction (such as TG0022), and despite some misgivings this work is perhaps best understood as being produced as a saleable commodity by a student who had matched every aspect of his master’s style
(?) 1791
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
TG0057
1792 - 1793
Buildwas Abbey
TG0136