This watercolour showing the interior of the Great Hall at Eltham, south London, looking towards the west end is based on a detailed pencil drawing made on the spot around 1794 (TG1382). The artist preserves the rich array of architectural detail in the watercolour, but, in comparison with another interior view of the hall (TG0319), he also details the ways in which the interior was transformed by its use as a barn following the demolition of the remainder of the royal palace in the seventeenth century. Thus, the floor is littered with agricultural implements, a ladder leans against the wall to the left, a sizeable haystack obscures part of the window to the right and the contents of a hay cart are shown in the distance. The light shining through an obscured doorway to the left, which illuminates the farmer in his labours, comes through an opening that had been created under the Gothic oriel windows to allow access for farm wagons. The side windows were presumably blocked up at the same time, but some light enters through their upper parts and in this way, and also via the sun shining through the doorway, the artist was further able to transform the carefully detailed architectural forms shown in the drawing by creating a dramatic contrast of light and dark with the more distant parts of the hammerbeam roof receding into a deep gloom and the highlights on the pendant bosses to the left shining brightly. Other areas left blank in the drawing, such as the back wall and the pile of straw in front, are transformed into abstract shapes and patterns, whilst what appears to be a large pile of straw to the left assumes an ugly formless mass in a much darker foreground where objects are generally lost in the gloom.

Although there is no clear documentary evidence that the watercolour was commissioned by Girtin’s first patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), it is likely that an order from him encouraged the artist to produce the labour-intensive, highly detailed and carefully worked drawing of the Great Hall that underpins this watercolour. Moore also seems to have been the first owner of another view of the building (TG0319), and he himself made sketches of what was commonly known as King John’s Palace. The title that has hitherto been used for this drawing refers to the time when John II of France was held captive at Eltham by Edward III, long before the Great Hall was built in 1475–79. Comparing this dramatic view of the interior with the other more sober and carefully detailed watercolour linked to Moore, however, suggests that the work under consideration here was produced at a later date, perhaps even after the 1796 proposed by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, and that it is evidence of Girtin’s increasing independence from the antiquarian market (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.153).

There is another complicating factor at work here. In his 1979 catalogue of the watercolours of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Andrew Wilton rejected Girtin and Loshak's attribution of this work and another interior view of the Great Hall (TG1384), which is also based on the pencil drawing catalogued here, and suggested that they were painted by Girtin’s great contemporary (Wilton, 1979, p.301). Although the case for the attribution of the more sober version of the composition to Turner has a deal to recommend it, both the pencil drawing and this watercolour appear to me to be by Girtin. Any element of doubt, either way, is perhaps inevitable with two artists who worked alongside each other at a critical juncture of their development and whose works, for a short period at least, could be indistinguishable. That said, it must be admitted that I have not yet seen this watercolour, or the pencil sketch on which it is based, and that my views on the matter may well change in the future.

1794 - 1795

The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace

TG1382

1794 - 1795

The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace

TG0319

1794 - 1795

The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace

TG0319

1794 - 1795

The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace

TG1384