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Works (?) Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) John Robert Cozens

The Reichenbach Falls

1794 - 1797

Primary Image: TG0475a: (?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752–97), The Reichenbach Falls, 1794–97, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 37.5 × 23.5 cm, 14 ¾ × 9 ¼ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum

Description
Creator(s)
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) John Robert Cozens (1752-1797)
Title
  • The Reichenbach Falls
Date
1794 - 1797
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
37.5 × 23.5 cm, 14 ¾ × 9 ¼ in
Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy; Work from a Known Source: Contemporary British
Subject Terms
Swiss View; Waterfall Scenery

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0475a
Description Source(s)
Viewed in December 2024

Provenance

Hubert Lavre Butler (1858-1937); Charles Hubert Archibald Butler (1901–74); Hubert Arthur James Butler (1937–2016); then by descent; Bonhams, 4 December 2024, lot 24 as by Joseph Mallord William Turner, £12,800

About this Work

This view of the lower part of the famous falls of the Reichenbach displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here they were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1

Chûte du Ruisseau dit Reichenbach, dans la Vallée Haßli, en Suisse

This scene, one of eight Monro School views of the Reichenbach Falls, was in all likelihood copied from a composition by John Robert Cozens (1752–97) though unlike the other depictions of the celebrated falls the source has not been traced. It is possible, however, that the work combines elements taken from two compositions by Cozens that were used by Girtin as the basis for TG0469 and TG0474. What is now abundantly clear is that Monro had at this date little or no access to Cozens’ finished watercolours, and the Monro School views of the falls were copied either from on-the-spot drawings made in September 1776 or one of the tracings the artist was in the habit of producing from his own compositions. Cozens’ sketches from 1776 have not survived, but they were probably little more than summary outlines, and that would explain why, though the Monro School copies are roughly the same size as the Cozens watercolours, they often differ radically in the distribution of light on the rocks and the vegetation, something which would have been a matter of interpretation for an artist working from a simple line drawing. All but one of the Reichenbach views adopt, as with this work, an upright or square format and this was also typically the case with the numerous prints and drawings by contemporary artists that depict the lower part of the falls (see figure 1). The Monro School drawing, however, differs from a characteristic view of the time in that it dispenses with a foreground featuring the riverside and instead places the viewer on a level with the falls to create an altogether more immersive experience. Whether this was also a feature of Girtin’s source material or if he omitted the river in order to heighten the composition’s drama is not clear.

Establishing the division of labour within a Monro School drawing is considerably helped when the colour washes leave a significant amount of the pencil work showing clearly. In this instance, although the nature of the subject did not require detailed pencil work, Girtin’s hand is arguably still apparent under Turner’s economical use of a simple palette of greys and blues, suggesingt that the work was again the product of the collaborative process described by the two artists to Farington in 1798. Girtin’s employment at Monro’s house may have on occasion been no more than a mechanical chore, but in the longer term it provided a repertoire of compositions that equipped him to depict sublime scenery such as The Ogwen Falls (TG1330), whilst it prepared Turner for his first trip to the Continent, where in 1802 he was able to sketch the Reichenbach Falls for himself (Courtauld Gallery, London, D.1974.STC.8).

1794 - 1797

Second View on the Reichenbach Falls, near Meiringen, in the Valley of Oberhasli

TG0469

1794 - 1797

The Reichenbach Falls, the Eighth View

TG0474

1798 - 1799

The Ogwen Falls

TG1330

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

Footnotes

  1. 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – Item 2).

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