- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The Summer House in the Garden of Samuel Wood at Southgate
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour and bodycolour on wove paper, on an original mount (watermark: J WHATMAN)
- Dimensions
- 21.3 × 18 cm, 8 ⅜ × 7 ⅛ in
- Mount Dimensions
- 22.1 × 18.7 cm, 8 ⅝ × 7 ⅜ in
- Inscription
'In the garden of Mr. Samuel Wood, about 1794', on the back; ‘Summer House / at / Southgate / Rebecca Dales / in foreground’ on an old label
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- London and Environs; The Smaller House and Garden
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0323
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 123 as 'Summer-House in a Garden at Southgate'; '1795'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
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 the Museum, 1916, £10 10s
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, p.99; Brown, 1982, p.333, no.725
Place depicted
Other entries in Edward Lascelles and Harewood, Together with Other Houses of the Gentry
The Summer House in the Garden of Samuel Wood at Southgate
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Alnwick Castle, from Brizlee
Private Collection, Northumberland
Ships in a Harbour, Possibly at Bristol
Harewood House, Yorkshire
An Estuary Scene, Probably in the West Country
Harewood House, Yorkshire
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
A Circular Temple, Said to Be in Harewood Park
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Lake Scene with Cattle, Said to Be in Harewood Park
Private Collection
A Close View of Harewood House, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Harewood House, from the South West
Harewood House, Yorkshire
Harewood House, from the South East
Harewood House, Yorkshire
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
Toledo Museum of Art
Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
On the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A Reconstruction of the Elizabethan Wing of Moreton Corbet Castle
Private Collection
A Reconstruction of Moreton Corbet Castle, from the West
Private Collection
A Landscape with an Unidentified House
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
An Unidentified House in an Open Landscape
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
An Unidentified Small Country House or Lodge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The North Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from the Lake
Private Collection
The South Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from across the Lawn
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The South Front of Chalfont Lodge, Seen from across the Lawn
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Chalfont House, from the North East, with Fishermen Netting the Broadwater
Private Collection, Herefordshire
Chalfont House, from the North West
Private Collection, Herefordshire
Melville Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Distant View of Arundel Castle, from the South
Private Collection, Sussex
A Lake Surrounded by Trees, Known as 'The Silent Pool'
Private Collection
A Lake Scene with Two Herons, Possibly in Cassiobury Park
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Hatfield House, from the South East
British Museum, London
A House and Garden at Winster in Derbyshire
British Museum, London
A House at Winster
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Unidentified Georgian House, Said to Be Lobes Hill in Shropshire
Private Collection
A Distant View of a Castle, Said to Be Lowther in Westmorland
Private Collection
An Ornamental Ruin in a Park; A Tree on a Mound
British Museum, London
A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East
The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Jedburgh from the River, with the Abbey Beyond
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Footnotes
- 1 The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol.64, part 2, October 1794, p.966
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About this Work
It is fortunate that this watercolour has been inscribed with the details of the subject for otherwise it would have been impossible to identify the modest summer house depicted by Girtin. Samuel Wood (1704–94) was a prosperous goldsmith whose granddaughter, Mary Howett (d.1835), married Girtin’s earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99) in 1786. It was Moore who presumably commissioned this watercolour. Southgate was then a small village, located about fifteen kilometres from the centre of London, from where Wood was said, even in the ‘last two years of his life … to ride on horseback to town, every week, to transact business at Goldsmith’s-hall, being the father and oldest member of that company’.1 Other than the family connection, Moore’s motive in commissioning a view of a corner of Wood’s garden is not known, though it may be linked to the woman shown in the foreground, who is noted in an old label as ‘Rebbeca Dales’, though she remains unidentified.
Given that so many of Moore’s commissions to Girtin were worked from the patron’s own amateurish sketches, it is unlikely that the artist made the journey to Southgate himself. The watercolour has faded badly, in contrast to the bulk of the drawings Girtin made for Moore, suggesting that as an object of personal significance it may have been framed for display by the patron. The work’s poor condition makes dating it difficult, but I suspect that it was probably made a year or so after Wood’s death, perhaps around 1795–96, and that it therefore had a quasi-memorial function.