- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
- Date
- (?) 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 11.5 × 32.5 cm, 4 ½ × 12 ¾ in
- Inscription
‘Jedborough Scotd T. Girtin 1795' lower left, by Thomas Girtin; 'XII’ lower left, in another hand
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Panoramic Format; The Scottish Borders; The Village
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1228
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 166i as 'The Village of Jedburgh, Roxburgh'; 'The only precisely dated Girtin study known'; 'Oct. 11 1796.'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
Robert Jackson (dealer, active 1876–98); bought from him, 1889
Exhibition History
Nottingham, 1988, no.33
Bibliography
Binyon, 1898–1907, no.63; Bell, 1915–17, p.71; Davies, 1924, p.20; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.32; Morris, 1986, p.15; Smith, 2002b, p.66
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours

Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside, Northumberland (National Trust)

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery

York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection, Yorkshire

York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire

The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London

Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire

A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London

Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham

Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, University of Manchester

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; An Unidentified Hilly Landscape
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne
Private Collection

Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art

Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection

A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds Art Gallery

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works

Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, University of Manchester

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection, Yorkshire

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley

Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum

Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection

Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire

The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London

Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)

The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Private Collection

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection

An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works

York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 The financial records of the artist's brother John Girtin (1773–1821) include numerous loans made to Thomas. The records are transcribed in full in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
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About this Work
This panoramic view of Jedburgh seen from Castle Hill, with the ruined abbey to the right, is amongst the most significant of Girtin’s drawings, providing key documentation for the artist’s first independent sketching tour as well as constituting the first example of his use of an extended, panoramic composition. Moreover, as the pencil drawing is the basis of two major studio watercolours, one dating from around 1797 (TG1229) and other from 1800 (TG1725), careful examination of it and its relationship to the finished works reveals important changes in the artist’s working practice.
To take the issue of dating first, it turns out that the drawing, together with its inscription, is not the straightforward document that earlier writers suggested. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, for instance, noted that the trip to the north of England and the Scottish Borders was ‘proved by a pencil drawing … signed Jedburgh Sctod. T. Girtin 1796’ and they interpreted the next part of the inscription, ‘XII’, to mean that the work was produced on ‘Oct. 11’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.32 and 157). Susan Morris followed this line, saying that the artist presumably returned ‘home swiftly’ after, ‘before the severe northern winter set in’ (Morris, 1986, p.15). The trouble with this is that the date inscribed is ambiguous at best, and if I did not know that Girtin travelled north in 1796 I am sure I would have read the ‘6’ as a ‘5’. Then there is the ‘XII’, which to my eye looks to be by another hand and bears no relation to the format of the dates that Girtin inscribed on any other drawing. In other words, I think there is no evidence that Girtin’s journey north took place outside the common touring period in the summer months, and, whilst I am sure that the trip did take place in 1796, it may be that the artist inscribed the drawing at a later point, perhaps in the process of selling it to a collector, and he simply misremembered the details of its production. Moreover, this interpretation has been confirmed by the recent discovery of a note from the artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), which records that on ‘Octr 11th’ he ‘Lent [Girtin] to pay his Rent at Mr Hollands 5. 5.’, which would have required the artist’s presence in London on that date (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1
There is no such ambiguity about the drawing’s significance as the first clear example of Girtin adopting a panoramic format when sketching from nature, and, although the addition of more sky and foreground in the first of the studio watercolours he produced around 1797 changes the proportions somewhat, the work still covers almost twice the width of vision of the artist’s standard landscape view. The drawing, amounting to a double-page spread of a sketchbook, was no doubt inspired by the experience of climbing up Castle Hill and seeing the view open out, in contrast to the near views of the abbey, which he took from the terraces below the building. The viewpoint recalls the town prospects – wide-angled views from an elevated position – of an earlier tradition of topographical art, and was therefore well equipped to capture what Girtin’s later patron John Stoddart (1773–1856) described as a scene full of ‘beauty’ and variety, ‘including the vale, with the town, the wandering river, the rising grounds of Stewartfield, and the distant hills’ (Stoddart, 1801, vol.2, p.283).
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the drawing actually relates to its later history, because after the artist used it to make the first of his watercolours of the composition, he took it up a second time when executing one of the large groups of drawings he made around 1800 for sale through Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835), who, in his capacity as the artist’s representative, acted somewhere between an agent and a dealer at this date (TG1725). In contrast to the earlier watercolour, which repeats the full extent of the panoramic view, the later work cuts the composition to the right, thus omitting the abbey ruins, which had hitherto been the main focus. With this in mind, it is clear that the three vertical folds visible in the paper were made by Girtin as a way of trying out two alternatives to the panoramic composition of TG1229. The central fold thus accords with the layout employed in the watercolour dated 1800, whilst the first and third folds, cutting the line of the buildings to the left and excluding all but a part of the nave of the abbey to the right, represent a different way of adapting the composition that did not find favour with the artist.
1797 - 1798
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
TG1229
1800
The Village of Jedburgh
TG1725
1800
The Village of Jedburgh
TG1725
1797 - 1798
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
TG1229