This view of the west front of Peterborough Cathedral, shown from close to the north-west tower, is one of four watercolours (the others being TG1017, TG1018 and TG1020) that Girtin made after a detailed pencil sketch (TG1014), as well as another monochrome study (TG1016), that were both executed on his first significant trip outside London. The tour through the Midland counties, in the summer of 1794, was organised by the artist’s earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), who accompanied Girtin to Lincoln, Southwell, Lichfield, as well as Peterborough, so that his young protégé might sketch at first hand a group of the nation’s finest Gothic buildings. One of the two dated versions of this composition was produced for Moore himself in 1794 (TG1017), and later Girtin produced a fourth, larger watercolour (TG1020), which cuts the tower to the left to increase the work’s dramatic impact. This version, which is very close in almost all respects to the two watercolours dated 1794 (TG1018), differs only in a slight variation in the figures, and, because of its more expansive foreground, it is a little taller. But a ruled line about 2.5 cm (1 in) from the bottom suggests that the artist had in mind to crop the composition, which would have brought the building closer to the viewer, as in the watercolours dated 1794.

The watercolour, as with the two dated versions of the Peterborough view, follows the original form of the outline drawing (TG1015), before the substitution of an alternative detail of the north-west tower, with an extra row of arcades added in (TG1014). Overlaying images of each of the three earliest watercolours (TG1017, TG1018 and TG1019) of the west front on top of the outline drawing shows just how closely the artist followed his original on-the-spot sketch, though the two dated works expand the composition laterally. The fact that this watercolour is closer to Girtin’s outline drawing does not mean that he necessarily traced it as the first stage in its production, however, since making accurate freehand copies would have been one of the key skills instilled in the artist during his apprenticeship and the overlay shows that even here the artist made subtle changes to enhance the facade’s monumental character. But it does suggest that, despite the lack of a date, this may have been the earliest of the four versions, and that the ruled line to the bottom indicates an unhappiness with the composition that the artist went on to correct. Whatever the case, the fact that the watercolour is closer to the pencil drawing runs counter to the suggestion by Michael Kitson that it was not by Girtin himself but was copied from one of the other versions by an unknown artist (Kitson, 1975, p.257). Moreover, the attribution to Girtin is further confirmed by the analysis of the support used. The paper historian Peter Bower has noted that it is painted on a cream wove large post writing paper made by the Balston and Hollingworth Brothers Partnership at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent, and that it came from the same batch used by Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of their significant early patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (see, for example, TG0659) (Smith, 2002b, p.98; Bower, Report). Nothing is known about the work’s early provenance, but it is possible that it came from Monro’s collection, and, indeed, that it was produced for him, though that would date it slightly later than the 1794 proposed here. If this was the case, it would have made for an interesting contrast with another view of the west front of Peterborough Cathedral that Turner made for Monro (see TG1017 figure 1), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795.

Unravelling the status of the multiple versions of a composition is considered to be one of the main functions of the traditional catalogue raisonné, where a particular premium is placed on the artist’s first, primary work. It should be clear from the above not only that this is problematic in this case but also that the notion of the first being the best is highly questionable. Instead, the principal interest for me is the way that a detailed outline drawing such TG1014 acted as a matrix for the storage of information in a form that could generate multiple versions of a composition, varying in size and degree of finish according to the requirements of the patron or the marketplace. Given an incomplete archive, part of the fascination of multiple versions of a composition such as this stems from the fact that the results are necessarily difficult to interpret precisely.

Image Overlay

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1017

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1018

(?) 1796

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1020

(?) 1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1014

(?) 1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1016

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1017

(?) 1796

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1020

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1018

(?) 1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1014

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1017

1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1018

(?) 1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1019

1794 - 1797

Naples: Castel Sant’Elmo and the Convent of San Martino

TG0659

(?) 1794

The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral

TG1014