- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 21.5 × 30 cm, 8 ½ × 11 ¾ in
- Inscription
'Girtin' lower centre, by Thomas Girtin; 'Vale Crucis Abbey / near Llangollen / North Wales / Girtin' on the back of the mount, by another hand
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; North Wales; River Scenery
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
(TG1339)
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River (TG1340)
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River (TG1341)
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River (TG1343)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1342
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 292iv as 'Valle Crucis Abbey'
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue
Provenance
P. G. Ryan; his sale, Sotheby's, 30 July 1952, lot 15; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, £90 (stock no.6970); Dr W. Broesbank; Sotheby's, 8 July 1982, lot 165, £660; Christie's, 15 November 1983, lot 168, £1,188; Good Golly Products Ltd; their sale, Christie's, 19 March 1985, lot 103; bought by the Library, £2,592
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1953b, no.81, £250
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
Revisions & Feedback
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About this Work
This view of the ruined abbey church of Valle Crucis, seen from across the Eglwyseg river, is one of four studio watercolours that Girtin created from a pencil sketch (TG1339) that he made on his tour of North Wales in 1798 (the others being TG1340, TG1341 and TG1343). Looking from the south east, the substantial remains of the east end of the church are surrounded by trees, which then enclose the ruins, and, in the one departure from the pencil drawing, the artist added a looming hill to the right in order to emphasise the dramatic location. Girtin had already depicted the east end of the church at Valle Crucis in two watercolours (TG0159 and TG0208) that were based on sketches made by his earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99). However, when he came to visit the site in person in 1798, he adopted a more oblique viewpoint so that the ancillary buildings assume equal importance in a picturesque composition that emphasises the enclosed setting, and there is no hint of the road passing by that features in the earlier views.
This was clearly an astute move commercially, as the number of orders the artist secured attests. Each of the four watercolours is on the same modest scale, roughly 21.5 × 30 cm (8 ½ × 11 3/4 in), suggesting that Girtin successfully tapped into the market for picturesque views of Welsh scenery that arose from the region’s increasing popularity with tourists. And a glance at the extensive literature that stemmed from, and in turn fuelled, the boom in visits to the region in the 1790s makes it clear why Girtin’s image of Valle Crucis was so popular. Henry Skrine (1755–1803), for instance, typically emphasised the way that a ‘vast chain of wild mountains hems in’ the ruins, ‘leaving barely room between them for a little stream and a thick grove, amidst the gloomy shade of which the mouldering walls and arches of the abbey make a most picturesque appearance’ (Skrine, 1798, p.239). But, as both the Revd Richard Warner (1763–1857) and the Revd John Evans (1768–c.1812) argued at some length, the abbey ruins offered more than just picturesque delight, for the situation ensured ‘quiet and retirement’ (Warner, 1799, p.170) and was ‘secluded from the world’s rude gaze by thick woods’, which ‘fitted it for meditation and prayer’ (Evans, 1804, p.322). Girtin almost certainly did not read such accounts and thus would not have been influenced by them when he fashioned his image, but the point is that in order to create a successful commodity, he had to embody such sentiments, and excluding the road and other overt signs of habitation, and emphasising the encroachment of nature on the ruins, was a crucial part of the process.
Sadly, only some of these qualities are still evident in this much faded watercolour. In addition to the sky being almost completely lost, the greens of the vegetation have been flattened out so that much of the sense of the ruins being reoccupied by nature has been compromised, though something of the location’s solitude at least remains. If it is possible, an even more faded contemporary copy of Girtin’s work survives, again on the same scale, further attesting to the popularity of the composition (see figure 1).
(?) 1798
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
TG1339
1798 - 1799
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
TG1340
1798 - 1799
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
TG1341
1798 - 1799
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
TG1343
1793 - 1794
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
TG0159
1792 - 1793
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
TG0208