- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- 11.8 × 18.8 cm, 4 ⅝ × 7 ⅜ in
- Inscription
'Vale crucis' on the back
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Figure Study; Monastic Ruins; North Wales; River Scenery
Provenance
Dr John Percy (1817–89); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 17 April 1890, lot 505 (one of 9); bought by 'Vokins', £2 2s; J & W Vokins; John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929); his posthumous sale, Sotheby’s, 29 May 1935, lot 313; volume bought by Bernard Squire, £32; bought by Walter C. Hetherington (d.1978); his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 14 February 1978, lot 55, £300; Phillips, 2 November 1987, lot 9, unsold; Bonhams, 7 June 2005, lot 52, £1,800; bought by Lowell Libson Ltd
Exhibition History
Squire Gallery, 1936, no.51; Lowell Libson, 2005, no.23
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
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About this Work
This view of the ruined abbey church of Valle Crucis, seen across the Eglwyseg river, was made by Girtin on his 1798 tour of North Wales. Looking from the south east, the substantial remains of the east end of the church are surrounded by trees, which then enclosed the ruins, and from this angle the farm buildings, which had grown up since the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, are equally prominent. By 1798, Girtin had already depicted the east end of the church at Valle Crucis in two watercolours that were based on a sketch made by his earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99) (TG0159 and TG0208). However, when he came to visit the site in person, he adopted a more oblique view of the church so that the ancillary buildings assume an equal importance in a picturesque composition that emphasises the enclosed setting, and any hint of the road that features in the earlier views has been excluded.
The shift in emphasis away from a subject primarily of antiquarian interest was to prove a commercial success for Girtin, as the sketch formed the basis of at least four studio watercolours (TG1340, TG1341, TG1342 and TG1343). All four are of the same modest size, roughly 21.5 × 30 cm (8 ½ × 11 ¾ in), suggesting that Girtin had 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 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 ruin, ‘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; however, 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.
The back of the drawing features two studies of a seated rustic figure, which, though Girtin may or may not have sketched at Valle Crucis, was presumably made from life. He only occasionally sketched local figures when on his travels, the exception being in France, where he carefully recorded figures for use in his Paris prints (TG1900). In this case, it may be that there was also something in the costume worn by this man or his pose that caught the artist’s attention and that he felt he might be able to use in one of his Welsh landscapes, though nothing has yet been found. The sketch bears a resemblance to another multiple view of a rustic figure who wears similar clothes (TG1500), though there are doubts about the attribution of that drawing.
1793 - 1794
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
TG0159
1792 - 1793
The East End of Valle Crucis Abbey Church
TG0208
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
TG1342
1798 - 1799
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
TG1343
1801 - 1802
A Sheet of Figure Studies Relating to ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1900
1798 - 1799
Studies of a Country Boy
TG1500