This watercolour, which for a long period was known incorrectly as ‘Richmond Bridge’, shows the view through the northern arches of the bridge over the river Wharfe at Wetherby in Yorkshire. It is one of two almost identical versions of a composition (the other being TG1643) that were executed after a sketch that appears to have been produced during Girtin’s stay in Yorkshire in the summer of 1800 (TG1536). The outline does little more than indicate the relative positions of the different elements of the composition, however, and the artist therefore conceived the light effect, the play of shadows, and the different textures of stone, water, tree and thatch in the studio. Travellers who followed the course of the river Wharfe sometimes commented on the picturesque charms of the market town of Wetherby, but, despite its position on the Great North Road, few artists painted the subject. Unfortunately, we do not know whether this or either of the other Wetherby subjects executed by Girtin (TG1642 and TG1643) were commissions, but it may be that the artist himself recognised the potential of the town as a subject and produced his views for sale on the open market, since all of them conform to the standard size of the works that were disposed of by Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835), who acted on behalf of the artist in his final years in a role somewhere between agent and dealer. In this case, the artist chose a view looking upstream through two of the arches of the bridge, the only part of the scene that remains, towards the mills (which were used for grinding rape and corn at this date), with one of the wheels shown to the left of the central pier (Hill, 1999, p.43). As Francis Hawcroft has pointed out, the use of an arch of a bridge to frame a background scene was pioneered by Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) (1697–1768), though the more immediate source for this lay in compositions by Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804) (see TG1643 figure 1) (Hawcroft, 1975, p.51). However, unlike either earlier artist, Girtin used the framing device not for a famous architectural motif but for a humble stretch of vernacular buildings with no obvious pictorial interest, and the radical innovation is enhanced by the use of two arches, which are determinedly asymmetrical. Overlaying images of the pencil outline and the watercolour illustrates how the artist extended the arch laterally to the right, so that it no longer balances the other, to the point where the perspective breaks down. Contrary to the suggestion of David Hill, who thought that this disturbing effect was a result of the bridge being remodelled and widened, this appears to have been a way of including more of the distant view of the mills (Hill, 1999, p.43).

Overlaying images of the two versions of the Wetherby composition also illustrates just how close the two works are, not just in terms of size. Like the two versions of Paris: The Ruins of the Roman Baths, Hôtel de Cluny (TG1896 and TG1897), the watercolours are identical, even down to details such as the reflections in the water and the stains on the masonry, where one might expect variations given Girtin’s flair for improvisation. The only discernible difference I can see is that in TG1643, the buildings seen through both arches are marginally smaller, but this does not mean that the other ‘composition has been refined slightly’, as Hill has suggested as the reason for thinking that this version is the earlier of the two (Hill, 1999, p.43). Indeed, the fact that the other watercolour includes visible pencil work might have suggested that it is the first, were it not for the fact that I do not think trying to establish the primacy of one over the other is relevant in this case. Such is the congruence, down to the tiniest of details, that I suspect the artist had both watercolours to hand as he worked on them, and that he painted on both at the same time, moving from one to the other, completing a wash of each tint in turn.

One of the watercolours may have been in the collection of the ‘Marquis of Stafford’ (George Leverson-Gower, 2nd Marquis of Stafford (1758–1833)) at Trentham Hall in Staffordshire. A report in the Repository of Arts in 1824 listed a ‘Wetherby Bridge’ in the sitting room at Trentham (Third Series, vol.4, no.19, 1 July 1824, p.4).

(?) 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1643

1799 - 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1536

(?) 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1642

(?) 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1643

(?) 1802

Paris: The Ruins of the Roman Baths, Hôtel de Cluny

TG1896

(?) 1802

Paris: The Ruins of the Roman Baths, Hôtel de Cluny

TG1897

(?) 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1643