- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after William Henry Wood (active 1785-1792)
- Title
-
- Windsor Castle: The Norman Gateway and the Round Tower, with Part of the Queen's Lodge
- Date
- 1792 - 1793
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 12.4 × 18.3 cm, 4 ⅞ × 7 ¼ in
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0157
- Description Source(s)
- Gallery Website; Collection Catalogue
Provenance
Christie’s, 15 November 1983, lot 155 as 'Windsor Castle'; bought by the Leger Galleries, London, £9,180; bought from them by Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton (1909–2005), 1984; Manton Family Art Foundation, 2005–07; presented to the Institute, 2007
Bibliography
Wilton, 2001, pp.87–88; Clarke, 2012, no.138, p.264
Place depicted
Other entries in Topography without Travel:
The British Landscape at Second Hand

Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Untraced Works

Windsor Castle: The Norman Gateway and the Round Tower, with Part of the Queen's Lodge
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

The Interior of Tintern Abbey, Showing the Choir and North Transept
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

A View in Windsor Great Park with Deer
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

An Ancient House, Possibly in Sussex
Private Collection

The Interior of Tintern Abbey, Looking towards the West Window from the Choir
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

The Ruins of Newark Priory Church
Tate, London

Lancaster Castle and Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
Private Collection

Barnard Castle and Bridge, from the River Tees
Tate, London

The Ruined West Front of Dunbrody Abbey Church, County Wexford, Ireland
Tate, London

The Refectory of Walsingham Priory
British Museum, London

The Ruined East End of Walsingham Priory Church
Tate, London

The West Tower of Rumburgh Priory Church
Tate, London

Dumbarton Rock, from the North
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Middleham Castle
Tate, London

Kidwelly Church, with the Castle Beyond
Tate, London

Kelso Abbey, from the North West
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Keep, Portchester Castle, from the North East
Tate, London

The Keep of Rochester Castle, from the South East
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Middleham Castle
Tate, London

Margam Abbey Church, from the North West
Tate, London

The Ruined East End of Walsingham Priory Church
Tate, London

The Ruins of the Holy Ghost Chapel, Basingstoke
Tate, London

The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt
Tate, London

Part of the Ruins of Lewes Castle, from the West
Tate, London

Glasgow High Street, Looking towards the Cathedral
Tate, London

The Keep of Hedingham Castle, from the East
Tate, London

The South Transept, Much Wenlock Priory Church
Tate, London

Newport Castle, Monmouthshire
Private Collection

Portchester Castle, from the Outer Bailey
Tate, London

The Refectory of Walsingham Priory
Tate, London

An Unidentified Church close to a Road
British Museum, London

The Keep of Hedingham Castle, from the South West
Tate, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the North West
Tate, London

Kirkstall Abbey, from the North West
Tate, London

The Ruined Gateway of Mettingham Castle
Tate, London

The Keep of Rochester Castle, Seen from outside the Walls
Tate, London

Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Private Collection

Tintern Abbey: The View from the Nave
Private Collection

The Market at Aberystwyth
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
Tate, London

Lancaster Castle, from the River Lune
Tate, London

Lancaster Priory Church, Seen with the Old Bridge over the River Lune
Tate, London

Buttermere Bridge, from the Fish Inn
Tate, London

The Medieval Kitchen, Stanton Harcourt
Private Collection, Norfolk

Rochester Cathedral, from the North East, with the Castle Beyond
Tate, London

Glasgow High Street: Looking towards the Cathedral
Tate, London

A Distant View of Corfe Castle
Tate, London

Chichester Cathedral, from the South West
Tate, London

The Gatehouse of Amberley Castle
Tate, London

A Lake and Mountains, Possibly in the Lake District
Tate, London

A Lake and Mountains, Possibly in the Lake District
Tate, London

An Unidentified View across a Lake, or along a Coast
Tate, London

A Road by a Pond, with a Church in the Distance
Tate, London

A Road by a Pond, with a Church in the Distance
British Museum, London

A Church Tower amongst Trees, with a Cart in the Foreground
British Museum, London

An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Tate, London

Trees near a Lake or River, at Twilight
Tate, London

A Hilly Landscape, with a Two-Arched Bridge
Private Collection

A Distant View of Tynemouth Priory, from the Sea
Tate, London

An Upland Landscape, Possibly in Northumberland
Private Collection

A Bridge in the Lake District, Possibly Grange Bridge, Borrowdale
Private Collection

Bridgnorth, on the River Severn
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Knaresborough, from the River Nidd
Private Collection
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About this Work
The small scale of this view of Windsor Castle, together with its crude colouring and simplistic composition with the main buildings all shown front on, suggests an early date, around 1792–93. The young Girtin, even if he had by this stage ended his formal apprenticeship to Edward Dayes (1763–1804), did not travel much beyond London and he would by necessity have had to base the work on an intermediary source. At this stage this generally meant his master; however, though Dayes certainly produced Windsor views, none relate to this composition. Although there are some small differences, Girtin instead seems to have based his watercolour on an obscure and primitive engraving by William Henry Wood (active 1785–92) titled ‘N. W. View of the Round Tower of Windsor Castle, with part of the Queen’s Lodge’, published by Charles King (unknown dates) in 1785 in Windsor (see the source image above). The young artist embellished Wood’s bald composition, adding an attractive sky, more convincing vegetation and an extensive cast of figures in the foreground, albeit unrelated to each other and out of proportion. The use of light and shade also renders the architecture a little more convincingly, but it is not enough to efface its origins in an archaic model. Girtin produced a number of views of Windsor as a young artist; however, unlike the scenes of Rochester, where Dayes’ compositions provided the artist with a strong starting point, images like this and Windsor Castle from the River (TG0065) ultimately fail to convince.
Girtin’s view shows, from left to right, the Norman Gateway prior to its conversion by Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1766–1840), the Round Tower and the Queen’s Lodge. The last of these was used by George III and his family as living accommodation prior to the full-scale conversion of the castle into a royal residence that was instigated by George IV. Andrew Wilton has suggested that the work may have been made for reproduction as a small-scale print as it is the same size as the works Girtin produced for The Copper-Plate Magazine (Walker, 1792–1802); that might indeed explain the presence of such a complex set of figures (Wilton, 2001, p.87).
(?) 1792
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
TG0065