- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
- Date
- 1797 - 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 34 × 48.9 cm, 13 ⅜ × 19 ¼ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ on the boat, lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- Harewood House, Yorkshire
- (HHTP:2001.2.21)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1049
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 190 as 'York Minster'; '1797'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 1999
Provenance
Edward Cohen (1817–86) (lent to London, 1875); then by bequest to his niece, Isabella Oswald (1838–1905); her posthumous sale, Robins and Hine, 29 March 1905, lot unknown; bought by J. Palser & Sons, £22 2s, for Sir Edward Marsh (1872–1953); bought from him by Thos. Agnew & Sons (stock no.9709), 3 May 1920; bought by Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882–1947), 10 June 1921, £250; then by descent
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.87 as 'York Minster'; Harewood, 1999, no.31
Bibliography
Borenius, 1936, no.310; Piper, 1942, p.21; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.211 (confusing it with no.190); Hill, 1995, pp.37–39; Hill, 1996, p.147; Wilson and Mee, 2002, p.72
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside House, Northumberland (National Trust)
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London
The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery
York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire
The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London
Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire
A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Church Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection
Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London
Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham
Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection
A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds Art Gallery
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk
The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works
Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection
Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)
The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool
Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection
An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Gallery, Sheffield
St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works
York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
Private Collection
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About this Work
This distant view of York Minster from the river Ouse includes the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey to the left and the fourteenth-century Water Tower in the foreground, with the Hospitium, or guest house, just behind. This last ancient building, as David Hill has shown, was then in use as a boatyard, which made a living from ‘servicing and building coal barges’, one of which can be seen on the river at St Mary’s Landing, and extensive piles of timber provide further evidence of its current function (Hill, 1996, p.147). As with the later York view The Ouse Bridge (TG1649), Girtin balances the ostensible antiquarian subject with a vivid picture of the ‘busy river traffic of the time that brought coal up from the Humber seaports and returned laden with grain’ (Hill, 1995, p.50). In this case, however, the poor, faded condition of the work means that the balance between the foremost monuments of the city (the abbey ruins and the partially obscured west front of the minster) and the working scene has been altered in favour of the latter, though, arguably, this enhances the effect of the confused, heterogeneous mix of the modern and the ancient that characterised the city of York at this time.
The watercolour, which was presumably based on an untraced drawing made on Girtin’s first independent tour, to the northern counties and Scottish Borders in 1796, has the added interest of being one of no fewer than three of his views of York that depict the same subject recorded by the artist’s almost exact contemporary, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), on his 1797 trip to the northern counties (see figure 1). Indeed, such is the correspondence between the two artists’ views that Hill initially suggested that, as with York: Pavement, with the Market Cross and All Saints’ Church (see TG1655 figure 1) and York, with the Minster, from the South West (see TG1047 figure 1), Girtin ‘might … have worked from Turner’s sketch’ (Hill, 1996, p.147). However, so numerous are the similarities between the two artists’ sketches, as well as the watercolours that were derived from them, that Hill changed his mind and argued that the pattern of influence worked the other way, noting that Turner must have seen Girtin’s 1796 sketches before his own tour and that he was encouraged to adopt the same viewpoints when sketching in York and Durham (Hill, 1996, pp.4–5). Unlike in the case of Girtin’s famous view Durham Cathedral and Castle (TG1074), Turner is not known to have produced a watercolour of this view of York, and indeed, as far as York subjects are concerned, he left the field open for Girtin to exploit, and the city and its great minster did not feature significantly in his subsequent long career.
1800
The Ouse Bridge, York
TG1649
1799
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1074