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Works Thomas Girtin

York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

1800

Primary Image: TG1656: Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right, 1800, watercolour on laid paper, 29.2 × 48.3 cm, 11 ½ × 19 in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum

Print after: Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835) after Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), mezzotint, York Minster, 1822/23, published belatedly in Liber Naturae; or, A Collection of Prints from the Drawings of Thomas Girtin, pl.3, London, 1883, 16.4 × 22.7 cm, 6 ½ × 9 in. British Museum, London (1893,0612.82.4).

Photo courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Print after: Thomas Lupton (1791–1873) after Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), 'From a Drawing in the possession of Sir James Stuart, Bart', mezzotint on steel, York Minster on the River Foss for The Rivers of England, pl.7, 1 August 1824, 14.7 × 22.9 cm, 5 ¾ × 9 in. Tate (T04869).

Photo courtesy of Tate (All Rights Reserved)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
Title
  • York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Date
1800
Medium and Support
Watercolour on laid paper
Dimensions
29.2 × 48.3 cm, 11 ½ × 19 in
Inscription

‘Girtin 1800’ lower left

Part of
Object Type
Studio Watercolour
Subject Terms
Gothic Architecture: Cathedral View; Yorkshire View

Collection
Versions
York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right (TG1051)
(TG1119)
Catalogue Number
TG1656
Girtin & Loshak Number
154ii as 'York Minster' and as inscribed ‘Girtin 1800’ (not visible in the photograph)
Description Source(s)
Girtin Archive Photograph

Provenance

Sir James Stuart (inscription on the mezzotint, 1824); ... Andrew Coventry (1801–77); then by descent to Lt. Col. David Edward Maitland-Makgill-Crichton (d.1952)

Exhibition History

Agnew’s, 1953a, no.13 as ’York Minster’

Bibliography

Sparrow, 1902, p.89; Hill, 1999, p.46

About this Work

This dramatic view from the south east, showing York Minster rising above its surrounds, includes the Layerthorpe Bridge to the right, with the river Foss in the middle ground. It is the second version of a composition that Girtin sketched on his first and, almost certainly, only visit to the city, in 1796 (the other being TG1051). The recently discovered sketch (TG1119) was wrongly attributed to Henry Edridge (1769–1821) but it was clearly produced rapidly on the spot, forming the basis for both of Girtin's watercolours. The other, smaller watercolour was produced for reproduction as an aquatint (see print after TG1051), and it is stylistically consistent with the more conventional works that Girtin produced shortly after his trip, which took in the north east and the Scottish Borders. In contrast, this view was created with a very different purpose in mind, as a comparison with two other views of the city that date from around 1800 illustrates (TG1649 and TG1652). Thus, all three watercolours conform more or less to the standard size of works that the artist supplied around 1800–1801 to Samuel William Reynolds (1773–1835), who acted on behalf of the artist in his final years in a role somewhere between agent and dealer. Since each was also the subject of a mezzotint by Reynolds (see the first print after, above, Neill & Son, 1883), there is little doubt that they were executed for sale on the open market and that Girtin returned to his earlier sketches to find subjects that would make for saleable commodities. The work is known only as a black and white photograph, and it has not been seen in public since 1953, but it is still clear that Girtin enhanced the dramatic potential of the scene in comparison with the earlier work, now in the collection of the British Museum. The sun setting to the right, amongst a bold cloud formation, changes the picturesque surrounds into a sharp silhouette that offsets the more ethereal form of the minster, and the figures on the riverbank, with the smoke drifting from a chimney, provide the perfect accompaniment for an evening effect. All of this is admirably rendered in mezzotint, a printmaking technique that is particularly adept at capturing crepuscular effects; therefore, if, as seems to be the case, the watercolour has faded, at least some of the original drama has been preserved.

Unusually for a work that went through Reynolds’ hands and was also executed as a print, no copy of Girtin’s original watercolour exists to cloud the issue of attribution. Reynolds probably sold the work to Sir James Stuart (unknown dates), who is credited as the owner of the watercolour from which a second mezzotint was produced, by Thomas Lupton (1791–1873), which was published as plate seven of The Rivers of England in 1824 (see the second print after, above). The impression illustrated here is of some interest as it is the engraver’s proof that Girtin’s contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is said to have marked and corrected out of respect for the memory of ‘Poor Tom’, though he also charged ‘two guineas a piece’ to execute the task (Miller, 1854, p.iii).

1796 - 1797

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

TG1051

1796 - 1797

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

TG1051

1800

The Ouse Bridge, York

TG1649

1800 - 1801

York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern

TG1652

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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