Documents: A Year by Year Record of Dated Watercolours and Prints, Early Accounts of the Artist and His Works, Manuscript Material Relating to Sales and Collections

1858 Documents

1 January 1858

Notes by Joseph John Jenkins (1811–85) on a meeting with Cornelius Varley (1782–1874) (Archives of the Royal Watercolour Society (J61/2))

Called on Cornelius Varley to see two pictures which he has just painted - got him to tell me about D^r Monro at whose house the young artists drew of an evening in Adelphi Terrace - spoke of the D^r as being a man of good taste a sketcher himself and an enthusiastic lover of art several examples of which he selected - His house was filled with pictures and drawings - many Gainsboroughs hanging upon his walls, which he allowed to be freely copied by young artists and took delight in assisting them with his advice - so fond of works of art was he that he never liked to be without some of them in sight - and he contrived a netting inside the roof of his carriage in which he always slipped a folio of drawings when he went to his country house at Fetcham Surrey - constantly changing them on the way - and he also contrived to have his drawings so arranged that they could be readily carried out in case of fire - Couzens Turner and Girtin and afterwards J & C Varley Cotman Linnel Hunt and others - the Dr provided desks with a candle - and they sat on each side so that one candle did - J Varley made a number of Coloured sketches of the the neighbourhood of Fetcham for the D^r - some his earliest and best. C Varley told me that Girtin made a great number of outlines which the D^r got Turner to tint in grey just washed afterwards with colour of this Girtin complained as not giving him the same chance of painting.

D^r Monro learnt drawing of Laporte and was looked upon in his day much in same way as Sir George Beaumont and Payne Knight as a leader in Connoisseurship.

Monro - the Earl of Essex and Mr Lassels Prince Lassels as he was called from his likeness to the Prince of Wales - seem to have been the principal encouragers of drawings in water colours - Girtin was much with them - so was J Varley who made drawings for all of them

Girtin was a hard worker and caught cold by sitting out in the damp which hastened his death. This agrees with what Mr Girtin the son of the painter told me -

1858

Sometime in 1858 Hannah Cooper (unknown dates) noted down the details of her collection of watercolours mostly inherited from her uncle Charles Stokes (1785–1853) in 1853. In addition to the highly significant group of works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) she also noted:

‘Girtin

Tattershall Castle (TG1030)

Landscape

D^o

Cottages on a Bank

Old Barn

Landscape with bridge and river

Stags by Girtin & Howitt (?TG1373 and ?TG1374)

D^o D^o’

Amongst the works listed as by Turner are a number which may have been collaborations between Girtin and Turner including: ‘Boats at Dover’; ‘Walls of Rome’; and ‘View from Prince Doria’s Palace’. The full records of Cooper’s collection have been transcribed by Martin Krause (Krause, 1997, pp.267–72).

A small portion of Cooper’s collection passed by descent to Alice Ellen Hughes and her sale in 1922 included four pencil drawings, all then attributed to Turner but which can now be said with varying degrees of certainty to be by Girtin: TG0270; TG0298; TG0924; TG1037 (Exhibitions: Sotheby’s, 28 November 1922).