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

1877 Documents

16 February 1877

Thos. Agnew & Sons, Stock Book, 16 February 1877 (Agnew’s Archive)

  • 3971 – ‘Scene in Wales’. Bought from ‘C. J. Pooley’ (Charles James Pooley, 1836–1900). Sold to ‘J Barker’ in part exchange, 8 June 1877

28 May 1877

Thos. Agnew & Sons, Stock Book, 28 May 1877 (Agnew’s Archive)

  • 4255 – ‘Rochester’. Bought from a sale at Christie’s. Sold to ‘Roger Ross’ for £36 15s, 15 November 1877

23 July 1877

Thos. Agnew & Sons, Stock Book, 23 July 1877 (Agnew’s Archive)

  • 4409 – ‘In Wales’. Bought from ‘C. J. Pooley’ (Charles James Pooley, 1836–1900). Sold to ‘Peter Allen’ for £47 10s, 28 January 1878

1877

Walter Thornbury, The Life of J. M. W. Turner, R. A., 2nd ed., vol.1, p.55 (Thornbury, 1877)

Despite the claim on the title page that this 'New Edition' was 'Revised and Mostly Rewritten' the passages relating to Girtin are essentially the same with a few reworded for clarity but with no new material added. A few details are added to the account of Girtin's work for Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833).

CHAPTER VI.

TURNER AND GIRTIN AT DR. MUNRO’S

On winter evenings (for in summer the lads were out at work on the Thames or in the country) Turner and Girtin repaired to the Doctor's costly furnished house, where they spent an hour or two in sketching and in colouring. The ‘good Doctor,' as Turner was wont to call him in after life, was in the habit of giving them half a crown each for their night's drawing, and a supper into the bargain. Nor was Turner forgetful of the Doctor's kindness, says Mr. Alaric Watts, for a reference to that period of his career, in the course of a conversation with David Roberts, elicited the remark, 'There!' pointing to Harrow, 'Girtin and I have often walked to Bushy and back to make drawings for good Dr. Munro at half a crown a piece and a supper.' Girtin, it is noted, had enjoyed the benefit of a more regular education than had fallen to the lot of Turner, through having been a pupil of Dayes, and a student of the Royal Academy for nearly three years; and he had also the advantage of having accompanied one of his early patrons on repeated tours amid the most picturesque scenery in England, Scotland, and Wales, at a time when his friend's means afforded him no opportunity of sketching from Nature beyond the outskirts of the metropolis.