This unusual view of the valley of Isarco, south of Innsbruck in the Tyrol (now part of Italy), with a spire poking up beyond a line of trees, displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here they were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).¹

The view is based on a simple outline drawing by John Robert Cozens (1752–97) inscribed ‘Near Stirzengen Tirol – June 7’ that is mounted in an album now at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (see the source image above). This was almost certainly traced by Cozens himself from an on-the-spot sketch that he made on a second visit to Italy in 1782 (Bell and Girtin, 1935, no.203), when the artist accompanied his patron William Beckford (1760–1844) through northern Italy to Naples. The sketch is the tenth image in the first of seven sketchbooks that survive from the trip (The Whitworth, Manchester (D.1975.4.10)), and it was presumably traced by Cozens because the books were retained by Beckford. Monro’s posthumous sale, in 1833, contained only twenty or so sketches by Cozens, so the patron must have borrowed the majority of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings’ copied by Girtin and Turner. In this case, the source of the watercolour was presumably purchased at the sale of ‘Mr COZENS’ in July 1794 by Sir George Beaumont (1753–1827).² As Kim Sloan has noted, Beaumont mounted ‘215 “tracings” or drawings on oiled paper’ in an album that he presumably lent to Monro, and it was from this collection that the two young artists produced more than fifty watercolours (Sloan and Joyner, 1993, pp.89–91). Beckford and his party crossed into Italy via the Brenner Pass and the first sixteen sketches produced by Cozens show scenes in the Tyrol region, part of western Austria and northern Italy. At least six of them ultimately provided the models for Monro School drawings, including Entering the Tyrol: Unidentified Buildings amongst Wooded Hills (TG0697). The very narrow tower may be that of the church of Madonna Addolorata a San Giacomo in the northern Italian village that is now known as Vipiteno.

The majority of the Alpine scenes sold at Monro’s posthumous sale were described as being by Turner working alone, and this generally remained the case until the publication of Andrew Wilton’s pioneering article in 1984, since when the joint attribution of the Monro School works to Turner and Girtin has increasingly become the norm (Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). In this case, although Turner has worked the foreground heavily enough to obscure traces of Girtin’s pencil work, enough shows through in the distance to establish the involvement of the latter, albeit at the most basic level, tracing the outlines from a Cozens drawing; it was Turner’s more onerous task to obscure the essentially mechanical practice of replication and produce something that approximates to a finished work.