This view of a crag on the river Nidd, which David Hill has suggested may be between Abbey Mill and Grimbald Bridge, is one of seven views that Girtin sketched on a short stretch of the river near to Knaresborough, probably on his visit to Yorkshire in the summer of either 1799 or 1800 (the others being TG1509, TG1511, TG1512, TG1539, TG1542 and TG1589) (Hill, 1999, p.44). Each of the drawings was executed on a piece of wove paper of the same vertical dimensions, and there is some evidence that they were removed from a sketchbook. Two other drawings on the same paper have matching holes, which suggests that they had been bound into a book (TG1508a and TG1525). The latter sketch (Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea) is missing a small section, which, as a later copy indicates (TG1601), must have strayed onto the opposite page. It seems that on just this one occasion Girtin did execute his sketches in a book, though, as the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, it is unlikely that this was made commercially, and it may be that the artist himself assembled sheets of paper into a convenient gathering which would account for slight variations in their size (Bower, 2002, p.141). 

One of the views on the river Nidd (TG1589) was used as the basis for a finished watercolour (TG1550), and a fine view titled The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (TG1672) was also based on what appears to have been another, lost sketch from 1799, which is today known from a copy in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1607). The same book (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–TG1625) also contains a replica of this view on the river Nidd (TG1611). Slightly larger in scale, it must have been copied freehand by Girtin rather than traced, as was the case with the replica of Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (TG1508). The likeliest scenario is that, as in the case of the Middleham sketch, Girtin found a purchaser for his on-the-spot drawing and that, prior to parting with it, he produced a replica that could be shown to potential clients and used as the basis for commissions similar to Abbey Mill. The elevated bank shown here, which has been described as Grimbald Crag, a yellow sandstone outcrop opposite the mill, may in fact show St Robert’s Cave, a subject that appears to have been too obscure to attract a commission (Hill, 1999, p.44). However, even if the sketch was never realised as a watercolour, the basic composition was repeated in two near contemporary commissions for Edward Lascelles (1764–1814), On the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey (TG1554) and Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough (TG1553). It was probably during Girtin’s stay at Lascelles’ seat at nearby Harewood House that the scenes on the Nidd were sketched. 

The colouring in this version of Grimbald Crag is so crude that at one time I seriously considered the possibility that it was added later by another hand. The artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), had access to the ‘180 Sketches’ and ‘4 little Books partly of Sketches’ left behind in Girtin’s studio at his death, and it is not impossible that it was he who added the colour to make the work more saleable (Smith, 2017–18, p.36). However, the same argument can be made in favour of Girtin’s authorship, and I now suspect that the colouring, including the skyscape, was added in the studio to an on-the-spot outline drawing to create the effect of a sketch worked from nature, something that might have an extra appeal to supportive collectors of his work. 

On a technical note, Peter Bower has identified the support used by Girtin as white wove paper made by an unknown manufacturer whose products were untypical of contemporary English papers (Bower, Report). The artist used the same support for his on-the-spot colour sketch of Gordale Scar (TG1630) as well as for a number of others in the Whitworth Book of Drawings, including two that were detached from the collection, Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe (TG1613) and Mulgrave Park and Castle (TG1626). 

1799 - 1800

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough

TG1509

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough Castle, from the High Bridge

TG1511

1799 - 1800

Bilton Banks, on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1512

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, from the North West

TG1539

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks

TG1542

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1799 - 1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1508a

1799 - 1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1525

(?) 1801

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1601

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1550

1800 - 1801

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1672

(?) 1800

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1607

1800 - 1801

Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert

TG1323

1800 - 1801

The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert

TG1324

1798 - 1799

John Raphael Smith: ‘Waiting for the Mail Coach’

TG1600

(?) 1800

The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle

TG1625

(?) 1800

A Crag on the River Nidd

TG1611

1799

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1508

1800 - 1801

On the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey

TG1554

1800 - 1801

Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough

TG1553

(?) 1800

Gordale Scar Waterfall

TG1630

(?) 1800

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe

TG1613

(?) 1800

Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm

TG1626