- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Distant View of Conwy Castle
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 29.4 × 44.2 cm, 11 ⅝ × 17 ⅜ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower right, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1307
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 360 as 'Conway Castle ... Unfinished'; '1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
Chambers Hall (1786–1855); presented to the Museum, 1855
Bibliography
Binyon, 1898–1907, no.50
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
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About this Work
This distant view of Conwy Castle from the north east was sketched during Girtin’s trip to North Wales in the summer of 1798, though on the spot here probably means from a boat. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak suggested that the work is ‘Unfinished’, however, and they dated it to 1800, though it is not clear whether they thought that it was an incomplete studio work or an on-the-spot sketch made on a second, putative visit to Wales (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.183). They argued that Girtin ‘revisited North Wales in the summer of 1800’, suggesting that this was proved by the existence of sketches ‘too advanced in style to have been done in 1798’ (p.40). There is no evidence to substantiate this claim, however, and it is now clear, I suggest, that the date of 1800 – which was added by Girtin himself to a substantial number of studio watercolours, including another view of Conwy Castle (TG1739) – stemmed from the fact that these were sold on the open market through an intermediary, and this had nothing to do with the artist’s schedule of tours. If Girtin and Loshak were mistaken to date this sketch to 1800, then there is still some merit to their statement that it is unfinished, though ‘interrupted’ might be the more accurate term. Thus, unlike in the other on-the-spot sketch made at Conwy (TG1305), whole areas of the sheet have been left untouched and other parts, such as the castle itself, have been abandoned without the subsequent wash of colour that is necessary to give form to the effect that Girtin set out to capture – namely, the way that a broken sky has partially lit up the ruins. Is it too fanciful to suggest that Girtin’s sketch was actually interrupted by the very effect he sought to capture, as the threatening sky, recorded with a few washes rapidly brushed in, turned to rain?
The sketch was not realised as a studio composition, begging the question as to why the artist should have made it on such a large scale. The intriguing comparison here is with another on-the-spot sketch made on a sheet of paper of the same generous dimensions, A Mountain View, near Beddgelert (TG1321). This work gives us a reasonable idea of what the Conwy Castle view might have looked like had it been carried closer to completion. Moreover, as the basis for the monumental studio watercolour of the same title (TG1322), it suggests that Girtin had something comparable in mind when he made this sketch of Conwy from the water opposite the ruins. Therefore, Girtin seems to have made a colour sketch, rather than a simple pencil outline, when a subject likely to attract an order was either encountered in a suitable light or accompanied by an appropriate weather effect. The resulting sketches would then both help in the production of the finished watercolour and provide a useful guide to prospective clients, who would get a better idea of what their commission might look like.
1800
Conwy Castle, from the River Gyffin
TG1739
(?) 1798
The Great Hall, Conwy Castle
TG1305
(?) 1798
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
TG1321
1798 - 1799
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
TG1322