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Works Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner after (?) John Henderson

A Ship Beached in the Harbour with Dover Castle in the Distance

1795 - 1796

Primary Image: TG0812a: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), after (?) John Henderson (1764–1863), A Ship Beached in the Harbour with Dover Castle in the Distance, graphite and watercolour on wove paper, 21 × 16.8 cm, 8 ¼ × 6 ⅝ in. Winchester College Collections (Aw297)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) after (?) John Henderson (1764-1843)
Title
  • A Ship Beached in the Harbour with Dover Castle in the Distance
Date
1795 - 1796
Medium and Support
Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions
21 × 16.5 cm, 8 ¼ × 6 ½ in
Object Type
Collaborations; Monro School Copy; Work after an Amateur Artist
Subject Terms
Coasts and Shipping; Dover and Kent

Collection
Versions
Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance (TG0812)
Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance (TG0838)
Catalogue Number
TG0812a
Description Source(s)
Viewed in December 2024

Provenance

Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877–1963); with Fuller and Maitland; Gen. Sir John D’Arcy Anderson (1908–88) and Elizabeth Antoinette Merrifield Anderson (1937–2011); presented to Winchester College, 1993

Exhibition History

Colnaghi’s, 1937, no.44

About this Work

This second view of beached vessels, with Dover Castle seen beyond (see TG0812), 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 the two artists were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to copy ‘the outlines or unfinished drawings of’ principally John Robert Cozens (1752–97), but other artists too, including the patron’s neighbour, the amateur John Henderson (1764–1843), who lent his ‘outlines for this purpose’ (Farington, Diary, 30 December 1794). Henderson visited Dover in the autumn of 1794 and the ‘outlines of Shipping & Boats’ he made there, described by the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) as ‘Very ingenious & careful’, provided the basis for a substantial number of copies commissioned by Monro (Farington, Diary, 1 December 1795). As with the copies the artists made after the sketches of Cozens, ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’, with Turner receiving ‘3s. 6d each night’ though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1

Girtin is not known to have visited Dover and all of his views of the town were copied after other artists, including his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). However, whilst Turner travelled to the port in 1793 and executed a series of studio watercolours after his own sketches, the majority of the Dover subjects sold from Monro’s collection, numbering as many as a hundred, were still produced after secondary sources (Christie’s, 26 June 1833; Christie’s, 1 July 1833). The source for this work has not been traced, but comparisons with the sketches used by the Monro School artists in the production of other Dover views – such as A Two-Master in Dover Harbour, with the Castle Beyond (TG0795), which displays the same fascination with the minutiae of marine labour set against a distant view of the picturesque silhouette of the castle – suggest that it was an outline drawing by Henderson. Girtin appears to have been particularly taken by the original sketch as he made a larger pencil copy of the composition (TG0838) as well as collaborating with Turner in the production of another watercolour both of which, unlike this version, include a close up view of the prow of a vessel rising up at a dramatic angle in the foreground (TG0812). However, the figure group as well as the landscape setting and the prominent vessel in the middleground are identical in all three drawings and as overlaying images of the works suggests, they were traced from a common source.

All of the views of Dover sold at Monro’s posthumous sale in 1833 were attributed to Turner alone, but, despite the pioneering article published by Andrew Wilton in 1984, which established the joint authorship of such works as the norm, many examples such as this have either retained their attribution to Turner or been listed as by an unknown artist (Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). In fact, the pencil work here is of a particularly high standard and clearly by the same artist responsible for the two other versions of the composition (TG0812 and TG0838) and the numerous inventive touches clearly identify it as being executed by Girtin The economical application of a limited range of blue and grey washes leaves the lines in the figures showing through to particularly good effect and though they are not so well worked as in the larger version of composition I have no doubt that they were by Turner.

1795 - 1796

Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance

TG0812

1795 - 1796

A Two-Master in Dover Harbour, with the Castle Beyond

TG0795

1795 - 1796

Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance

TG0838

1795 - 1796

Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance

TG0812

1795 - 1796

Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance

TG0812

1795 - 1796

Beached Vessels in Dover Harbour, the Castle in the Distance

TG0838

by Greg Smith

Footnotes

  1. 1 The full diary entry, giving crucial details of the artists’ work at Monro’s house, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1798 – item 2).

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