This view of an unidentified village on the bend of a river is found on page forty-four of the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1323, TG1324 and TG1600–1625). Given that so many of the sketches in the book were made on the spot in Yorkshire in 1800, this is the likeliest option here. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak not unreasonably speculated that it might be a view on the river Nidd in the vicinity of Knaresborough, like A Crag on the River Nidd (TG1510), whilst David Hill suggested a subject in the ‘Whitby/Sandsend area’ of North Yorkshire (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.196; Hill, 1999, p.60). However, the drawing follows on from two views of Middleham in Wensleydale, which Girtin visited in 1799 (TG1619 and TG1620), and it is just possible that the village shown here is on the river Ure. However, without any inscription to help us, I suspect that the sparse topographical details mean that its identity may remain undiscovered. In any case, the order in which the drawings appear in the Book of Drawings is a limited guide to the location of a subject. Girtin’s original gatherings of sheets of paper, comprising sketches made on the spot as well as copies of earlier drawings (including the view of the village of Middleham), were reordered after the artist’s death when the material was bound together using end papers with an '1803' watermark, and there is no guarantee either that this sketch was made on the spot or that it dates from the same time as the adjacent pages (Bower, 2002, p.141). This, I suspect, was done at the behest of the artist’s brother John Girtin (1773–1821) who appropriated material from the artist’s studio after his death including ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’, a combination that accords with the unusual makeup of the book (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹

In all, sixteen pages were removed from the Book of Drawings for sale, either by the artist himself or possibly John Girtin. Incidentally, only half of the sketches detached from the book have so far been identified. A faded watercolour of an unidentified riverside village (see figure 1) is a candidate for one of the missing drawings as it matches the dimensions of the sketches removed for sale, and there is just a possibility, which needs to be investigated further, that it is related to the scene shown in A Village at the Bend of a River. The missing drawing from page forty-three followed two views of Middleham Castle (TG1619 and TG1620), and, if the unidentified riverside village does show a view on the river Ure, it is conceivable that this completed a group of Wensleydale scenes. The work is known only from an image, however, and at this stage it is not possible to confirm the attribution to Girtin with any degree of certainty.

1799 - 1800

A Crag on the River Nidd

TG1510

(?) 1799

A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground

TG1619

(?) 1801

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1620

(?) 1799

A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground

TG1619

(?) 1801

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1620