- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
- Date
- (?) 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 14.6 × 21.7 cm, 5 ¾ × 8 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Brown Earth’ middle right, by Thomas Girtin; ‘80’ lower left
- Part of
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- River Scenery; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1621
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 450 as 'Village at the Bend of a River (probably Yorkshire)'; '1801'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2022
Provenance
Sale at Platt Vicarage, Rusholme, Manchester, 1898; sketchbook bought by 'Shepherd'; then by descent to F. W. Shepherd; his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 July 1977, lot 46; bought by Baskett and Day; bought by the Gallery, 1977
Bibliography
Hardie, 1934, p.17; Hardie, 1938–39, no.19, p.94; Hill, 1999, p.60
Other entries in Later Sketches:
Taken on the Spot and Worked in the Studio

Mountain Scenery, Said to Be near Beddgelert (page 15, reverse, of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Valley of the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert (page 15 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Trees in a Glade Overlooking a Lake
Private Collection

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

An Extensive Landscape with the Ruins of Mitford Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Plumpton Rocks, near Knaresborough
Private Collection

A Parkland Landscape with Cattle and Sheep
Private Collection

John Raphael Smith: 'Waiting for the Mail Coach' (mounted on page 1 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (page 11 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Stables, Plompton Park (page 17 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Harewood House, from the South West (page 18 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough (page 20 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (page 25 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham' (page 26 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Sandsend (page 29 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Grimbald Crag, near Knaresborough (page 30 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Crag on the River Nidd (page 31 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End (page 33 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe
British Museum, London

An Interior View of the Choir of Bolton Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe (page 37 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe (page 38 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The East End of Bolton Priory Church (pages 38–39 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Distant View of Middleham Castle, with the River Ure in the Foreground (page 41 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (page 42 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Village at the Bend of a River, Probably in Yorkshire (page 44 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Beached Vessels at Low Tide (page 46 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Five Craft off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 47 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Shipping off the Coast on a Calm Sea (page 48 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

The Ruins of Old Mulgrave Castle (page 49 of the Whitworth Book of Drawings)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Mulgrave Park and Castle, from near Epsyke Farm
British Museum, London

The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Kirkstall Abbey, with a Canal Barge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The River Nidd, between Knaresborough and Wetherby
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection

A Clump of Trees by the Waterside
Private Collection

A Torrent by a Clump of Trees
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White

A River Valley and a Distant Hill Seen through Trees
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

A Shady Road Leading to Cottages
British Museum, London

A Church in a Village, Possibly at Radwinter
British Museum, London

A Building with a Tall Chimney, next to a Stream
British Museum, London

Landscape with a Farmhouse and Cottage
Private Collection

A Schooner near the Shore
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Coast Scene with Two Beached Vessels
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Shipping Study: Five Craft on a Calm Sea
British Museum, London
Footnotes
- 1 Details are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
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About this Work
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