This badly faded watercolour has been identified since it was first exhibited in 1875 as showing the village of Kirkstall on the river Aire, a few hundred metres away from the celebrated abbey ruins. However, there is no independent evidence to confirm this, and nor might one expect there to be. The numerous artists who travelled to sketch the picturesque ruins nearby did not generally stop at the village, and there appears to be no other contemporary view of Kirkstall that might corroborate the old title of Girtin’s watercolour. The facades of the vernacular buildings are distinctive enough, together with the incongruous detail of a bridge spanning a stream that appears to flow under a building in one direction and broaden out into a pond in the other, for us to be reasonably sure that the scene is not invented, but as David Hill, the author of Thomas Girtin: Genius in the North (Hill, 1999), has concluded, the work ‘has nothing to do with Kirkstall’. Hill noted in a typically generous and well informed email dated 8 March 2024 ‘that there is no stream or river at Kirkstall so benign as to warrant a ford and a bridge and cottages built right over it’, whilst the ‘elaborate brick chimneys’ depicted by Girtin ‘are not at all characteristic of West Yorkshire, especially Kirkstall which is surrounded by excellent building stone’. The form of the vernacular architecture, he concludes, is more southern in character and suggested that Surrey might be the most appropriate place to look for the location of Girtin’s village view. Girtin’s visit to the district around the home of Dr Thomas Monro at Fetcham resulted in a number of depictions of similar vernacular buildings (see TG1432 and TG1571), but it is the other area associated with this type of subject, rural Essex, that currently seems to offer the best chance of identifying the view. Girtin visited the area around 1798/99 to fulfil a commission for his future father-in-law Phineas Borrett (1756–1843) producing a number of views of farm properties in Radwinter and Wimbish near Saffron Walden that he had bought as an investment (TG1414 and TG1452) and a number of other local rural scenes also resulted (TG1757). The famously picturesque village of Finchingfield just a few miles away to the south includes all of the key elements of the composition, namely the bridge in the centre spanning a stream which broadens out to form a pond in the foreground, and a line of buildings left and right with a road turning away, though if Girtin's view does turn out to be Finchingfield, the artist will have adapted it by replacing the trees that are now so evident on the spot and substituting a more picturesque array of buildings taken from elsewhere. Girtin was not averse to making such adjustments as can be seen in the case of a pair of views of Kelso Abbey where two different buildings appear in the foreground of otherwise similar compositions (TG1117 and TG1717). If not Finchingfield, then another Essex subject would seem the most likely option as the mix of building materials seen here, with brick and plaster walls, red roofing tiles and prominent brick chimneys are all characteristic of the local vernacular style.

The poor, faded condition of the watercolour means that the sky, together with its reflection in the river, has disappeared almost completely, whilst the foliage to the right and the distant fields have changed to a dull tone, barely distinguishable from the earth colours used for the roof tiles. I suspect that this dated drawing from 1801 was once an outstanding work in which Girtin paid uncharacteristic attention to the animals and figures that populate the scene. In particular, he took care with the cart and horses watering in the river, and this detail may even have been based on his drawing Four Studies of a Cart (TG1522), which he appears to have made a few years earlier. Certainly, there is more logic to the action of the horses drinking in the river compared to the similar group in a field in the watercolour known as The Carter (TG1523), and, in general, the work has a strong claim to being a snapshot of village life even if some of the figures, including the two men to the right of the bridge, are out of scale with the rest.

1799 - 1800

Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey

TG1432

1800 - 1801

The Sawmill, Cassiobury Park

TG1571

(?) 1799

Turver’s Farm, Wimbish

TG1414

(?) 1799

Pinckney’s Farm, Radwinter

TG1452

1800 - 1801

A Farmyard with Cattle, Poultry and Labourers Unloading Hay, Possibly Pinckney’s Farm, Radwinter

TG1757

1800 - 1801

Kelso Abbey: The West Front

TG1117

1800

Kelso Abbey: The West Front

TG1717

1797 - 1798

Four Studies of a Cart

TG1522

1798 - 1799

An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’

TG1523