- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- All Saints' Church, Marlow
- Date
- 1792 - 1793
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 20.8 × 27.6 cm, 8 ³⁄₁₆ × 10 ¾ in
- Inscription
‘T. Girtin’ lower centre, by Thomas Girtin (the signature has been cut, suggesting that it once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Buckinghamshire View; Gothic Architecture: Parish Church; River Scenery
-
- Collection
-
- The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
- (D.1892.74)
- Catalogue Number
- TG0237
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 141ii as 'Great Marlow Church, Bucks'; '1795–6'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and February 2020
Provenance
John Edward Taylor (1830–1905); presented to the Whitworth Institute, 1892
Exhibition History
Manchester, 1894, no number, as 'Henley Church, on the Thames'; Reading, 1968, no.22; Manchester, 1973, no.46
Bibliography
Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.57; Nugent, 2003, p.132
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
Private Collection
Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection
Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
Private Collection
The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
A Section of the 'Boiling Fountains' (Geysers) and the Surrounding Country, Iceland
Private Collection
The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection
An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Private Collection
Rochester, from the River Medway
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
Private Collection
The Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
Private Collection
The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
Untraced Works
An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Westminster Bridge, from the North East
Untraced Works
The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works
The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
Royal Collection Trust (Windsor)
The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
London Metropolitan Archives
The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Untraced Works
A French Lady of Quality in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London
All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
Private Collection
London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries of London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary's Church, Putney High Street
Private Collection
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This early signed watercolour, probably dating from the first year after the termination of Girtin’s apprenticeship to Edward Dayes (1763–1804), is ultimately based on a composition by the master (see TG0271 figure 1) from which derived two identical pencil drawings (TG0249 and TG0271). Although Girtin was now independent from Dayes and therefore free to travel, the costs involved were no doubt prohibitive and he appears to have continued to look to the work of other artists for the basis of his topographical compositions. Despite his having produced a series of views of Marlow on the Thames, particularly its riverside church, there is no evidence that he ever visited the town. The process of developing a composition from a secondary source was far from straightforward, however, as comparisons between Girtin’s watercolour, his two pencil drawings (TG0249 and TG0271) and the watercolour of the same composition by Dayes indicate. Thus, although each follows the same composition, there are significant variations suggesting that they all have a common prototype but that at every stage changes were introduced. For instance, Girtin’s watercolour dispenses with the trees in the foreground that are a feature of the pencil drawings and Dayes’ watercolour, whilst retaining the rivercraft, which appear solely in the drawings. In turn, Girtin’s watercolour omits the confused mingling of trees and buildings to the right of the drawings, as well as the Gothic detailing of the buildings in the same area in Dayes’ watercolour, introducing in the place of the latter a picturesque gable that is detached from the church. My thesis is that the pencil drawings probably followed the lost prototype closely and that the differences between the watercolours by Dayes and Girtin reflect the different ways in which they adjusted the composition to form a satisfactory outcome. The manner in which Dayes’ watercolour follows the church’s architectural details with greater fidelity reflects both the fact that he could interpret his own drawing with greater certainty (as he had been to the location depicted) and the fact that Girtin was more fundamentally concerned with the picturesque possibilities opened up by the subject. The attraction of the motif lay, in other words, in the way in which the vernacular and the sacred were conflated.
Girtin’s other early view of All Saints’ Church can be dated to 1791, whilst Girtin was still apprenticed to Dayes (TG0054). It is smaller in scale and clearly does not form a pair with this view, which, with its greater mastery of perspective and more sophisticated handling of the watercolour medium, would appear to date from a year or so later. One of the drawings Girtin made is known to have come from the collection of the antiquarian James Moore (1762–99), whose early patronage was crucial in establishing the artist’s career after his apprenticeship. This work displays no great interest in the antiquarian, and it was more likely aimed at the market for picturesque subjects, where the precise identity of the subject was less significant. It is not surprising, therefore, that for many years it laboured under the erroneous title of ‘Henley’.
1792 - 1793
All Saints’ Church, Marlow
TG0249
1792 - 1793
All Saints’ Church, Marlow
TG0271
1792 - 1793
All Saints’ Church, Marlow
TG0249
1792 - 1793
All Saints’ Church, Marlow
TG0271
(?) 1791
Marlow, from across the River Thames
TG0054