- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
- Title
-
- An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an early mount
- Dimensions
- 28.1 × 20.7 cm, 11 ⅛ × 8 ⅛ in
- Object Type
- Collaborations; Monro School Copy
- Subject Terms
- London and Environs; Urban Ruins
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0368
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 119ii as 'Ruins of the Savoy Palace'; '1795'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in December 2017
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 26 June 1833, lot 98, as 'The ruins of the Savoy Palace 4' by 'Turner'; bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), £3 3s; accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Exhibition History
Bibliography
Ruskin, Works, vol.13, p.255; Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1234 as 'Ruins of the old "Savoy Chapel"' by Thomas Girtin; Turner Online as 'London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Savoy Chapel' by Joseph Mallord William Turner and Thomas Girtin (Accessed 06/09/2022)
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About this Work
This monochrome watercolour of part of the ruins of the Savoy Hospital near the Strand was bought at the sale of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) in 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) in a lot that contained two other views of the site (TG0367 and TG0369) (Exhibitions: Christie’s, 26 June 1833, lot 98). Turner purchased numerous drawings at the sale of his early patron, a large majority of which were watercolours he had collaborated on with Girtin at Monro’s home at the Adelphi, close to the Savoy itself. As in this case, Girtin produced the pencil outline drawing and Turner then added the watercolour washes in a muted palette. The vast majority of the four hundred or so collaborations commissioned by Monro were made after the sketches of other artists, but, uniquely, this drawing and another of the Savoy subjects (TG0369) were created after sketches of the ruins made by Girtin around 1795 (TG0240 and TG0331), with the artist copying his own outlines onto a sheet of paper for Turner to colour. Girtin’s original sketch is about the same size as the final watercolour, which makes one wonder why he did not get the commission to simply colour that, rather than copying his own work, but perhaps he wished to keep the drawing for himself for future reference.
Such is the idiosyncratic nature of the composition that it would be difficult to identify the subject were it not for Girtin’s inscription on the pencil drawing. Indeed, the oblique angle from which the ruins are viewed, the prominent pile of timber reclaimed from the ruins and the proximity of the nondescript building to the right make for such an unusual view that it does not come as a surprise that its source was an on-the-spot sketch by Girtin. Though not entirely clear, it appears to show an oblique view of the eastern external facade of the ruined Savoy Hospital taken from a low viewpoint with the unprepossessing structure of the chapel of the German Evangelical Reformed Church, built in 1771, visible to the right. The constricted space, the low and close viewpoint, and the partly demolished walls convey something of the confused nature of an enclosed site with its muddle of ruins mixed up with newer buildings still in use.
1794 - 1797
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
TG0367
1795 - 1796
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
TG0369
1795 - 1796
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
TG0369
1795 - 1796
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
TG0240
1795 - 1796
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
TG0331