- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Bamburgh Castle, from the South
- Date
- 1796 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 19 × 26.5 cm, 7 ½ × 10 ½ in
- Inscription
'Girtin - 1794' lower left, by (?) Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Colour Sketch: Studio Work
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; Coasts and Shipping; Durham and Northumberland
-
- Catalogue Number
- TG0183
- Description Source(s)
- National Trust Website; Photograph
Provenance
Anderson & Garland, 27 June 1995, lot 264 as 'Bamburgh Castle - a small boat approaching a shrimp-fisherman on the beach in the foreground', £5,000; bought by the National Trust
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours

Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside House, Northumberland (National Trust)

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery

York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire

The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London

Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire

A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Church Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London

Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham

Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection

Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art

Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection

A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds Art Gallery

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works

Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley

Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York

Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection

Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire

The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London

Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)

The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection

An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Gallery, Sheffield

St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works

York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
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 view of Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast, seen from the south, is most perplexing. The drawing is signed and dated '1794', in which case it should predate Girtin’s visit to Bamburgh in 1796, when the site was one of a number of coastal locations that he sketched during his first independent tour. Girtin had made a view of Bamburgh as early as 1792–93 (TG0116), when he worked from a sketch by his earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), who visited the north east and the Scottish Borders in 1792 (see source image TG0116), and, if this watercolour does indeed date from 1794, we might expect it too to have been copied from a drawing by Moore. No such drawing appears to have survived, however, and in any case Girtin’s watercolour has so many features in common with a group of small watercolours that the artist made after his return from the 1796 northern tour that I am inclined to think that it too was made from an on-the-spot sketch from that trip and that either the date is not authentic or the artist himself added it later in error. Other north-eastern views, such as Bothal Castle (TG1089) and Seaton Sluice (TG1088), may not be dated either, but their close similarity with Pegwell Bay (TG0372), from 1796, helps to identify a significant group of small studio works that were created to replicate the spontaneity of an on-the-spot sketch. This watercolour has faded somewhat, with the sky suffering in particular, but the summary treatment of the water and the vegetation on the hill remains relatively unaffected and comparable enough with the similar areas in the view of Bothal to suggest that the two were executed at roughly the same time. A significant amount of the watercolour has been created from multiple layers of wash, and this, combined with the way in which the whole of the surface has been worked over in a uniform manner, suggests that, despite other signs of having been produced at speed, it too was produced in the studio. If I am right in suspecting the veracity of the date on this view, therefore, it has a claim to be amongst the first examples of a new kind of commodity, something I have termed the colour sketch–studio work, which Girtin developed around 1796–97. Smaller, less heavily worked and therefore cheaper to purchase, these less formal watercolours approximated the effect of the works Girtin actually coloured on the spot, and they therefore offered patrons and collectors the opportunity to buy a different aspect of the artist’s output.
1792 - 1793
Bamburgh Castle, from the East
TG0116
1792 - 1793
Bamburgh Castle, from the East
TG0116
1796 - 1797
Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
TG1089
1796 - 1797
Seaton Sluice
TG1088
1796
Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate
TG0372