This view of Bilton Banks is one of seven surviving sketches that Girtin executed on the river Nidd in and around Knaresborough, probably on his visit to Yorkshire in the summer of either 1799 or 1800 (the others being TG1509, TG1510, TG1511, TG1539, TG1542 and TG1589). Each of the drawings was executed on a piece of wove paper of roughly the same vertical dimensions, and there is some evidence that they were removed from a sketchbook. Two other drawings on the same paper have matching holes, which suggests that they had been bound into a book (TG1508a and TG1525). The latter sketch (Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea) is missing a small section, which, as a later copy indicates (TG1601), must have strayed onto the opposite page. It seems that on just this one occasion Girtin did execute his sketches in a book, though, as the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, it is unlikely that this was made commercially, and it may be that the artist himself assembled sheets of paper into a convenient gathering which would account for slight variations in their size (Bower, 2002, p.141). Whatever the case, this sheet is likely to have featured amongst the ‘180 Sketches’ or ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’ that John Girtin (1773–1821) records taking possession of following the artist’s death in November 1802 and which he subsequently sold on the art market (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹

One of the views on the river Nidd (TG1589) was used as the basis for a finished watercolour (TG1550), and a fine view titled The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (TG1672) was also based on what appears to have been another, lost sketch from 1799, which is today known from a copy in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1607). Bilton Banks does not seem to have been the subject of any contemporary views, though the stretch of the Nidd Gorge features some spectacular scenery. Located three or so kilometres upstream from Knaresborough, Bilton Banks would have been somewhat off the artist’s route, and I suspect that Girtin was alerted to its scenic charms by someone with good local knowledge. The artist was presumably staying at this date at Harewood House, the home of Edward Lascelles (1764–1814). Given that Girtin was later commissioned by Lascelles to paint an imposing distant view of Knaresborough Castle (TG1669), it is likely that all of the sketches that he made in the area were created in the hope of securing a similar order from his patron. It is perhaps telling, therefore, that the most heavily worked of the Knaresborough sketches (TG1542) shows another view from Bilton Banks, looking across the river to the castle in the distance, in a composition that mirrors the work that Lascelles commissioned on a monumental scale.

1799 - 1800

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough

TG1509

1799 - 1800

A Crag on the River Nidd

TG1510

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough Castle, from the High Bridge

TG1511

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, from the North West

TG1539

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks

TG1542

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1799 - 1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1508a

1799 - 1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1525

(?) 1801

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1601

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1550

1800 - 1801

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1672

(?) 1800

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1607

1801

A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East

TG1669

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks

TG1542