- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on laid paper (watermark: horn in escutcheon; GR)
- Dimensions
- 18.4 × 23.5 cm, 7 ¼ × 9 ¼ in
- Inscription
‘House at Caernarvon’ on the back, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- North Wales; The Country Town
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1313
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 265 as 'House at Caernarvon'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known); bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851); accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Bibliography
Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1240 as 'House at Caernarvon'; Tate Online as 'A Street in Conway, with Plas Mawr' (Accessed 16/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1798 Welsh Tour:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Rhuddlan Castle, from the River Clwyd
Tate, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
Private Collection, North Wales
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr
Tate, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
British Museum, London
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
British Museum, London
The Cain Falls (Pistyll Cain), near Dolgellau
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
A Mountain View, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
A Bridge over the Glaslyn, near Beddgelert
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
British Museum, London
Pont Seiont, Looking Towards Mynydd Mawr (Big Mountain)
Private Collection
Pont y Pair, Betws-y-Coed
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Looking towards Cadair Idris
Private Collection
A View of Hills and a River, Probably in North Wales
British Museum, London
Denbigh Castle and the Vale of Clwyd
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, Possibly the Vale of Clwyd
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River; Studies of Seated Figures
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Valle Crucis Abbey: From the Cloister Looking Towards the Dormitory
Private Collection
Valle Crucis Abbey: The Chapter House, from the South West
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A River Scene, Probably the Dee near Corwen
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
The Cloisters of Chester Cathedral
Private Collection
The Red Castle, from Hawk Lake, with a Distant View of Shrewsbury
Private Collection
Wroxeter: The Roman Wall
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Loan from George and Patti White
The Old Severn Bridge at Bridgnorth
British Museum, London
Hereford Cathedral, from across the River Wye
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
The Great Hall, Kenilworth Castle
Private Collection
An Unidentified Valley, Probably in North Wales
Southill Park, Bedfordshire
Cadair Idris, from the Estuary near Barmouth
Private Collection
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About this Work
This sketch of a street scene in Caernarfon, with the now demolished Elizabethan town house of Plas Mawr (The Great House) and the castle in the distance, was drawn by Girtin on his tour of North Wales in the summer of 1798. The building has been incorrectly identified as showing the similarly named house in Conwy, but Girtin’s inscription on the back, which reads ‘House at Caernarvon’, is correct, and the subject’s identity can be confirmed by a number of depictions of the picturesque building that were made at roughly the same time, including a comparable watercolour by John Buckler (1770–1851) (see figure 1).
As with another view of Caernarfon, showing the castle looking west to the Queen’s Tower (TG1308), this drawing was bought at the posthumous sale of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) by Girtin’s contemporary and collaborator Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), and it is now part of the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. Other outline drawings that came from Monro’s collection, including the Caernarfon views and The Market Square at Aylesbury (TG0369a), all of which postdate the co-commissions with Turner, suggest that the patron continued to acquire Girtin’s drawings, and, specifically, examples of the pencil sketches that he produced on his tours. These, I suspect, were bought as much as examples of the artist’s skill as a draughtsman as for their picturesque and antiquarian subjects.
(?) 1798
Caernarfon Castle, from the East
TG1308
1798 - 1799
The Market Square at Aylesbury
TG0369a