- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Caernarfon Castle, from the East
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 13.3 × 21.2 cm, 5 ¼ × 8 ⅜ in
- Inscription
‘Cairnarvon Castle by Thomas Girtin’ lower centre in pen and ink, in a later hand; '2' lower left
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Caernarfon Castle, from the East
(TG1738)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1308
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 264 as 'Caernarvon Castle'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in May 2025
Provenance
'Hogarth'; bought from him by Dr John Percy (1817–89), 1881; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 17 April 1890, lot 522; bought by 'Robinson' for £1 4s; Sir John Charles Robinson (1824–1913); his posthumous sale, Sotheby’s, 24 February 1914, lot 27, one of 2; bought by 'Ward', £3; William C. Ward; Charles Mallord Turner, 1922; then by descent
Exhibition History
William Ward, 1902b, no.25, £4 4s; William Ward, 1904a, no.10, £4 4s
Bibliography
Sheringham, 1922, p.89; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.207 as untraced
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
Interior View of 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 view of Caernarfon Castle, looking west towards the Queen’s Gate, was made on Girtin’s tour of North Wales in the summer of 1798 and was used as the basis for a studio watercolour dated 1800 (TG1738). In the drawing, Girtin rapidly recorded the outlines of the castle but, uncharacteristically for him, concentrated more attention on the vessels on the river Seiont, particularly on the ship under construction on the stocks, and these details are carefully replicated in the final composition. This view of the late thirteenth-century fortifications built for Edward I (1239–1307) had been the subject of countless depictions by artists, amateur and professional, by the time of Girtin’s visit, and so the boat-building scene under the shadow of the Queen’s Gate offered a different take on a scene that had perhaps grown too familiar. This is certainly the impression one gets from Girtin’s watercolour of the same view (TG1315) but taken from further away, which, though it shows the castle in a wider landscape, appears rather bland in contrast.
Interest in this pencil drawing is enhanced by its close association with Girtin’s contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) who made a more rapid sketch from almost exactly the same spot on his visit to the castle in August or early September of the same year. Travelling around North Wales about a month later than Girtin, Turner did not meet up with his colleague and though they chose much the same spot from which to work there is no suggestion that they sketched together. Their sketching practice was in any case very different. Girtin typically made just one sketch of a subject, carefully choosing the most adventitous angle to sketch with an eye to fixing a composition suitable for a finished watercolour. Turner, in contrast, tended to make rapid studies of a subject from a number of positions and in the case of Caernarfon he actually returned a year later to complete a survey that ultimately resulted in compositions that were a complex synthesis of views.
The presence of this drawing in the collection of a descendent of Turner in the 1920s persuaded me in the past to argue that Girtin's collaborator had purchased it at the sale of their mutual patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Other pencil drawings, including The Market Square at Aylesbury (TG0369a) and another Caernarfon scene, Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr (The Great House) (TG1313), were indeed bought by Turner at the Monro sale in 1833 and they are now part of the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. However, rather than being a part of Turner's collection that remained with the family after his death, it now appears that the drawing was the 'Carnarvon Castle, pencil' sold from the collection of Dr John Percy in 1890 (Christie's, 17 April 1890, lot 522) and which was later with the dealer William Ward (William Ward, 1904a, no.10). Which is not to say that the work might not have come ultimately from Monro. A view of ‘Carnarvon Castle’ by Girtin was included in a sale from the Monro collection in 1806 (Christie’s, 10 May 1806, lot 80).
1800
Caernarfon Castle, from the East
TG1738
1798 - 1799
Caernarfon Castle, from the River Seiont
TG1315
1798 - 1799
The Market Square at Aylesbury
TG0369a
(?) 1798
Caernarfon: A Street Scene with Plas Mawr (The Great House)
TG1313