- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)
- Date
- 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 29.8 × 51.4 cm, 11 ¾ × 20 ¼ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin 1800’ lower left in pen and ink, by Thomas Girtin
- Part of
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- London and Environs; River Scenery; The River Thames; Wind and Water Mills
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
(TG1525)
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (TG1601)
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (TG1741)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1740
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 337ii as 'The White House at Chelsea'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2011
Provenance
Thomas Girtin (1775–1802); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie's, 1 June 1803, lot 39 as ‘Battersea Reach’; bought by ‘Harman’ for £10 10s; ... William Bernard Cooke (1778–1855) (lent to London, 1823); Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1790–1867) by later 1823 (according to the advertisements for the mezzotint in The Gems of Art); David Thomas White, London (as recorded in The Spectator, 5 November 1842); Thos. Agnew & Sons; their sale, Christie's, 4 November 1861, lot 969, 25 gns; Horatio Lucas Micholls (lent to London, 1871, London, 1875; London, 1891); then by descent to Edward Montefiore Micholls (d.1926); his widow, Ada Micholls (d.1933); bequeathed to the Gallery, 1933
Exhibition History
London, 1823, no.16 as ’Chelsea Reach, looking towards Battersea. An admirable specimen of the Artist’ (Lady’s Magazine, January 1823, pp.51–52; European Magazine, January 1823, p.55, p.59; The Examiner, 5 January 1823, pp.10–11; Morning Chronicle, 27 January 1823; Literary Register, 18 January 1823, p.44); London, 1871, no.115 as ’View on the Thames. Chelsea Reach, with Windmill and White House’; London, 1875, no.102 as ’The White House, Chelsea Reach ... It is said that Turner declared this drawing to be finer than any painted by himself’; London, 1891, no.41 as ’White House, Battersea Reach’; London, 1924b, no.N.10; London, 1934b, no.914 as ’White House, Chelsea’; London, 1973, no.187; Manchester, 1975, no.60 as ’The White House, Chelsea’; London, 1986, no.9; New York, 1987, no.283; Liverpool, 1991, p.29; London, 1993, no.143; London, 2002, no.159 as ’The White House at Chelsea’; London, 2009, no.86; London, 2011, no.42; Shanghai, 2018
Bibliography
Miller, 1854, p.xx; Thornbury, 1862, vol.1, pp.118–19, pp.393–94; Wedmore, 1876, pp.112–13; Binyon, 1900, p.24; Sparrow, 1902, pp.83–84; Stokes, 1922, p.74; Hind, 1923, pp.241–42; Davies, 1924, p.19, p.22, pl.84 as 'Chelsea Reach - "The White House"'; Binyon, 1931, pp.117–18; Binyon, 1933, pp.106–07; Massingham, 1933, p.38; Hardie, 1934, p.7; Hardie, 1938–39, p.89, pp.91–92; Binyon, 1939, pp.7–8; Bury, 1942, p.40; Piper, 1942, p.14; Oppé, 1946b, pp.127–28; Mayne, 1949, p.25, p.53, p.55, pp.64–65, p.98, pl.32b; Williams, 1952, p.107; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.70–73; Smedley, 1955, pp.38–42; Rothenstein, 1962, pp.80–81; Gage, 1965, p.65; Hardie, 1966–68, vol.2, p.13, p.20; Louden, 1969, pp.84–86; Mayoux, 1972, p.123; Holcomb, 1974, pp.52–53; Hawcroft, 1975, p.16; Honour, 1979, pp.66-67; Wilton, 1977, pp.187–88; Vaughan, 1978, pp.188-89; Morris, 1987b, p.17; Gage, 1987, pp.124–25; Kitson, 1988, p.4; Humphreys, 1989, pp.60–02 Ford, 1990, p.164; Finch, 1991, pp.39–40; Hemingway, 1992, p.23; Vaughan, 1999, p.194; Beckett, 1999, p.177; Humphreys, 2001, p.99; Hoozee, 2007, pp.192–93; Solkin, 2015, p.266; Ibata, 2018, pp.189–91; Jones, 2018, p.171; Charles, 2020, p.254
Place depicted
Footnotes
- 1 My reading of Girtin’s watercolour by no means exhausts the rich set of associations that such a poetic work evokes for viewers. It is telling, therefore, that the watercolour under its erroneous title has been the subject of poems by two fine poets, Dannie Abse and John Mole. Abse’s Thomas Girtin’s ‘The White House’ was first published in 1998 whilst Mole’s An Amateur Watercolourist to Thomas Girtin describing the effect of his ‘White House’ was published in With a Poet’s Eye: A Tate Gallery Anthology in 1986 (Adams, 1986, pp.51–52).
- 2 It is also possible that the work was sold at Girtin’s posthumous sale in 1803 as ‘Battersea Reach’ to ‘Harman’ for ten guineas. ‘Harman’ was one of the main purchasers at the sale, acquiring nine items. Although it has not been possible to identify the purchaser, it may have been the ‘A. Harman’ who, as clerk to Samuel Whitbread (1764–1815), listed Reynolds’ holdings of Girtin’s works (Documents: 1803 – Item 3). It is possible, therefore, that Reynolds got access to the drawing through Harman post 1803 rather than actually owning the work. Thanks to Tim Wilcox for noting the fact that I initially omitted this possible detail of the work's provenance (Wilcox, 2023, p.23).
- 3 The letters are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1801 – Item 4 and 1803 – Item 3).
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