- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
- Date
- 1797 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 26.7 × 41.3 cm, 10 ½ × 16 ¼ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin (the signature has been cut, suggesting that it once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; River Scenery; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1058
- Description Source(s)
- Auction Catalogue
Provenance
Thos. Agnew & Sons; Isabella C. Meredyth; her sale, Sotheby’s, 19 March 1970, lot 80 as 'A Ruined Abbey on the Banks of a River'; bought by 'Birch', £70
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 the west range of St Agatha’s Abbey at Easby on the river Swale, one of two versions of the composition (TG1059), was probably made after a sketch that Girtin executed on his first tour to the northern counties, in 1796, when he is known to have visited the nearby town of Richmond. The riverside scene is a telling example of the artist’s changing priorities in the year or so immediately following his 1796 visit to Yorkshire, whereby he chose to show the relatively nondescript part of the ruins that contained the abbey’s guest house over the architecturally more impressive ivy-clad remains of the fourteenth-century refectory, which is almost totally obscured by a lumpish modern cottage in the foreground. Girtin’s viewpoint appears to be on the other side of the river, but, as David Hill has shown in relation to a comparable view by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) (see figure 1), it is actually on the near bank just before a bend in the river, which generates a broad uninterrupted foreground of water (Hill, 1996, p.42). In a composition that is equally about the river scenery and the landscape setting as its ostensibly antiquarian subject, Girtin was therefore able to lavish as much attention on the reflections in the water as on the buildings and their attendant vegetation. Turner’s watercolour usefully helps to illustrate the way in which Girtin changed the line of the water and pushed the cottage closer to the ruins in order to achieve the effect he was looking for, with the humble building apparently dwarfing the ruins beyond and the river uniting the various elements of the composition.
This watercolour is only known from a black and white photograph and consequently it has not been possible to establish its date beyond a general estimate of 1797–99. Considering that the work was not engraved, it is surprising to find that there is at least one other copy of the composition in existence (TG1060). The watercolour, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is listed as by an unknown nineteenth-century copyist, but for a long time was thought to be an autograph work by Girtin, and it has therefore been catalogued separately. Another version of the composition (TG1059) has also been described as by a ‘follower’ and was not included by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak in their catalogue (Girtin and Loshak, 1954). However, having recently had the chance to view the work it has now been catalogued as being by Girtin himself and appears as a separate entry.
1797 - 1798
Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
TG1059