- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Harrow-on-the-Hill
- Date
- 1794
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an original washline mount
- Dimensions
- 10.5 × 14.9 cm, 4 ⅛ × 5 ⅞ in
- Mount Dimensions
- 14 × 19.1 cm, 5 ½ × 7 ½ in
- Inscription
‘T. Girtin 1794’ lower left in pen and ink, by Thomas Girtin; ‘Harrow on the Hill - by Girtin’ on the back, in another hand
- Object Type
- Drawing for a Print
- Subject Terms
- Gothic Architecture: Parish Church; London and Environs; The Village
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0187
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 83
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Sotheby’s, 7 November 1910, lot 134; bought by 'Palser', £10; J. Palser & Sons (stock no.16888); bought by Dr King, 12 November 1910; Thomas Girtin (1874-1960); given to Tom Girtin (1913–94), c.1938; bought by John Baskett on behalf of Paul Mellon (1907–99), 1970; presented to the Center, 1975
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1953a, no.46; Sheffield, 1953, no.41; London, 1962a, no.118; New Haven, 1986a, no.19
Bibliography
Davies, 1924, pl.2; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.55
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice

An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik

An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik

The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
Private Collection

Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection

Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
Private Collection

The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik

A Section of the 'Boiling Fountains' (Geysers) and the Surrounding Country, Iceland
Private Collection

The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection

An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik

Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Private Collection

Rochester, from the River Medway
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
Private Collection

The Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
Private Collection

The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
Untraced Works

An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Westminster Bridge, from the North East
Untraced Works

The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works

The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works

The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
Royal Collection Trust (Windsor)

The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
London Metropolitan Archives

The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works

The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works

St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works

The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works

Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Untraced Works

A French Lady of Quality in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection

Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London

All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
Private Collection

London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London

'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London

First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London

'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London

Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London

'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London

Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection

Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection

The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection

Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor

Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)

London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection

The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection

Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works

A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery

Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery

A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection

The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection

The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection

Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection

The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries of London

All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection

Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works

Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection

The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection

A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection

An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection

Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London

An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London

An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London

St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London

An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection

The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection

The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

St Mary's Church, Putney High Street
Private Collection
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About this Work
This small view of Harrow village, located ten miles north west of the centre of London, shows the twelfth-century tower of St Mary’s Church surmounted by its distinctive octagonal lead spire. The view is taken from the village green, where a group of locals have stopped to talk and from where the free-standing gantry sign for the King’s Head Inn appears like a gallows, though ironically it actually frames a view of Harrow School. The watercolour was used as the basis for an engraving that was published in 1797 to accompany the second volume of Daniel Lysons’ The Environs of London, which describes at great length, and with much turgid detail, the history of the village (Lysons, 1792–96). The print does not acknowledge Girtin’s authorship of the drawing, however, and neither does the text make any reference to the village green or the gantry sign, and I suspect that the watercolour was not actually commissioned by Lysons. A more likely scenario is that the work was bought by the engraver or perhaps lent by its owner for the purpose of engraving; this would explain the gap between the date of the work’s completion in 1794 and its publication in 1797. Lysons was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and it may be that Girtin’s earliest patron, the antiquarian James Moore (1762–99), acted as an intermediary between artist and engraver. Indeed, although Harrow is close enough to London for Girtin to have easily made the trip, there is every chance that, as in numerous other instances, he executed his watercolour from an untraced sketch by Moore.
The fact that this watercolour is dated ‘1794’ by Girtin gave it great significance to the first cataloguers of the artist’s work, Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, who split up his career into a series of periods on the grounds of what they perceived to be a linear development in his style. This work, they argued, predated Girtin’s first sketching tour, made in the company of Moore to the Midlands in the summer of 1794. The views of Lichfield Cathedral and Peterborough Cathedral that resulted (TG1002 and TG1018) marked a new phase in the artist’s career, they suggested, leaving behind those works that depended on the compositions of Moore and Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Harrow-on-the-Hill, they continued, was a transitional work that though it still retains many Dayesian features – ‘pencil outlines, the grey underpainting, the flaky linear, sky, the delicate colours … and the drawing of the foliage’, as well as ‘an obvious repoussoir’ – was ‘obviously a labour of love’, displaying ‘an ingenious charm’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.55). The authors characteristically ignored the relationship between Girtin and the print trade, and they did not consider the possibility that far from the drawing being based on Girtin’s own study from nature, the lack of an acknowledgement to Girtin on the print might suggest that the drawing was based on an untraced secondary source.
1794
The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral
TG1002
1794
The West Front of Peterborough Cathedral
TG1018