- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Hawarden Castle
- Date
- (?) 1798
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on laid paper (watermark: ornamented Fleur-de-Lys / 1794)
- Dimensions
- 26 × 43 cm, 10 ¼ × 17 in
- Inscription
‘From my Brother’s Portfolio / J.G.’ on the back, by John Girtin; ‘Harwardine Castle’ on the back, not in Thomas Girtin’s hand
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; North Wales
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
(TG1350a)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1350
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2002
Provenance
John Girtin (1773–1821); ... Sotheby’s, 10 November 1994, lot 17; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, £1,035; ... Sotheby’s, 4 July 2001, lot 176, £4,560; John van Oosterom of J v O Papers
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1995, no.18; London, 2002, no.83
Bibliography
Bower, 2002, p.140
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
Footnotes
- 1 Details are transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1804 – Item 1).
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
Of the three outline drawings of Hawarden Castle produced by Girtin (the others being TG0243 and TG0274), this has the strongest claim to having been executed on the spot during his visit to North Wales in the summer of 1798. The other two views, in pen and ink, of the late thirteenth-century keep on top of the Norman motte appear to have been copied at an earlier date from a sketch by the artist’s first significant patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99) (see TG0274 figure 1). Girtin also employs pen and ink to reinforce the outlines of the castle ruins in this colour sketch, but, though this is in general not typical of the on-the-spot drawings made on the 1798 trip, a signed view of the nearby St Winefride’s Well (TG1300) provides a precedent for the practice. Moreover, though the drawing still resembles Moore’s sketch, working from the motif meant that the artist was able to invest the ruins with a convincing three-dimensional quality that is superior to what is seen in the other sketches, where the structure of the castle is subservient to the decorative qualities of the pen work. Furthermore, any lingering doubts one might have about the attribution of a far from typical drawing are allayed by the inscription on the back which reads ‘From my Brother’s Portfolio’ and is signed by John Girtin (1773–1821) with his initials. We can say with some certainty, therefore, that this is one of the sketches that the artist’s brother appropriated from the studio after the death of Thomas and it may even have been amongst the unspecified ‘Sketches’ that John records as receiving ’16. 16.’ for on 21 February 1803 (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1
The Hawarden drawing is also significant for our understanding of the route that Girtin took in 1798. As the artist told the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821), he made the ‘tour through North Wales with a young man from Norwich of the name of Moss. – Girtin had no money, so Moss advanced him £20, & afterwards £5 more, all of which he expended, as he bore half the expences with Moss, excepting for Carriage Horses & Servant’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798). The well-known monument of St Winefride’s Well is only fifteen kilometres away along the same road from Hawarden, and so, given that the nearby Flint Castle also seems to have been the subject of a sketch at this time (TG1363), it looks as though Girtin entered North Wales from the direction of Chester and progressed north and then west along the coast. A date of ‘16 Augt 1798’ on a drawing of Corwen (TG1347) – that is, twelve days before he was recorded as being back in London to sit for his portrait (see TG1933) – also suggests that Girtin returned via mid-Wales and that his journey therefore progressed roughly in an anti-clockwise direction. Hawarden would therefore have been one of the first sites he sketched on the trip, and, given that more spectacular castle ruins would follow in quick succession thereafter, it is perhaps not surprising that this modest composition was not realised as a studio watercolour, though it does seem to have been copied by a follower or pupil (see TG1350a).
On a technical note, the paper historian Peter Bower has identified the support used by Girtin as an off-white laid writing paper with a watermark of an ornamental fleur-de-lys above ‘1794’ (Bower, Report). This may have been manufactured by Clement Taylor the Younger (c.1745–1804) at Maidstone in Kent (Bower, 2002, p.140).
1795 - 1796
Hawarden Castle
TG0243
1795 - 1796
Hawarden Castle
TG0274
(?) 1798
St Winefride’s Well, Holywell
TG1300
(?) 1798
Flint Castle
TG1363
1798
The River Dee, near Corwen
TG1347
1798
Profile Portrait of Thomas Girtin
TG1933
(?) 1798
TG1350a