This view of Knaresborough Castle from the High Bridge is one of seven surviving sketches that Girtin executed on the river Nidd in and around the town, probably on his visit to Yorkshire in the summer of either 1799 or 1800 (the others being TG1509, TG1510, TG1512, TG1539, TG1542 and TG1589). Each of the drawings was executed on a piece of wove paper of the same vertical dimensions, and there is some evidence that they were all removed from a sketchbook. Two other drawings on the same paper have matching holes, which suggests that they had been bound into a book (TG1508a and TG1525). The latter sketch (Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea) is missing a small section, which, as a later copy indicates (TG1601), must have strayed onto the opposite page. It seems that on just this one occasion Girtin did execute his sketches in a book, though, as the paper historian Peter Bower has argued, it is unlikely that this was made commercially, and it may be that the artist himself assembled sheets of paper into a convenient gathering which would account for slight variations in their size (Bower, 2002, p.141). Whatever the case, this sheet is likely to have featured amongst the ‘180 Sketches’ or ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’ that John Girtin (1773–1821) records taking possession of following the artist’s death in November 1802 and which he subsequently sold on (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹

One of the views on the river Nidd (TG1589) was used as the basis for a finished watercolour (TG1550), and a fine view titled The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough (TG1672) was also based on what appears to have been another, lost sketch from 1799, which is today known from a copy in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1607). Girtin also produced an imposing distant view of Knaresborough Castle from the south east for Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) (TG1669), and it is likely that all of the sketches that he made in the area were created in the hope of securing a similar order from his patron. Lascelles lived at Harewood, about fifteen kilometres to the south, and Girtin probably visited Knaresborough on an excursion from the great house where he was said to have had a room put aside for him to work (Roget, 1891, vol.1, p.96). 

Girtin’s view from the river Nidd looking up to the castle keep, set dramatically above the gorge, was a popular one with artists and patrons alike and it bears a striking resemblance to a small watercolour of Knaresborough that appears to have been produced by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) for Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) (TG1397). The drawing was at one time attributed to Girtin, but it now seems that Turner based it on a sketch he made on his trip to the north east in 1797 and that its resemblance to Girtin’s sketch arose because both artists independently chose as their viewpoint a convenient position on the High Bridge, looking east to the spectacular site of the ruined castle.

1799 - 1800

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough

TG1509

1799 - 1800

A Crag on the River Nidd

TG1510

1799 - 1800

Bilton Banks, on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1512

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, from the North West

TG1539

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks

TG1542

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1799 - 1800

Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck

TG1508a

1799 - 1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1525

(?) 1801

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1601

1799 - 1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1589

1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1550

1800 - 1801

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1672

(?) 1800

The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough

TG1607

1801

A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East

TG1669

1797 - 1798

Knaresborough, from the River Nidd

TG1397