This view of Knaresborough from the north west, looking across the river Nidd to the distant castle, is one of seven surviving sketches that Girtin executed in the vicinity of the picturesquely located town on his visit to Yorkshire in the summer of either 1799 or 1800 (the others being TG1509, TG1510, TG1511, TG1512, TG1542 and TG1589). Each of the drawings was executed on a piece of wove paper of roughly the same vertical dimensions, and there is some evidence that they were removed from a sketchbook, though when, and by whom, is not clear. Two other drawings on the same paper have matching holes, which suggests that they had been bound into a book (TG1508a and TG1525). One of these sketches – Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (TG1525) – 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 the artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), recorded taking possession of following the artist’s death in November 1802 and that he subsequently sold on (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹

As Professor David Hill has confirmed, Girtin’s view of Knaresborough from the north west includes St John’s church to the left, with its distinctive lead spire, as well as the castle keep in the centre (email dated 15 January 2022). This is roughly from the same angle as another view in the same group of drawings (TG1542), though taken from closer along the river Nidd. The composition employed in both sketches recalls the large-scale distant view of Knaresborough from the south east that Girtin painted for his patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) in 1801, A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East (TG1669). Girtin stayed with Lascelles at Harewood House in the summers of 1799 and 1800, and the latter is the likeliest date for a trip to Knaresborough to study the scenery along the river Nidd, with actual or potential commissions from his patron as the prime motivation. Indeed, in addition to the Distant View of Knaresborough, we now know that one of the other sketches from this group was realised as a studio watercolour – Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough (TG1550). Whether this was a commission from Lascelles or whether he acquired it on the open market is not entirely clear, but there is little doubt that Girtin’s sketching activity along the river was closely related to his work for his Yorkshire patron.

The colour washes on this work, as well as a number of the other studies made on the river Nidd, are quite crude in places and they lack the economy of means that I associate with Girtin’s colouring on the spot. Indeed, at one time I seriously considered the possibility that the washes of watercolour on similar sketches were added subsequently to an outline drawing by another hand – and, given that the artist’s brother had access to the ‘Sketches’ left behind in the studio at his death, it is not impossible that it was he who was responsible in an effort to make the works more saleable. However, the same argument can be made in favour of Girtin’s authorship, and I now suspect that the colouring, including the skyscape, was added by him in the studio to an on-the-spot outline drawing to enhance the impression of a sketch worked from nature, something that might have had an extra appeal to supportive collectors. This is confirmed by the discovery of the word ‘corn’ inscribed in pencil the middle ground – a note that would have had no function if it had been coloured on the spot.

1799 - 1800

Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough

TG1509

1799 - 1800

A Crag on the River Nidd

TG1510

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough Castle, from the High Bridge

TG1511

1799 - 1800

Bilton Banks, on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1512

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

1799 - 1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1525

(?) 1801

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1601

1799 - 1800

Knaresborough, Looking across Bilton Banks

TG1542

1801

A Distant View of Knaresborough, from the South East

TG1669

1800

Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough

TG1550