- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
- Date
- 1796 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 58 × 47.3 cm, 22 ⅞ × 18 ⅝ in
- Inscription
‘T. Girtin’ lower centre, 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; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
(TG1122)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1123
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 317 as 'Melrose Abbey'; 'c. 1799'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001
Provenance
Christie’s, 30 July 1928, lot 28 as 'Tintern Abbey, with a shepherd and dog'; bought by Messrs. Pawsey & Payne, £231; Thos Agnew & Sons, 1931 (stock no.1092); T. M. Brown; Captain Roland Addy (d.1962); his widow, Joan Thirsk; bequeathed to the Gallery, 1978
Exhibition History
Agnew’s, 1931, no.130; Agnew’s, 1933, no.82; Agnew’s, 1936, no.85
Bibliography
Gallimore, 2016, p.53
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
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About this Work
This much faded watercolour depicts the ruined presbytery of Melrose Abbey, with the fine fourteenth-century east window showing prominently. It is based on a partially coloured on-the-spot sketch that Girtin made on his 1796 trip to the north east and the Scottish Borders (TG1122). The detailed sketch carefully records the form of the ornate vaulting and the great Perpendicular five-light window, and, because the artist adopted an off-centre position to the south, he was also able to include a clear view of one of the undamaged bays of the north arcade of the presbytery. In other words, the sketch could not have been better calculated to display some of the outstanding architectural features of the first phase of the rebuilding of the abbey, between 1385 and 1400, following the destructive assault on the building by an English army. The scale of the rebuilt church and the quality of its detailing meant that even in its partly ruined state it was an object of great interest for antiquarians. The almost diagrammatic clarity of Girtin’s sketch suggests that he visited the site with a commission to depict a specific view and that this was stipulated by the patron for its architectural content rather than for any picturesque qualities. Certainly, when Girtin came to paint this large watercolour back in the studio, he followed his sketch closely, down to replicating the play of light across the masonry, which he had recorded with a wash of monochrome on the spot, though he did omit the flying buttress to the left, which appears in the original drawing to be suspended in mid-air. The artist’s one concession to more picturesque concerns was to include areas of the surrounding landscape glimpsed through the arcade to the left and the defenestrated tracery in the centre, but even the shepherd and his dog are deployed to enhance the structure’s scale.
Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak dated the watercolour to 1799 – that is, before Girtin’s second trip to the Scottish Borders, in 1800, but later than the bulk of the works that were made after drawings produced on the 1796 tour. However, they were not aware of the existence of the sketch when they compiled their catalogue of the artist’s works (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.177). Andrew Wilton, in contrast, dated the on-the-spot sketch to 1800, which would make the watercolour even later, but that is surely not right (Wilton, 2001, pp.91–92). The scale of the watercolour, its emphasis on the architectural content and the adoption of an oblique viewing point to monumentalise the structure all point to a date soon after the 1796 tour, and, although the issue has been clouded by the work’s poor, faded condition, a comparison with the similarly sized and equally detailed view of York Minster (TG1050) backs up this claim. One further detail that links the work to many of the larger watercolours produced following the 1796 tour is the way in which the lower part of Girtin’s signature has been lost. This does not mean that the drawing has been cut down; rather, it indicates that it was initially surrounded by the artist’s original border, onto which the inscription had partly strayed, so that when the mount was removed, part of Girtin’s signature disappeared with it. Such a border was an integral part of Girtin’s watercolours at this date, even of works framed for display, and it may be that the large scale of this work means that it was hung on the wall for a long period after its completion; this would certainly account for its poor state of preservation. The destructive consequences of the fading of Girtin’s later watercolours was often down, at least partly, to the artist’s use of fugitive pigments, but that is less likely to have been an issue here, where, I suspect, the work’s place within a decorative wall display in a domestic context ultimately consigned it to its sad fate.
(?) 1796
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
TG1122
1796 - 1797
The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
TG1050