- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
- Date
- (?) 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper (watermark: J WHATMAN)
- Dimensions
- 37.8 × 28.4 cm, 14 ⅞ × 11 ⅛ in
- Inscription
‘J. M. W. Turner’ lower right, by an unknown hand
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
(TG1123)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1122
- Description Source(s)
- Gallery Website
Provenance
Col. H. S. Eeles; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, 14 November 1989, lot 91; bought by Spink & Son Ltd, London, £9,350; bought from them by Sir Edwin Alfred Grenville Manton (1909–2005), 1995; Manton Family Art Foundation, 2005–07; presented to the Institute, 2007
Exhibition History
Spink’s, London, 1990, no.1 as ’Melrose Abbey, A Study of the East Window’; Spink’s, London, 1993, no.8
Bibliography
Wilton, 2001, pp.91–92; Clarke, 2012, no.143, pp.91–92, pp.183–84; p.266
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
Revisions & Feedback
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About this Work
This view of the ruined east end of Melrose Abbey was probably made in 1796 on Girtin’s first independent sketching tour. Only one of the twenty or so pencil drawings and on-the-spot colour sketches that survive from the trip is dated, but it is still broadly possible to trace Girtin’s progress through Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland and the Scottish Borders from the titles of the works that he sent to the 1797 Royal Academy exhibition, and from the dated watercolours that were subsequently produced from these and other untraced sketches. The watercolour based on this sketch is not dated (TG1123), but, although its condition has been compromised by fading, it would appear to have been created around 1797 on stylistic grounds, suggesting, in turn, that its source was produced on the earlier of Girtin’s visits to Melrose. The later stay in the Scottish Borders resulted in two watercolours titled The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance (TG1720 and TG1721), but this close-up view of the ruined abbey is much closer to the type of architectural subject that predominated amongst the outcomes of the 1796 tour. Moreover, the way that the artist has worked up his outline drawing in just a few areas, using a limited, essentially monochrome palette, is typical of his earlier sketching practice as seen in the similar internal view of Lindisfarne Priory (TG1105) or Richmond Castle and Bridge (TG1063). Although this argument is not watertight, there is just enough evidence, I suggest, to contradict Andrew Wilton’s dating of the work to 1800 (Wilton, 2001, pp.91–92).
Prior to his trip to the Scottish Borders in 1796, Girtin produced two watercolours of Melrose, both created from the work of other artists (TG0196 and TG0868). The former was executed from a sketch by the artist’s earliest patron, the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore (1762–99), whilst the latter was copied from a print by Thomas Hearne (1744–1817). Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak, who did not know about this on-the-spot sketch, thought that the finished watercolour was possibly ‘not an original design’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.177). Prior to its sale in 1989, the sketch was attributed to Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), and it was inscribed with his name at some point. However, although he visited Melrose in 1797 on his northern tour none of the five sketches he made accord with this view and there is no doubt that the work is by Girtin (Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook, XXXV 16, 17, 18 and North of England Sketchbook, XXXIV 60, 61).
.
1796 - 1797
Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
TG1123
(?) 1800
The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
TG1720
1800 - 1801
The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
TG1721
(?) 1796
Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
TG1105
(?) 1796
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
TG1063
(?) 1794
Melrose Abbey, from the South West
TG0196
(?) 1795
Melrose Abbey: The View to the South Transept
TG0868