The discovery at the end of 2024 of a second replica of the on-the-spot sketch that Girtin made in 1799 of the village of Middleham in Wensleydale (TG1508) was surprising and perplexing in equal measure.¹ As with the first replica which was made on paper with a 1801 watermark (TG1620) this drawing too has almost the same dimensions and if one overlays an image of it over those of the other two versions one again sees such a degree of congruence between the forms as to indicate that it too was traced from the original drawing. However, in contrast to the replica found in the Whitworth Book of Drawings this work misses out some details and the line feels more mechanical. Likewise, it economises on some of the pattern making and spatially it is less coherent, all of which suggests that the replica may have been executed by another artist. In the entry for Girtin’s later replica (TG1620) I suggest a possible motive, namely that, having found a purchaser for his on-the-spot sketch, the artist signed and dated the sheet and made a tracing for his own records, presumably hoping for a future commission for the subject. Clearly, that could not be the case for a second replica and given its slightly less polished appearance I wonder if it might not be connected instead with an unrealised reproductive print project. An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington, signed and dated 1801 (TG1747), has all the signs of being executed to be reproduced as a drawing exercise for amateurs to copy (see TG1518 figure 1), and perhaps something similar was involved here. The soft-ground etchings Girtin produced as the basis of the aquatints for his Picturesque Views in Paris also required the production of tracings (see TG1881 figure 1) and whilst the artist himself was their author, taking a copy of a drawing as part of the reproductive process might have here been delegated. Whatever the reason, a question mark next to Girtin’s name feels appropriate in this instance.

One thing of which we can be reasonably sure is that the drawing is not by Girtin’s friend Henry Edridge (1768–1821) to whom it has hitherto been attributed. Edridge was best known as a portrait draughtsman and miniaturist; indeed, he was responsible for two images of Girtin himself (TG1928 and TG1923). Later in his career Edridge turned increasingly to landscape and given that his draughtsmanship was heavily indebted to the younger artist’s example a number of Girtin’s drawings have understandably been wrongly attributed to him (see TG1432 and TG1606). It was more likely a confusion over the provenance, however, that led to the misattribution of this drawing and two others also in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (TG1119 and TG1061). They were included in an album of Edridge’s pencil sketches that appear to have been acquired from the sale in 1845 (Christie’s, 24 April 1845) of the artist’s heir Henry Rice (1788–1844). A lot comprising three of Girtin’s drawings was erroneously mixed in with more than 180 sketches by Edridge, providing a neat illustration of the fate of many of his sketches that cannot now be traced.

1799

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1508

(?) 1801

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1620

(?) 1801

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1620

1801

An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington

TG1747

1797 - 1798

Studies of Goats

TG1518

1802

Bellevue and the Pont de Sèvres, Taken from near the Pont de Saint-Cloud: Pencil Study for Plate Thirteen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1881

(?) 1796

Portrait Miniature of Thomas Girtin

TG1928

(?) 1801

Thomas Girtin Sketching

TG1923

1799 - 1800

Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey

TG1432

(?) 1800

Kirkby Malham

TG1606

(?) 1796

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right

TG1119

(?) 1796

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Church Beyond

TG1061