- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 20.3 × 28.2 cm, 8 × 11 ⅛ in
- Inscription
'Savoy Prison / T Girtin' on the back of an of old backing
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- London and Environs; Urban Ruins
Provenance
J. Palser & Sons (stock no.16198); sold to Thos. Agnew & Sons, 9 February 1909 (stock no.6880); said by Girtin and Loshak to have been in the collection of Sir Hickman Bacon (1855–1945); ... Thos. Agnew & Sons; private collection, Netherlands; Bonhams, 25 January 2012, lot 1; bought by Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, £8,750
Exhibition History
Guy Peppiatt, London, 2012, no.19
Place depicted
Other entries in Master and Pupil:
Edward Dayes and the Industrious Apprentice
An Icelandic Woman in Her Riding Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
An Icelandic Woman with Her Young Daughter
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
The Great Geysir, Iceland, as It Appeared during Its Eruption to Sir Joseph Banks in September 1772
Private Collection
Mount Hekla, with Sir Joseph Banks and His Party Descending from the Volcano
Private Collection
Lava as It Has Run Over the Ridge of a Hill, Iceland
Private Collection
The House of Thorstein Jonsson at Hvaleyri, Iceland
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
A Section of the 'Boiling Fountains' (Geysers) and the Surrounding Country, Iceland
Private Collection
The Basalt Pillars near Laugarnes, Iceland
Private Collection
An Icelandic Woman in Her Bridal Dress
National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Eton College, from the River
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
London: Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Private Collection
Rochester, from the River Medway
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary’s Church, Battersea
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Unidentified Coastal Village, Said to Be Clovelly
Private Collection
The Monument to Anthony and Anne Forster, Cumnor Church
Private Collection
The Interior of Buildwas Abbey Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Somerset House: The Strand Front and the Royal Academy
Untraced Works
An Exterior View of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Westminster Bridge, from the North East
Untraced Works
The Oxford Street Facade of the Pantheon
Untraced Works
The Interior of Westminster Abbey: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
The Queen’s Palace, or Buckingham House
Royal Collection Trust (Windsor)
The King’s Mews, Charing Cross
London Metropolitan Archives
The East Front of St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Untraced Works
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral: The Nave Looking East
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the South West
Untraced Works
The West Front of St Paul’s Cathedral
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The West Front of Westminster Abbey
Untraced Works
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook, Looking East
Untraced Works
A French Lady of Quality in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Edward VI in 1550
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Noble Virgin of Bologna in 1581
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Persian Lady in 1568
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An English Nobleman in 1559
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Henry VIII in 1520
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Marlow, from across the River Thames
Private Collection
Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
The River Wensum at Norwich
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tintern Abbey, from the River Wye
Courtauld Gallery, London
All Saints' Church, Fulham, from the Seven Bells, Putney
Private Collection
London from Highgate Hill
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Subaltern
British Museum, London
'First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650': Sergeant and Private
British Museum, London
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, 1650: Drummer and Corporal
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Officer and Sergeant
British Museum, London
'Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660': Grenadier and Private
British Museum, London
Third Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection
Christ Church, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Llanthony Priory
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Rochester, from the North
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The View from the Great Boathouse, Lake Windermere
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey and Bridge, from Lambeth
Private Collection
The Dover Mail, Dover Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
Rochester Cathedral and Castle, from the North East
Eton College, Windsor
Worcester, from the River Severn
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Lake Windermere and Belle Isle
Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage and Wordsworth Museum)
London Bridge, from the South Bank
Private Collection
The Demolition of a Building, Said to Be Part of the Ruins of Old Drury Lane Theatre
Private Collection
Dover Castle: The Constable's Tower
Untraced Works
A Cottage on the Solent
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Hereford Cathedral, from the River Wye
Hereford Museum and Art Gallery
Chepstow Castle, on the River Wye
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Warehouse and Shipping at Wapping
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
A Distant View of Hereford Cathedral
Private Collection
The Gatehouse and Barbican, Warwick Castle
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Chepstow Castle, from the River Wye
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Interior of a Ruined Abbey Church
Private Collection
The Head of Ullswater, from Goborrow Park
Private Collection
Part of the Ruins of Roche Abbey
Private Collection
The Transept of St Saviour’s, Southwark
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
All Saints' Church, Marlow
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Caesar’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Bronze Age Palstave and a Roman Bow Brooch
Society of Antiquaries of London
All Saints' Church, Marlow
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Unidentified Monastic Ruins next to a River
Private Collection
Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Manchester: Chetham’s College from Hunt’s Bank, with the Bridge over the River Irwell
Untraced Works
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
The Oriel Window of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Private Collection
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Distant View of Marlow, from the River Thames
Private Collection
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
Private Collection
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
Tate, London
An Exterior View of Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
An Interior View of the Ruins of the Savoy Hospital
Tate, London
St Mary’s Church, Monken Hadley
Tate, London
An Exterior View of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Private Collection
The Interior of the Great Hall of Eltham Palace
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Mary's Church, Putney High Street
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 British Library, Ktop XXVII, no.32–33
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About this Work
Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak suggest that this watercolour was based on a monochrome version of the composition that was owned by the artist’s first patron, the antiquarian James Moore (1762–99) (TG0226) (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.152). Aside from the addition of the feral dog in the foreground, the compositions are the same size and are identical, but it is increasingly clear that the monochrome drawing was also produced in the studio and that this watercolour was therefore made after an untraced sketch by Girtin. Employing a different set of pictorial conventions, the artist therefore created two distinct commodities from the same subject. Another watercolour showing the ruins along the riverbank (TG0315) was also worked separately, making it a third version of the same composition. The key feature here is the use of full colour and a carefully delineated sky, and this changes the complexion of the piece completely. The work may retain the same distribution of light, but the colour has the effect of making it more about an everyday scene of labour in the city; without the associations of the use of monochrome and pen and ink with revered artists from the past, we are less inclined to speculate on the moral significance of the contrast between the ancient ruins in the foreground and the modern marvel of Westminster Bridge beyond. A slightly later view from just a few metres further back (see TG0226 figure 1) suggests that the figures in all three versions of Girtin’s view at the Savoy were not invented staffage, designed to add picturesque incidents to the foreground, but were observed in the process of adapting the ruins into a working space. In the print, published in 1798, the piles of rubble have been replaced by a neat fence and in an another watercolour, of 1803,1 the area has been transformed again, this time into a makeshift wharf with a series of neat structures now inhabiting the spaces between columns that were so cluttered with rubble in Girtin’s view from around 1795. The ruins of the Savoy may have provided artists with a picturesque subject, but Girtin also saw the pictorial potential of one of London’s many marginal locations and depicted it in a way that created a potent image of a city in flux.
In contrast to some of the other ten or so views that Girtin made of the Savoy, which, as in the case of Buildings in the Process of Demolition (TG0367), are hard to identify, the distant view of Westminster Bridge to the west allows us to specify the part of the ruins shown here. The three vertical elements shown left of centre formed part of the tower identified as ‘Sutler’s House’ on the plan that accompanied George Vertue’s (1684–1756) view The Savoy from the River Thames (see TG0240 figure 2). The collapse of the roof and the windows of the tower in the intervening period left three gaunt monoliths that contrast with the more recently built Westminster Bridge beyond. Wisely, Girtin moved his viewpoint closer to the river so as to omit the bulk of the undamaged south transept of the old Savoy Hospital, which in other views disturbs the sense of a timeless ruin existing apart from its tumultuous urban setting (see TG0226 figure 2). All of this was to be swept away within a few years, however, with the building of the Strand Bridge (1811–17), later renamed Waterloo Bridge.
1795 - 1796
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
TG0226
1795 - 1796
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
TG0315
1794 - 1797
Buildings in the Process of Demolition, Said to Be the Ruins of the Savoy Palace
TG0367