- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Richmond Castle, from the River Swale
- Date
- 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 32.2 × 47.2 cm, 12 ⅝ × 18 ⅝ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin - 1800’ lower right, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
-
- Leeds Art Gallery
- (503/23)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1688
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 390 as 'Richmond Castle'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and February 2020
Provenance
Christopher Henry Thomas Hawkins (1820-1903); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 19 June 1905, lot 72 as 'Castle on a Hill', dated 1800; bought by 'Agnew', £56 14s; Thos. Agnew & Sons (stock no.4834); bought by Thomas W. Wright, 1 June 1906, £100; his sale, Christie's, 27 April 1923, lot 85 as 'Carisbrooke Castle, with peasants and animals'; bought by 'Palser', £54; J. Palser & Sons (stock no.18735); bought by the Gallery, 15 October 1923, £150
Exhibition History
Brussels, 1929, no.78; London, 1934b, no.764 as ’Richmond, Yorkshire’; Bucharest, 1935, no.138; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.23 as ’Richmond Castle’; London, 1960, no.64; Manchester, 1975, no.74; Edinburgh, 1982, no.28; British Council, 1982, no.29; London, 1993, no.145; Leeds, 1995, no.37; London, 2002, no.166
Bibliography
Davies, 1924, pl.51 as 'A Castle'; Binyon, 1933, p.108; Rothenstein, 1933, p.50; Mayne, 1949, p.101; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.70; Bury, 1960, p.14
Place depicted
Other entries in Late Watercolours:
Samuel William Reynolds and Painting for the Art Market
An Imaginary City, with Antique Buildings
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Ancient Ruins, with an Obelisk
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ancient Ruins, with a Gothic Church
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
A Classical Composition, with a Church and Column
Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
The Arch of Janus, Rome
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Temple of Clitumnus
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Rome: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Rome: The Temple of Saturn, with the Arch of Septimius Severus
Private Collection
A Town on an Estuary
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
A Lagoon Capriccio
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
An Unidentified Coastal Landscape with a Windmill
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight
Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle upon Tyne
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Lindisfarne Priory, Northumberland (English Heritage)
Kelso Abbey: The West Front
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
The Higgins, Bedford
On the River Medway, with a Boatyard, Beached Vessels and Hulks
Private Collection
Bisham Abbey, on the River Thames
Private Collection
A Classical Composition, with Figures Admiring the Sculptures
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
An Unidentified Ruin next to a Bridge over a Stream, Said to Be Furness Abbey
Touchstones Rochdale
The Gatehouse of Morpeth Castle
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Buildings on the River Nidd, near Knaresborough
British Museum, London
Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill
British Museum, London
Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Bridge, Morning
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Kirkstall Abbey, from the Canal, Evening
Private Collection
A Distant View of Kirkstall Abbey
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead
An Unidentified Scene, Formerly Known as ‘Kirkstall Village’
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
British Museum, London
Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills
Leeds Art Gallery
Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
York: The New Walk on the Banks of the River Ouse
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
Private Collection
York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Private Collection
A Farmyard with Barns, Ladder and Figures; A Sky Study
Courtauld Gallery, London
Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Leeds Art Gallery
Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection
Ripon Minster, from the South East
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Ripon Minster, from the South West
Private Collection
The Abbey Mill, near Knaresborough
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Mountain Stream in Spate, Possibly the River Wharfe
Private Collection
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church from across the River Wharfe
Eton College, Windsor
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Bolton Abbey: The East End of the Priory Church, from across the River Wharfe
Leeds Art Gallery
Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection
Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Private Collection
The Banks of the River Wharfe, with Bolton Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Stepping Stones on the River Wharfe, near Bolton Abbey
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Storiths Heights, near Bolton Abbey, from the River Wharfe
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Richmond Castle, from the River Swale
Leeds Art Gallery
A Farmhouse in Malhamdale, Known as 'Kirkby Priory, near Malham'
British Museum, London
An Ancient Oak, Said to Be on the River Ure
Private Collection
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection, Norfolk
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Private Collection
Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Guisborough Priory: The Ruined East End
Tate, London
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory; The Tithe Barn, Abbotsbury
Private Collection, Norfolk
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Distant View of Guisborough Priory
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle upon Tyne
Private Collection
Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Upland Landscape, Said to Show Etal Castle
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The River Tweed at Kelso, Looking Upstream
Courtauld Gallery, London
The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
A Distant View of Dryburgh Abbey, with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Private Collection
The Valley of the Tweed, with Melrose Abbey in the Distance
Private Collection
Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
The Village of Jedburgh
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
Southampton: The South Gate and Old Gaol
Private Collection
Bristol Harbour, with St Mary Redcliffe in the Distance
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol
Art Institute of Chicago
A Rainbow over the River Exe
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
A Rainbow over the River Exe
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Rainbow over the River Exe
Graves Gallery, Sheffield
Lydford Castle, from the River Lyd
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
St Vincent’s Rocks and the Avon Gorge
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
On the River Taw, North Devon, Looking from Braunton Marsh towards Instow and Appledore
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Conwy Castle, from the River Gyffin
Private Collection, Norfolk
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea)
Tate, London
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
Private Collection, Norfolk
A Panoramic Landscape, with Figures Trawling a Pond
Private Collection
Landscape with a Distant Ridge, Possibly Hampstead Heath
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
An Inn Yard, Edgware Road, Paddington
British Museum, London
The Thames from a Window of the Old Toy Inn, Hampton Court
British Museum, London
The Old Cottage, Widmore, near Bromley
British Museum, London
Shipping on the River Medway
Museum of New Zealand, Wellington
A Farmyard with Cattle, Poultry and Labourers Unloading Hay, Possibly Pinkney's Farm, Wimbish
Art Institute of Chicago
Farmhouse and Outbuildings, Possibly in Essex
Aberdeen Art Gallery
An Unidentified Village Street with a Church Tower in the Distance
British Museum, London
A Panoramic Landscape, Possibly Showing Primrose Hill, London
Private Collection
A Mountain Stream with a Watermill and Bridge
Eton College, Windsor
Unidentified Landscape with a Distant Rain Shower
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Warkworth Church, with the Bridge Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Italianate Landscape with Two Monks
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 Dayes’ well-informed text on the science of pigments was published posthumously in 1805 in The Works of the Late Edward Dayes and is transcribed in full in the Documents section of the Archive (1805 – Item 2).
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About this Work
This sadly faded watercolour has in the past been said to represent the castles of Carisbrooke and Warkworth, but it clearly shows the view from the river Swale looking north east to the great Norman keep of Richmond Castle. Girtin visited Richmond in 1796, and, although it is possible that he returned on either of his other trips to Yorkshire in 1799 and 1800, he probably looked back to an earlier untraced sketch to make this signed and dated studio watercolour. The town was widely celebrated as one of the most picturesque in the north, and the situation of the castle, as its ‘principal feature’, attracted particular praise. As Edward Dayes (1763–1804) noted, the river and its ‘bold and rocky banks … agreeably diversified with verdure’, and, ‘crowned by the massy battlements of the Castle’, provided artists with a highly attractive subject (Dayes, Works, p.111). In this case, Girtin also included the contrasting sight of the picturesque Castle Mill and the weir on the river Swale, though not the bridge that is such a feature of his earlier view of the castle (TG1064). Returning to his Yorkshire sketches after four years, Girtin chose an altogether less conventional image of the site that uses a bold diagonal to link the rocky bank in the foreground and the mill to the town itself, all of which provides a brightly lit contrast to the forbidding bulk of the castle ruins above. The result is an image of grandeur appropriate to a ruined monument of military might, and where the extraordinarily clumsy and formless area to the left, where Girtin’s perspective has frankly broken down, is strangely in keeping with the overall effect.
The latter, disturbing feature has no doubt been exacerbated by the watercolour’s extremely faded condition. It may be that the work was never brightly coloured, perhaps looking something like the earlier and relatively unaffected Lindisfarne Castle (TG1113), but it has nonetheless changed radically in appearance. The blue in the sky, together with a range of greys of the clouds, has disappeared completely, and the mass of verdure mentioned by Dayes has changed to various tones of ochre, whilst the town of Richmond, on the hill, has become indistinguishable from the rocks on which it was built. Three or so years earlier whilst still influenced by the teaching of Dayes, Girtin chose blue and yellow pigments that might stand over time, whilst here the probable use of the fugitive indigo and gamboge in thin washes, or mixed together, was enough to account for much of the watercolour’s deterioration (Dayes, Works, pp.298–311).1. Touches of pink and blue that have remained on the figures in the middle ground indicate that, whilst exposure to light may have been a factor in the fading, it was the change in Girtin’s palette in the years after the 1796 tour that was the more significant problem. It is ironic, therefore, that the shift to a more sombre, almost monochrome colour range is, arguably, in keeping with the subject of a ruined military stronghold on a rocky outcrop, since one of the key qualities of an awe-inspiring sublime scene is a dark and sombre colouring. Using relatively unfaded examples such as Lindisfarne Castle as a guide, it will no doubt soon be possible to subject watercolours such as Richmond Castle to a virtual restoration, and it will be interesting to see whether the qualities that we associate with its current appearance are retained and, in turn, observe how much our response to a work like this is affected by its condition.
A copy by an unknown artist that has a forged signature and the date 1802 is known only from a photograph in the Girtin Archive (14), where its status is not surprisingly questioned (see figure 1).
1796 - 1797
Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
TG1064
1796 - 1797
Lindisfarne Castle
TG1113