- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
- Title
-
- Rochester Castle, from the River Medway
- Date
- (?) 1791
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper, on an original washline mount
- Dimensions
- 27.2 × 39.1 cm, 10 ¾ × 15 ⅜ in
- Mount Dimensions
- 37.5 × 49.5 cm, 14 ¾ × 19 ½ in
- Inscription
'Girtin fecit.' lower right on the original mount, by Thomas Girtin
- Subject Terms
- Castle Ruins; Dover and Kent; River Scenery
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0057
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2014
Provenance
Possibly Greenwood, 25 January 1792, lot 69 as ‘Rochester castle, and bridge’, £2 18s; ... private collection, England; Andrew Clayton-Payne, 2013–16; bought by the Museum, 2016
Exhibition History
Houston, 2025, no.27
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 A recent auction included a drawing attributed to William Alexander (1767–1816) which bears a startling resemblance to Dayes’ composition (Roseberry’s, 29 March 2023, lot 121). The likelihood is that the drawing was copied from Dayes’ watercolour and that it is not by Alexander, but it is not entirely out of the question that it is the original sketch by Girtin’s master.
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About this Work
The discovery in 2013 of an unrecorded early work by Girtin in perfect condition and with its original signed washline mount adds significantly to our understanding of the apprentice artist’s development in the studio of his master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Of particular significance is the fact that the work can be linked with some degree of certainty to a sale at Greenwood’s auction house on 25 January 1792, which included a drawing by Girtin, ‘Framed and Glazed’, of ‘Rochester castle, and bridge’ (Exhibitions: Greenwood, 25 January 1792, lot 69). This and six other watercolours by Girtin were consigned to auction by Dayes, who, as an early biographer noted, ‘treated him as a mere means of making money’ (Thornbury, 1862, vol.1, p.102). Dayes’ belief that the watercolours of his sixteen-year-old apprentice had a significant commercial value, equal to his own, stemmed, no doubt, from the high quality of this work, which shows how Girtin had already mastered the various elements of his master’s practice. In fact, features such as the attractive patterning in the water, the broken, fluid treatment of the clouds, and the flashes of sunlight that enliven the stone of the castle and bridge, all realised in simple muted palette, illustrate how Girtin had even begun to put his own twist on his master’s style.
Girtin, as a London-based apprentice, would not have been able to travel to Rochester and he would therefore have had to base his watercolour on the work of another artist. As with many early works, such as Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear (TG0012), this meant a sketch by Dayes. A later watercolour by Dayes in the more summary style he deployed for smaller topographical works employs the same composition (see figure 1), and this, in turn, was presumably also based on the untraced source referenced by Girtin.1 The fact that Girtin includes more of the buildings on both banks of the river Medway confirms that it was not based on Dayes’ watercolour but an untraced sketch. Dayes’ composition, which shows an oblique view of the bridge cut by the Strood tide mill in the foreground so that only half of its length is visible, has the effect of bringing the massive form of the castle's Norman tower-keep into greater prominence, and this approach proved to be highly influential with a generation of artists, including even Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Girtin himself used it as the basis for a number of later works, not least for his celebrated view of Durham Castle (TG1075).
The very fine condition of the watercolour, testament to Dayes’ technical knowledge and abilities as a teacher, extends to the original washline mount, which has survived changes in fashion in the display of drawings. The artist’s signature, with its rare use of the Latin term ‘fecit’, meaning ‘Girtin made it’, illustrates that the mount was an integral part of the work’s conception, and this is confirmed by the manner in which areas of colour in the foreground stray onto the paper support. In other words, the watercolour was mounted before work was completed and it would have appeared with this support even when framed and glazed at the 1792 sale. Washline mounts such as that seen here were increasingly replaced with simple cream surrounds from the middle of the nineteenth century as it was felt that a neutral area around a watercolour provided more of an opportunity to appreciate the formal qualities of the work.
1790
Durham Cathedral, from the River Wear
TG0012
1796 - 1797
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1075