- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after (?) Thomas Malton the Younger (1748-1804)
- Title
-
- The Banqueting House, Whitehall
- Date
- 1790 - 1791
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour and pen and ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 12.7 cm, 5 in diam.
- Inscription
‘T. Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin; ‘Bankwiting House White Hall’ lower centre
- Object Type
- Drawing for a Print
- Subject Terms
- London Architecture
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0039
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 3 as '1789–90'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2016
Provenance
Revd Alexander Dyce (1798–1869); bequeathed to the Museum, 1869
Bibliography
South Kensington Museum, 1874, p.105; V&A, 1927, p.232; Girtin, 1952, p.115; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.50; Lambourne and Hamilton, 1980, p.250
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
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This signed drawing by Girtin was engraved and subsequently published by Charles Taylor (1756–1823) in his periodical The Temple of Taste on 1 May 1795, though stylistically it can be dated to a few years earlier. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak argued that the watercolour is based on a drawing by Thomas Malton the Younger (1748–1804) that was published in 1781 and that shows the building at an oblique angle (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.50). A more likely Malton source, however, may be a later watercolour (see figure 1), which shows Inigo Jones’ (1573–1652) pioneering classical facade parallel to the viewer. However, aside from the question of how the young artist might have got access to a watercolour rather than a published print, there are several differences between their respective views that suggest that Girtin did not copy Malton’s view. For instance, Girtin does not include the roof that features in Malton’s view. He also shows a different set of windows on the ground floor as bricked up (the building was then in use as a chapel), and, in turn, he also includes more of the buildings to the right and left of the facade. This last difference raises another issue, as a close comparison of Girtin’s watercolour and Taylor’s print shows that the engraver actually changed the form of the adjacent buildings and adjusted the fenestration so that it matches Malton’s image. All of this suggests that the young and inexperienced apprentice artist may have worked from his own sketch and that the engraver corrected faults in his drawing and took the opportunity to tidy up the neighbouring buildings. Thus, the undistinguished structure to the right of the Banqueting House and rising to half its height is rendered in the print as a more modestly sized and symmetrical structure in the engraving.
Such changes no doubt stemmed from Taylor’s contention in the text that accompanied the print that Jones was responsible for ‘the most correct and elegant building in England’ and that these qualities derived from ‘the symmetry of its parts’ and ‘the elegance of the whole’. Built between 1619 and 1622 for James I, the Banqueting House was conceived as a ‘small part … of a vast Palace’ fit for a modern monarchy and built in a classical style that might also help to ensure the triumph of the ‘British School of Art’. The plans for Whitehall Palace were one of the victims of troubled political times, though the Banqueting House retained its status as a pioneering example of a new, classically inspired architecture. Taylor concluded his commentary with a cautionary note. James I could not have known it, but he was creating a building ‘from which his son was to step from the throne to the scaffold’ and, indeed, the front-on view of the Banqueting House adopted by Girtin was invariably used in depictions of that event.