- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The Market Square at Aylesbury
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite on paper
- Dimensions
- 15.4 × 24.2 cm, 6 ⅛ × 9 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Aylesbury’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Outline Drawing; Replica by Girtin
- Subject Terms
- Buckinghamshire View; Picturesque Vernacular; The Country Town
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
The Market Square at Aylesbury
(TG1398)
- Catalogue Number
- TG0369a
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 397ii as '"At Aylesbury"'; '1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2018
Provenance
Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); his posthumous sale, Christie's, 26–28 June and 1–2 July 1833 (day and lot number not known); bought by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851); accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest, 1856
Bibliography
Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1241 as '"At Aylesbury"' by Thomas Girtin; Tate Online as 'Buildings at Aylesbury' (Accessed 06/09/2022)
Place depicted
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
Private Collection
An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection
Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection
The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection
A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection
A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection
Westminster Abbey, Seen from Green Park and the Queen's Basin
National Gallery of Art, Washington
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection
London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk
Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London
A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection
A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington
The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection
Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection
The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Study of a Woman Reading; A Slight Study of a Seated Woman
Private Collection
Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection
A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection
An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London
A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection
The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
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About this Work
This freely worked pencil sketch, which shows a picturesque group of buildings in the Buckinghamshire market town of Aylesbury, appears at first sight to be a sketch made on the spot. Aylesbury would have been a fairly straightforward excursion from London, but it could also have been taken in on Girtin’s major tours to the West Country in 1797 or Wales in 1798, and stylistically either date would be a reasonable fit. However, Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak knew of another pencil drawing of exactly the same subject with identical dimensions, which they thought was the primary version of the sketch (TG1398), and they speculated that this drawing, which comes from the collection of Girtin’s early patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), was made as a ‘repetition’ for him around 1800 (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.189). The other drawing has since disappeared, and it does not seem to have been photographed, so it is impossible to either confirm or deny their claim. However, although their date for both drawings looks to be too late, given that there is no evidence that Girtin had any connection with Monro much after 1798, I am inclined to believe that there is something to their view that the work is a ‘repetition’. At least four of the pencil drawings in the Whitworth Book of Drawings (TG1601, TG1604, TG1611 and TG1620) are copies made after earlier on-the-spot studies, and so close are they to the format and style of Girtin’s work in the field that it would not be possible to distinguish them as copies if not for the existence of dates and watermarks. This is clearly not the case here, but the fact that the drawing came from the collection of Monro does at least suggest a motive for the production of a replica: namely, that Girtin sold the sketch, or a copy of it, on the basis of its subject or as an example of his draughtsmanship, and that the replica was made so that the artist could retain a version of it for future reference, or indeed for sale. However, the examples of the replicas in the book in The Whitworth, Manchester, suggest that even if the other version of this drawing reappears, it may still be impossible to say whether it was the original, such was the artist’s skill in making replicas that seemingly display signs of being sketched on the spot.
1797 - 1798
The Market Square at Aylesbury
TG1398
(?) 1801
Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea
TG1601
(?) 1800
Grimbald Bridge, near Knaresborough
TG1604
(?) 1800
A Crag on the River Nidd
TG1611
(?) 1801
Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond
TG1620