- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The Ouse Bridge, York
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite, watercolour, pen and ink and scratching out on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 33.6 × 49.5 cm, 13 ¼ × 19 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin (the signature has been cut, suggesting that it once extended onto an original mount which has been lost)
- Object Type
- Exhibition Watercolour; Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- City Life and Labour; River Scenery; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
The Ouse Bridge, York
(TG1041)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1042
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 153ii as '1797'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2016
Provenance
Edward Cohen (1817–86) (lent to London, 1875; London, 1877); then by bequest to his niece, Annie Sophia Poulter (c.1846–1924); then by descent to Edward Alexander Poulter (1883–1973); J. Palser & Sons; bought by Arthur Edward Anderson (c.1871–1938), 1931; presented to the Museum, 1931
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.111 as 'Old Ouse Bridge, York'; London, 1877, no.301; Oxford, 1974, no.29 as 'The Old Ouse Bridge, York'
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, p.100; White, 1977, p.118; Wilkinson, 1972, p.36; Brown, 1982, p.337, no.735; Hill, 2005, p.11
Place depicted
Other entries in The 1796 Northern Tour to Yorkshire, the North East and the Scottish Borders:
Sketches and Subsequent Watercolours

Bamburgh Castle, from the South
Cragside House, Northumberland (National Trust)

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from the North Shore
British Museum, London

The Ouse Bridge, York, from Skeldergate Postern
York Art Gallery

York: The New Walk on the Banks of the Ouse
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

York Minster, from the South West
Private Collection

York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
Harewood House, Yorkshire

The South Side of York Minster, Showing the Transept and the Western Towers
Private Collection, Yorkshire

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
British Museum, London

Unidentified Gothic Ruins, Said to Be St Mary’s Abbey, York
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Private Collection

A Distant View of Ripon Minster, from the River Skell
Harewood House, Yorkshire

A Distant View of Rievaulx Abbey
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Private Collection

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Manchester Art Gallery

Easby Abbey, from the River Swale
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Church Beyond
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
British Museum, London

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

Richmond Castle and Bridge, from the River Swale
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond Castle and Town, from the South East
Private Collection

Barnard Castle, from the River Tees
British Museum, London

Egglestone Abbey, from the River Tees
Gallery Oldham

Egglestone Abbey, on the River Tees
British Museum, London

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Private Collection, Norfolk

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir; Dryburgh Abbey with the Eildon Hills Beyond
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

Durham Cathedral, from the South West
Private Collection

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Private Collection

Tynemouth Priory, from the Coast
Cleveland Museum of Art

Bothal Castle, from the River Wansbeck
Private Collection

A River Scene with a Tower, Said to Be the Tyne near Hexham
Leeds Art Gallery

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Warkworth Castle, from the River Coquet
Private Collection, Norfolk

The Bridge at Warkworth, with the Castle Beyond
Untraced Works

Dunstanburgh Castle, Viewed from a Distance
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Dunstanburgh Castle: The Lilburn Tower
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

Lindisfarne: An Interior View of the Ruins of the Priory Church
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

An Interior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Lindisfarne: The Nave and Crossing of the Priory Church
British Museum, London

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church
Private Collection

York Minster, from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept Looking North
Private Collection

Dryburgh Abbey: The South Transept from the Cloister
Private Collection

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Melrose Abbey: The Ruined Presbytery and the East Window
Cooper Gallery, Barnsley

Melrose Abbey, from the North East
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York

Jedburgh Abbey, from the North East
Private Collection

Jedburgh Abbey, from Jed Water
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
British Museum, London

The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
Private Collection, Bedfordshire

The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
British Museum, London

Jedburgh Abbey, from the South East
Blickling Hall, Norfolk (National Trust)

The Ruins of the Lady Chapel, near Bothal
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

Bamburgh Castle, from the Village
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd

St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool

Richmond, Yorkshire: The Seventeenth-Century House Known as St Nicholas
Private Collection

An Interior View of Fountains Abbey: The East Window from the Presbytery
Graves Gallery, Sheffield

St Mary’s, Old Malton, on the River Derwent
Untraced Works

York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
Private Collection
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About this Work
This view of the sixteenth-century bridge spanning the river Ouse is one of two watercolours that Girtin made from an untraced sketch that was probably made on his visit to York in the course of his first independent tour in 1796. The other watercolour (TG1041), in the collection of the British Museum, is slightly smaller, though it includes more of the riverside buildings to the right, and it is almost certainly earlier in date, probably being the work shown at the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition in 1797. This watercolour, in contrast, employs a more sombre palette that, despite the work’s poor, faded condition, adds a greater sense of drama to what in the earlier work comes across as a rather bland image. As Gerald Wilkinson has noted, the result is an image of a ‘slow Yorkshire river’, rather than a reimagining of the bridge as a Venetian scene as was the case with many of the views of the Ouse at York painted by Girtin’s contemporaries, including Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) (Wilkinson, 1972, p.36). Arguably, this was Girtin’s problem too in the earlier version of the composition, where he matched what Edward Dayes (1763–1804) described as ‘a scene that would have delighted Cannaletti’, with a sunny light effect that might have suited one of the older master’s ‘finest Venetian views’ but that in this case appears merely bland when applied to a northern British scene (Dayes, 1825, p.179). There is no such problem here, though, where cropping the composition to the right and employing a darker palette has helped to create a bold massing of forms from the buildings that then occupied the west end of the old bridge over the Ouse, ‘the Great Council Chamber, and the Prison for Debtors and Felons’, which Dayes thought added so much to ‘the picturesque character of this fine scene’. But aside from the boat lowering its mast, which actually replicates the vessel shown in the earlier view, Girtin still chose to make little of the ‘craft, and a multitude of busy figures employed in loading and unloading the vessels’, which for Dayes were an integral part of the scene (Dayes, 1825, p.180). This is curious because this is precisely the element that Girtin makes such good use of in the outstanding view of the Ouse Bridge from the opposite direction that he produced in 1800 (TG1649), and, as with the earlier version of the scene, this watercolour is strangely underpopulated.
On a technical note, the paper historian Peter Bower has identified the support used by Girtin as a buff laid wrapping paper manufactured by an unknown English maker, and the numerous discoloured spots visible in the sky in particular point to its utilitarian quality (Bower, Report). This is probably the same paper used in a variety of works, including The Ogwen Falls (TG1330), Plymouth (TG1753) and York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern (TG1652). The Plymouth view is dated 1801 whilst the others were produced in 1798 at the very earliest, all of which confirms that this version of the composition was produced significantly later than TG1041.
1796 - 1797
The Ouse Bridge, York
TG1041
1800
The Ouse Bridge, York
TG1649
1798 - 1799
The Ogwen Falls
TG1330
1801
Plymouth
TG1753
1800 - 1801
York: The Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern
TG1652
1796 - 1797
The Ouse Bridge, York
TG1041