- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
- Date
- 1799 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- 36.8 × 30.5 cm, 14 ½ × 12 in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- Monastic Ruins; The Scottish Borders
-
- Collection
- Versions
-
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
(TG1231)
- Catalogue Number
- TG1230
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 187ii as 'Jedburgh Abbey'; 'c. 1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Girtin and Loshak, 1954
Provenance
John Heugh (c.1813–78); probably his sale, Christie’s, 24 April 1874, lot 12, as 'Tintern Abbey, 14 ½ × 12'; bought by 'Grundy & Smith', 41 gns; Charles James Pooley (1836–1900) (lent to London, 1875); his sale, Christie’s, 6 March 1880, lot 29, unsold; his sale, Capes & Dunn, Manchester, 28 February 1882, lot 40; bought by Thos. Agnew & Sons, 25 gns, for James Worthington (lent to London, 1884); Arthur Mason Worthington (1852–1916); then by descent to Mrs E. M. Worthington (Girtin and Loshak, 1954); untraced
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.26; London, 1884, no.178
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, pl.16; Flett, 1981, pp.139–40
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 west front of Jedburgh Abbey, in the Scottish Borders, is one of two versions of a composition that Girtin sketched during his tour to the area in 1796 (the other being TG1231). The larger of the two watercolours, with its more complex set of figures, is likely to have been one of the two works titled ‘View of Jedborourgh Abbey’ that were shown at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1797 (Exhibitions: Royal Academy, London, 1797, nos.423 or 466), whilst this work appears to have been painted a few years later. The watercolour has neither been exhibited nor sold in public for many generations, however, and is known only as a black and white image of no great quality. The work was presumably seen by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), who included it in his catalogue of Girtin’s watercolours with the note that it differed from the earlier version ‘in lighting effects’, and he dated it to around 1800 (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.159). As far as I can tell, the work does indeed display a more dramatic weather effect and a later date is no doubt appropriate.
Jedburgh is situated on one of the main routes from England, and this, combined with the picturesque location of the ruins in the village, helped to make it a popular subject with artists and patrons. Indeed, Girtin produced perhaps as many as six different compositions showing the abbey, including looking from the river (TG1233), viewed from a position above (TG1229), seen from closer to (as here) and from the east, as in two watercolours that were made before his 1796 tour from a sketch by his early patron James Moore (1762–99) (TG0086 and TG0104). Uniquely amongst the views of Jedburgh Abbey painted by Girtin, which all have the appearance of showing a building entirely in ruins, the image of the west front includes evidence of the makeshift structure of the parish church, which was built inside the shell left after the Reformation. Inserted into the empty west widow are two smaller lights, flanked by shutters, and above those can be seen the gable end of the temporary roof, which enclosed the parish church until the opening of the new building in 1875. As the text that accompanies the engraving after Moore’s drawing of the abbey in The Copper-Plate Magazine notes (see print after TG0104), this arrangement ‘exhibits the greatest contrast imaginable to its former splendor’, and this was no doubt the function of the tumbledown cottage, which from this angle eclipses much of the abbey’s northern flank (Walker, 1792–1802, vol.3, no.71, pl.142).
1796 - 1797
The West Front of Jedburgh Abbey
TG1231
(?) 1800
Jedburgh Abbey, from the Riverbank
TG1233
1797 - 1798
The Village of Jedburgh, with the Abbey Ruins
TG1229
1792 - 1793
Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
TG0086
1792 - 1793
Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
TG0104
1792 - 1793
Jedburgh Abbey, from the East
TG0104