This fine panoramic view of Ullswater in the Lake District, looking south from Aira Park, was made at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), where Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797. Their task, as they recalled to the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821), was to copy ‘the outlines or unfinished drawings of’ principally John Robert Cozens (1752–97), but other artists too, including Girtin’s master, Edward Dayes (1763–1804). The ‘finished drawings’ they were commissioned to produce were the result of a strict division of labour: ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. As the young artists reported, ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, with Turner receiving ‘3s. 6d each night’ whilst ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).¹ The outcome of their joint labours was substantial, amounting to several hundred drawings of which at least twenty are Lake District scenes and some of these can definitively be shown to be after compositions by Dayes.

Girtin made a number of copies of his master’s views of the Lake District during his apprenticeship, including Lake Windermere and Belle Isle (TG0078). Since he was never actually to travel to one of the country’s most popular picturesque regions, for artists as well as their patrons and customers, he continued to base his Lake District views on the works of others throughout his career, and, as with the numerous copies that Girtin and Turner created from compositions by Cozens, it was the slight sketches and outlines that Dayes made on his travels that were used as the source for their more finished watercolours. Monro’s posthumous sale, in 1833, contained several hundred of Dayes’ sketches, including seven ‘Views on the lakes, blue and Indian ink’ as well as views of ‘Keswick, Glanton, Patterdale’, all presumably made on his only documented visit to the Lakes in 1789, and there is no evidence that Monro owned any of the older artist’s more finished studio works (Christie’s, 2 July 1833, lots 42 and 45). The Dayes’ source for this view of Ullswater has not been traced, though a similar panoramic composition that shows the lake from a position further north is part of the Turner Bequest (see figure 1). This is particularly significant because, as with a substantial proportion of the Girtin/Turner collaborations made at Dr Monro’s home, it was purchased by Turner at the patron’s posthumous sale in 1833 and the artists may therefore have known the work.²

Monro’s posthumous sale contained more than forty Lake District views, all of which were attributed solely to Turner (Christie’s, 26 June 1833; Christie’s, 1 July 1833). Unlike Girtin, Turner did visit the region at this point in his career and he executed a number of sketches from the shore of Ullswater at Aira Park, including a similar view looking south (Tate Britain, TB XXXV 42). However, differences in the alignment of the hills and varying details in the foreground, together with the less extended format of the composition, suggest that Turner’s on-the-spot sketch was not the source for the Monro School watercolour, and whilst some of the items in Monro’s sale may have resulted from Turner’s 1797 sketches, the majority were noted as being in ‘blue and Indian ink’ and therefore they employed the same palette associated with the Monro School collaborations based on ‘outlines or unfinished drawings’. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the attribution of the Lake District views to Turner alone has been challenged in recent years following the publication of Andrew Wilton’s pioneering article in 1984, Girtin’s contribution to this view of Ullswater has not hitherto been acknowledged (Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). In fact, Turner’s sparing use of a simple palette leaves extensive areas of the paper clear to act as highlights, with the result that Girtin’s distinctive pencil work is visible in many areas, particularly in the vegetation in the hills to the right.

1791 - 1792

Lake Windermere and Belle Isle

TG0078