- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Warkworth Hermitage
- Date
- 1798 - 1799
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 43.2 × 59.8 cm, 17 × 23 ½ in
- Inscription
‘Girtin’ lower left, by Thomas Girtin (over an earlier signature, with the beginning of another signature to the left)
- Object Type
- Studio Watercolour; Visible Fold in the Paper
- Subject Terms
- Durham and Northumberland; Trees and Woods
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1097
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 238i as '1797–8'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and April 2024
Provenance
Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–74); then by descent to George Wyndham Hog Girtin (1835–1911) (lent to London, 1875); by a settlement to his sister, Ida Johanna Hog Rogge, née Girtin (1834–1925), January 1880; sold by her to J. Palser & Sons (stock no.15467); bought by Claude Tryon (d.1949), 7 April 1919; his sale, Christie's, 15 December 1939, no.95; bought by 'Harley', £11 11s; ... Leggatt Brothers, London, 1948; Spink & Son Ltd, London; James Leslie Wright (1862–1954); presented to the Museum, 1953
Exhibition History
London, 1875, no.76; Leggatt Brothers, 1948, no.51; Spink’s, London, 1948, no.63; London, 1949, no.208; Trento, 1993, no.9; Birmingham, 2010, no.17
Bibliography
Rose, 1980, p.57
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 badly faded watercolour is one of two large versions of a composition (the other being TG1096) that Girtin created from an on-the-spot colour sketch (TG1095) made on his first independent tour, to the northern counties and the Scottish Borders in 1796. It shows the fourteenth-century chapel hewn out of rock at Warkworth on the river Coquet, together with, in the foreground, the ruined priest’s house, which by this date had acquired the name of a hermitage, even though there is no evidence that it ever ‘functioned as a secluded dwelling for a religious recluse’ (Goodall, 2006, p.29). The effect of the fading on the drawing can be judged by strips to the right and to the bottom, which, because they were protected by a mount at some earlier time, retain something of their original colours. This shows that, in comparison with the other version of the composition, the blues from the sky have been lost and large areas of green foliage have faded to a dull muddy tonality, flattening out their forms. Additionally, a small area in the bottom right, measuring about 4 × 2.5 cm (c.1 ⅝ × 1 in), has been cut out and then reset into the sheet, though for what reason is unclear. The work’s poor condition, and the rather summary handling of the washes of colour that remain, means that it appears inferior to the version that is dated 1798 (TG1096), so much so that it is not unreasonable to question the attribution and ask whether the work is actually by a copyist. Indeed, any inferior version of a work by Girtin that has been reproduced as a print must be viewed with an element of suspicion, as there is always the possibility that it was either copied by an amateur artist from the engraving (see print after TG1096) or, conversely, produced as part of the reproduction process, acting as a model for the engraver to work from when the original was returned to its owner. The latter is perhaps the likelier option here, but even so, I suspect that the watercolour, despite its deficiencies, is still by Girtin, and that it was produced at a slightly later date, when the artist was more inclined to employ fugitive pigments. The use in this work of indigo (for the blue sky) and gamboge (for the yellow that is mixed with it for the greens of the vegetation) would be enough to account for the different appearance of the watercolours, though without any technical analysis this is a matter of speculation. The detail that clinches the attribution to Girtin of both works for me is the presence of a vertical mark about a centimetre wide in the same central position. This resulted from the manufacturing process of the paper used by Girtin, in which the sheet was left to dry out by draping it over a rope, and the fact that the artist was happy to ignore the intrusive effect that resulted marked him out to contemporaries as wilful in the extreme. Whilst it is just about possible to accept that a copyist might have chosen to adopt the same fugitive pigments as Girtin, it is surely inconceivable that they would have replicated such an unsightly feature.
The result of the poor condition of the watercolour is that we are not so inclined to examine the iconography of a composition that in its unfaded state is full of interest. Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak described the composition as ‘peculiarly unpleasant’ (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.65). Whilst that is unfair, it is true that unlike the similarly damaged view Durham Cathedral and Castle (TG1074), this work lacks a structure strong enough to withstand the deleterious effects of its fading, and the carefully calibrated associations of the earlier view of the ‘hermitage’ barely register here.
1798
Warkworth Hermitage
TG1096
(?) 1796
Warkworth Hermitage
TG1095
1798
Warkworth Hermitage
TG1096
1798
Warkworth Hermitage
TG1096
1799
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1074