- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Unknown Artist after (?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Westminster, from the Ruins of the Savoy
- Date
- 1795 - 1800
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 29.5 × 47.1 cm, 11 ⅝ × 18 ½ in
- Object Type
- Copy after Thomas Girtin
- Subject Terms
- London and Environs; Urban Ruins
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0256
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001 and 2018
Provenance
John Scott (1816–64); bequeathed to the Gallery, 1864
Bibliography
Baker, 2011, p.133 as 'View of Westminster', 'Circle of Thomas Girtin'
Place depicted
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About this Work
The poor quality of the watercolour washes that render this view of the ruins of the Savoy as a muddy-coloured inchoate mass led the National Gallery of Scotland to catalogue the work as by an anonymous follower of Girtin. Stylistically, there is little to connect the work with Girtin except for the subject, a variation on a composition of which he produced at least two versions – Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond (TG0226 and TG0366) – and this led Tom Girtin (1913–94) to suggest that it was made by the amateur artist John Henderson (1764–1843) after a lost variant of his own ancestor’s work (Girtin Archive, 14). Certainly, it must have been produced at roughly the same time as watercolours such as Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond, since one cannot imagine that the prominently situated sieve, shown in the foreground of this and the other Savoy subjects by Girtin, was a fixture on the site for too long. In fact, a more likely source, if this is a copy by an amateur, lies in the work of François Louis Thomas Francia (1772–1839), whose strikingly similar monochrome study likewise contrasts, to dramatic effect, the bold vertical forms of the ruined tower featured by Girtin and the Westminster cityscape behind (see figure 1). Significant differences between the two views suggest, however, that the watercolour held by the National Gallery of Scotland is not a copy of the Francia either, and perhaps it would be more sensible to describe the existence of both drawings as reflecting Girtin’s more general influence, whereby his original composition encouraged other young watercolourists to explore the potential of a subject that he seems to have initially pioneered.
1795 - 1796
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
TG0226
1795 - 1796
Part of the Ruins of the Savoy Palace, Westminster Bridge Beyond
TG0366