This sketch of Wetherby Bridge and the mills along the river Wharfe, seen from the weir, was until the latter stages of the preparation of this catalogue assumed to have formed the basis for a studio watercolour that dates from around 1800 (TG1642). However, the discovery of another almost identical study in a private collection (TG1641) has raised questions about the drawing’s status and precise function. It is slightly narrower, but, as the process of overlaying images of the two drawings demonstrates, although they adopt a different palette, in other respects they are indistinguishable, begging the question of which is the work made on the spot and which is the replica produced in the studio. There are three other examples of Girtin producing replicas of his on-the-spot sketches at this date, and in two of the cases – Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond (TG1508 and TG1620) and Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (TG1525 and TG1601) – there is evidence in the form of dates and watermarks that the versions found in the Whitworth Book of Drawings postdate the on-the-spot sketch by at least a year. In this case, however, there is no clear indication of which drawing was made from nature, but one must be a copy, and if pressed I would go with this work as the replica, pointing to the inclusion of decorative details such as the five gulls circling the bridge, as well as a slightly more careful application of colour.

In fact, the colouring of both versions of Wetherby Bridge and Mills, as well as other sketches made in and around the Yorkshire market town (TG1645 and TG1646), is quite crude in places and it lacks the inventive pattern-making that I associate with Girtin’s colouring on the spot. Indeed, at one time I seriously considered the possibility that the washes of colour on similar sketches were added subsequently to an outline drawing by another hand. Given that the artist's brother John Girtin (1773–1821) recorded taking possession of ‘180 Sketches’ and ‘4 little Books partly of sketches and partly blank paper’ following the artist’s death in November 1802, it is not impossible that it was he who added the colour to make the works more saleable (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹ However, the same argument can be made in favour of Girtin’s authorship, and I now suspect that the colouring was added by him in the studio to an on-the-spot outline drawing to enhance the impression of a sketch worked from nature, something that might have had an extra appeal to supportive collectors. In this case, therefore, could it be that having found a purchaser for an on-the-spot sketch, albeit somewhat developed, Girtin then made a replica that might subsequently be used to produce studio watercolours, meaning that this, the possible ‘original’ sketch, was not the basis for TG1642 after all? This is hardly a watertight case, but perhaps the more important point is that the difficulties we have in distinguishing the replica from the on-the-spot study tell us a lot about Girtin’s pioneering role in the commodification of the sketch at this date.

All of Girtin’s studio watercolours of Wetherby feature the fine bridge that crosses the Wharfe as well as the riverside mills that were used to grind corn and rape at this date (the others being TG1642, TG1643 and TG1644). This view of the weir from the south bank of the river gains an added interest in the studio watercolour through the addition of figures engaged in repairing the structure. David Hill has made the convincing suggestion that this activity, which is also seen in a number of other scenes on the Wharfe, including Harewood Bridge (TG1551), was the result of serious flood damage in the summer of 1799 (Hill, 1999, pp.42–43).

(?) 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1642

1799 - 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1641

1799

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1508

(?) 1801

Middleham Village, with the Castle Beyond

TG1620

1799 - 1800

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1525

(?) 1801

Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea

TG1601

1799 - 1800

Wetherby Mills

TG1645

1799 - 1800

Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby

TG1646

(?) 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1642

(?) 1800

Wetherby Bridge and Mills, Looking across the Weir

TG1642

(?) 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1643

(?) 1800

Wetherby: Looking through the Bridge to the Mills

TG1644

1800 - 1801

Harewood Bridge

TG1551