- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- York: Pavement, Looking towards All Saints
- Date
- 1796 - 1797
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper
- Dimensions
- 27.3 × 37.5 cm, 10 ¾ × 14 ¾ in
- Object Type
- Exhibition Watercolour; Studio Watercolour
- Subject Terms
- City Life and Labour; Gothic Architecture: Parish Church; Street Scene; Yorkshire View
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1655
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 383 as 'A Street in York'; '1800'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 1999
Provenance
Thos. Agnew & Sons, 1863 (stock no.5531), as 'Street in Oxford'; bought by Thomas Ashton (1818–98), June 1864, £16 16s; then by descent to Katherine Lupton (née Ashton); Christie’s, 14 July 1987, lot 33, £20,900; the Leger Galleries, London
Exhibition History
(?) Royal Academy, London, 1797, no.486, no.489, no.499 or no.726 as ’View of York’; Leger Galleries, 1987, no.10 as ’A Street Scene in York: Numerous Figures by the Church of St Crux, Looking up the Pavement Towards the Market Cross and the Church of All Saints Pavement’; Birmingham, 1993, no.110; Harewood, 1999, no.29
Bibliography
Hill, 1996, p.143; Brown, 2012, p.151
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 one of York’s busiest thoroughfares, known as Pavement, was taken from near the bottom of the Shambles looking to the church of All Saints, and it is presumably based on a sketch that Girtin made on his visit to York in 1796. Although the market cross, together with the church of St Croix to the right, has long since been demolished, the street has retained its old line, and All Saints, with its fine early fifteenth-century octagonal tower, continues to dominate the view. Exactly the same scene was also the subject of a pencil drawing by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), who visited York a year later (see figure 1). Both artists included the sign for the Black Horse Inn to the left of their drawings, suggesting to the Turner scholar David Hill that they may have stayed there during their respective trips. Moreover, the work has the distinction of being one of no fewer than three of Girtin’s views of York that depict the same subjects recorded by Turner on his 1797 trip, the others being York Minster, from the South West (TG1048) and York Minster, from the Ouse (TG1049). So close are the similarities between the two artists’ sketches, as well as the watercolours that were derived from them, across a range of northern subjects in addition to the York views, that Hill has concluded that Turner must have seen Girtin’s 1796 sketches before his own tour, and, suitably inspired, have sought out the same viewpoints from which to make his sketches (Hill, 1996, pp.4–5). Unlike in the case of Durham Cathedral and Castle (TG1074), however, Turner is not known to have produced a watercolour of this view, and indeed, as far as York subjects are concerned, he left the field open for Girtin to exploit, and the city and its great minster did not feature significantly in his subsequent long career.
Although Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak dated this watercolour to 1800, presumably assuming that the artist sketched the view on a subsequent trip to York, I have no reason not to think that it was made soon after the 1796 northern tour (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.186). Like Hill, I suspect that the work was one of the four titled ‘View of York’ that were shown at the Royal Academy in 1797 (Exhibitions: Royal Academy, London, 1797, nos.486, 489, 499 and 726). Thus, although the watercolour is smaller than some of the other candidates, the careful attention paid to a wide range of figures – which are similar to those depicted in another street scene, of Newcastle upon Tyne, that was almost certainly shown in 1798 (TG1460) – suggests that it too is an exhibition piece. As in the later view, Girtin appears to have been keen to show that he could do more than just depict ancient buildings, adding a sharply observed contemporary setting that evinces a genuine interest in street life. It is to be remembered that both views are roughly contemporary with a series of street scenes, including Dartford Hight Street (TG0844), and the earliest of Girtin’s major London views, St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand (TG1395), all of which follow the same format: a curving street viewed from one side leading to an architectural subject in the distance, whilst a prominent foreground is peopled by figures from all walks of life.
1796 - 1797
York Minster, from the South West
TG1048
1797 - 1798
York Minster, from the Ouse, with St Mary’s Abbey
TG1049
1799
Durham Cathedral and Castle, from the River Wear
TG1074
(?) 1798
St Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
TG1460
1795 - 1796
Dartford High Street
TG0844
1796 - 1797
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
TG1395