Dated Watercolours

• The Village of Jedburgh (TG1725)
• The Eildon Hills, from the River Tweed at Dryburgh (TG1718)
• Kelso Abbey: The West Front (TG1717)
• Warkworth Church (TG1710)
• An Exterior View of the Ruins of Lindisfarne Priory Church (TG1111)
• Morpeth Bridge (TG1706)
• A Farmhouse, Said to Be near Newcastle-upon-Tyne (TG1704)
• Cottages at Hawes, from Gayle Beck (TG1693)
• A Village at the Bend of a River (TG1550)
• York Minster from the South East, Layerthorpe Bridge and Postern to the Right (TG1656)
• The Ouse Bridge, York (TG1649)
• Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge (TG1659)
• Ripon Minster, with Skellgate Bridge (TG1660)
• Rievaulx Abbey (TG1658)
• Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill (TG1635)
• Kirk Deighton, near Wetherby (TG1647)
• Bolton Abbey, the East End, from across the River Wharfe (TG1678)
• Richmond Castle, from the River Swale (TG1688)
• Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea (The White House, Chelsea) (TG1740)
• Conway Castle, from the River Gyffin (TG1739)
• Caernarfon Castle, from the East (TG1738)
• Lydford Castle, from the River Lyd (TG1734)
• A Rainbow over the River Exe (TG1729)
• A Rainbow over the River Exe (TG1730)
• Bristol Harbour, with St Mary Redcliffe in the Distance (TG1727)
• A Wharf with Shipping, Possibly at Bristol (TG1728)
• A Reconstruction of Moreton Corbet Castle, from the West (TG1556)
• Farmhouse and Outbuildings, Possibly in Essex (TG1759)
• Farmyard with Barns, Ladder and Figures (TG1658a)
• The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius (TG1504)

Dated Sketches

• The River Nidd between Knaresborough and Wetherby (TG1629)
• Harewood House, from the South West (TG1603)

Sometime in 1800

Anonymous, A Treatise on Ackermann’s Superfine Water Colours with Directions How to Prepare and Use Them, Including Succinct Hints on Drawing and Painting

The author ‘recommends the study of Turner, Girtin and Westall’ to amateur artists.

15 January 1800

Edward Lascelles (1764–1814) pays Girtin £20 ‘for two drawings’ (Leeds City Archive Department, Harewood Papers, Calendar no.191, quoted in Hill, 1999, p.21).

1 March 1800

North East View of Tattershall Castle (see print after TG1030) is published in Bartholomew Howlett’s A Selection of Views in the County of Lincoln (Howlett, 1805).

April–July 1800

Royal Academy of Arts, London, The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, M,DCCC: The Thirty-Second

Girtin’s address is given as ‘11, Scott’s Place, Islington’, the home of Phineas Borrett (1756–1843), the father of his future wife, Mary Ann Borrett (1781–1843). His exhibits are listed as:

Council Room

• 405 – ‘Bristol Hot-well’ (?TG1735)
• 416 – ‘York’
• 418 – ‘Jedburgh’ (TG1723 or TG1725)

28 April 1800

‘Royal Academy’, The Porcupine, 28 April 1800, p.4

Bourgeous, Westall, Beechey, Shee, Daniell, Girton, and many others whom we have not room to notice, all hold forth strong claims to public admiration, and essential[y] contribute to the general merit of the exhibition.

1 May 1800

Four Views from Nature: From Drawings by Mr. Girtin is published by Rudolph Ackermann (1764–1834). They are titled Finchale Priory, near Durham (see print after TG1072), Barnard Castle in the County of Durham (see print after TG1068), York Minster (see print after TG1051) and Etell Castle, Northumberland (see print after TG1115).

6–8 May 1800

‘Exhibition of Paintings, &c. At the Royal Academy’, St. James’s Chronicle, 6–8 May 1800, p.4

In the works of GIRTON, there are many things we admire; but his effects are sometimes spotty.

20 May 1800

Mr. Christie, A Catalogue of a Capital and Valuable Assemblage of Drawings, by the Most Admired Ancient and Modern Masters, 20–21 May 1800

The annotated copy of the catalogue in the archive of Christie’s, London, notes the seller as Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Includes works by Thomas Girtin:

20 May 1800

• 23 – ‘Six ditto [Sketches on cards]’. Bought by ‘Molinari’ for 5s
• 37 – ‘Two [Sketches] of Buildings’ by ‘Girtin’ and ‘Cotman’. Sold for 11s
• 48 – ‘A view near Enfield’. Sold for 8s 6d
• 49 – ‘Two Wood Scenes’. Sold for 9s
• 75 – ‘Two views from Nature’ by ‘Girtin’ and ‘Turner’. Sold for £1 14s

1 June 1800

James Roberts, Introductory Lessons, with Familiar Examples in Landscape, for the Use of Those Who Are Desirous of Gaining Some Knowledge of the Pleasing Art of Painting in Water Colours (Roberts, 1800, p.9)

Robert addresses the amateur artist:

Even when he can colour, let me intreat him to beware of too ostentatious a display; let him consult and dwell on the exquisite drawings of Turner and Girtin. The castigated purity of the one, and the magic splendour of the former, will teach him to view Nature with the eye of a master; he will then copy her beauties, con amore. He will shun all affected tawdriness, viz. trees and grass as green as spinage; sky and water as blue as a butcher’s apron; and foregrounds as cold as the snow-clad Alps. Let him assiduously study the ever varying forms, and graceful contour of Paul Sandby’s trees, &c.; and, above all, let him learn to view with rapture, the warmth and harmony of our own Wilson. He will soon find what wonderful effects are produced by few, very few colours. He will learn from that great master, to place his figures with that curiosa felicitas, which is easier felt than described. As soon as the student can taste the beauties of those great masters, he will then be so far, au fait, as to be able to attack Nature in her strongest holds. She will not reluctantly, though slowly, unveil her beauties; and he will have the sublime satisfaction of fixing some of her transient graces! Rely upon it, that harmony can never result from too copious a collection of colours: the greatest masters have effected all the wonders of their art, by a few well chosen tints, properly opposed or blended.

1 July 1800

‘The Arts: Exhibition of the Royal Academy’, The Monthly Mirror, vol.10 (July 1800), p.19

Of the Drawings … we are obliged, at present, to content ourselves with briefly observing, that, in the former class, the names of West, Turner, Girtin, Westall, Dance, eminent in their respective kinds, are well accompanied by those of Daniell, Bonomi, Laporte, Gilpin, Rooker, Gandy, and Alexander.

Summer 1800

Girtin revisits Harewood House, the country residence of his patron Edward Lascelles (1764–1814). He uses it as a base to travel widely in Yorkshire and then further north, possibly visiting Bolton Abbey, Gordale Scar, Hawes, Kirkby Malham, Knaresborough, Morpeth and Wetherby, and then on to stay with the Earl of Buchan (1742–1829) at Dryburgh, taking in Eildon, Melrose and Kelso on the way. A visit to Mulgrave Castle and the North Yorkshire coast is also likely, though Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak dated this to the spring of 1801 (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.41).

July 1800

Earlier writers thought that Girtin made a second trip to North Wales at this time and that he stayed with Sir George Beaumont (1753–1827) at Benarth in the summer; Susan Morris has also argued for a second West Country trip at this time (Morris, 1986, pp.22–23). Authors such as Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak as well as Sydney Kitson spent a lot of time trying to prove that Girtin made various undocumented journeys to sketch scenery, but their arguments now seem hollow and say more about their preconceptions about what a ‘romantic artist’ should do: namely, engage with the landscape subject personally (Kitson, 1937; Girtin and Loshak, 1954).

August 1800

Tancred Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and Elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood (Borenius, 1936, p.vi, n.1)

Humphry Repton visits Harewood and notes: ‘Views from the House – The General sweeping lines of woods are described by a sketch made by Mr Girton – & alterd from the Portico – under my direction.’ None of this is apparent in any surviving sketch by Girtin, however.

August 1800

Diary of Mary Anne Lascelles (1775–1831), daughter of Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood (1740–1820) (YRK York Papers, Borthwick Institute, University of York)

The diary notes that Girtin was at Harewood in August 1800 along with Repton.

Summer 1800

Karen Lynch and David Hill, ‘Turner Runs Riot: A Newly Discovered Reminiscence of Turner’ (Lynch and Hill, 2004, pp.10–12)

The Revd Richard Hale (1773–1854), who took the living at Harewood in 1800, noted in his diary at the time of Turner’s death in 1852:

His great rival was poor Girtin my Master who died in the prime of life. Turner said ‘He was the only one I teased.’ The late Lord Lascelles had a splendid Collection from the pencils of both, now the property of his nephew the present Earl of Harewood and I remember when seeing them with me he said ‘Turner sometimes runs riot, Girtin is pure nature’. I believe the drawings cost him 1000.

1 September 1800

Christ-Church Abbey, Hampshire (see print after TG0085) is published in The Copper-Plate Magazine (Walker, 1792–1802).

Late Summer 1800

Letter from Mary Hog Barnard, née Girtin (1829–99), to Joseph John Jenkins (1811–85), an early historian of the watercolour profession (Archives of the Royal Watercolour Society (J39/5)

In 1852, the artist’s granddaughter would recall the memories of Mary Hog (c.1781–1856), friend and bridesmaid to the artist’s wife, Mary Ann Girtin (1781–1843). Hog said that Thomas Girtin had ‘returned from Scotland’ prior to the wedding in 1800, ‘where he was accompanied by [illegible] with whom he had been staying, at Melrose Abbey – the seat of Lord Buchanan’. The illegible name was transcribed by Jenkins as ‘Mr Moore’. Girtin’s earliest patron, James Moore (1762–99), had died by this date, but it could read ‘Ed/w Grose’. ‘Buchanan’ was presumably the 11th Earl of Buchan (1742–1829), who lived at Dryburgh.

16 October 1800

Girtin marries Mary Ann Borrett (1781–1843) at St George’s, Hanover Square. She is the daughter of a prosperous London goldsmith, Phineas Borrett (1756–1843). They initially live at Borrett’s house at 11 Scott’s Place, Islington, a terrace that fronted Lower Street (now Essex Road).

18 October 1800

Mr. King, A Collection of Prints … Several Highly Finished Drawings, 18 October 1800

Includes works by Thomas Girtin:

• 98 – ‘Two Views from Nature, fine’
• 99 – ‘One [view from nature], Malwyd Church, N. Wales, very fine’. Noted as from the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833)
• 102 – ‘One [drawing], a view near Croydon’. Noted as from the collection of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833)

1 December 1800

Tarnaway Castle, Morayshire (see print after TG0137) is published in The Copper-Plate Magazine (Walker, 1792–1802).

15 December 1800

Mr. Fisher, Prints and Drawings, Books, and Books of Prints, 15–16 December 1800

• 68 – ‘Two books of views, after Howet and Girtin’