1883

Cosmo Monkhouse, ed., Turner’s Rivers of England: Sixteen Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., and Three by Thomas Girtin,  London, 1883

PLATE VII

YORK MINSTER, ON THE RIVER FOSS

The grandeur and beauty of this majestic and venerable edifice rather demand a voluminous, than permit a cursory review. It stands on the banks of the Foss, a small river which runs into the Ouse, on the site of a cathedral burnt down in the reign of Edward I., and was several ages in attaining that perfect form, and those elaborate ornaments, which have long rendered it the admiration of posterity.

The city of York, in its eventful history and numerous antiquities, is a place of singular interest: it is still surrounded with walls, and entered through four ancient gates. The fine ruins of St. Mary’s abbey do not come within the distance in the present view, although they are near it: they, together with Clifford’s Tower, built by the Emperors Constantine and Severus, the lanthern-tower of All Hallows Church, the porch of St. Margaret’s, &c., offer on every side some attractive object to the antiquary and the artist; but the pre-eminence of this mighty structure unquestionably outweighs them all, and may be examined for a long time with increasing pleasure and admiration.

Both Turner and Girtin began their artistic lives as topographical artists, with commissions to travel and make portraits of old buildings more for their archaeological and historical interest than as themes for beautiful pictures. But they were, both of them, artists at heart, and could not be satisfied with the bare record of facts, and Turner soon refused to be bound by them. However much a scene pleased him, he was not content until he had made it more pleasing still. His mind was too restless to contemplate a single aspect with complete satisfaction – too comprehensive to confine itself to the truths in sight. It was different with Girtin, who fell in love with things as he saw them, who brooded over them without forethought or afterthought, and whose only aim was to express with all his mind their inherent beauty with the pleasure and the sentiment that the sight inspired. He had, moreover, much more feeling for architecture. No cathedral was ever so grand that Turner would not try to make it grander still or at least more picturesque, no castle so old but he did not make it subserve his composition or personal fancy. It is plain from this drawing of Girtin, that he was impressed by York Cathedral, and that his spirit was subdued by its influence, that he cared only for it, and that his only anxiety was to produce a drawing which should, as far as his powers would allow, be worthy of it. So he, with simple and reverent aim, has done his best to make us feel the real presence of the Cathedral, without an attempt to add to or rearrange its beauty, choosing only a point of sight and an hour of the day which would best exhibit its solemn individuality. Turner would have given us a Minster of his own, have shown the abundance of his ingenuity, the resources of his art, have explained this or that, or pointed to some deep moral. Girtin could not do this, but he has done what Turner could not do – he has left us alone with the Cathedral.

PLATE IX.

KIRKSTALL ABBEY

One thing is quite certain, either Turner or Girtin is wrong. A comparison between this plate and Plate XVI. shows that one artist, or the other has taken such liberties with the facts, that the place, as he represents it, would be scarcely recognizable by one who knows it well. I think that it cannot be doubted which of the two is the more faithful. Girtin’s drawing carries conviction with it. It has evidently been drawn on the spot. No artist would have invented that uninteresting field – those commonplace banks – that unpicturesque water. The Abbey is no less evidently a portrait, with its shapeless walls covered with ivy, and its one window, still so perfect, that it looks out of character with the rest of the ruin.

Girtin thought this abbey beautiful, and interesting, and venerable as it was; to have changed it in the least would have been to destroy part of its individual charm. But it did not seem sufficiently imposing or picturesque a ruin for Turner; for its individuality he cared nothing, and veneration for any building in particular he had none. To make it more of a ruin he knocked out the tracery of the window; he even attempted to restore the abbey, and raise again parts of chancel and transept which had long ceased to exist; he cleared away the ivy, or a great part of it, and was not careful about keeping anything more than a bare general resemblance. But his variations do not stop here. Not to mention the raising of the hills behind, (especially the slope on the right,) he has made the river run the wrong way, or, in other words, he has put the abbey on the wrong side of it. The probability is that this was not intentional; that he made his drawing not on the spot, but from memory, imperfectly aided by one or more sketches taken years before. How he made the mistake it is, of course, impossible to say; but an explanation may be hazarded. The weir that rushes behind his trees is probably that of which we see the beginning at the bottom of Girtin’s drawing. If he took his original sketch from a field on the left of the weir, and a little further from the abbey, he would have the weir on his right hand, and the abbey in much the same position as we see it in his drawing. Dotted down in quick pencil notes, he would have indications only of the relative positions of abbey and weir. When he made his drawing, he may have taken the blank between him and the abbey to be water, and not meadow, and so have made the river run over what was really dry land.

9 February 1883

J. Palser & Sons, Stock Book, 9 February 1883 (Palser Records)

• ‘Harbour Scene’. Sold

22 February 1883

J. Palser & Sons, Stock Book, 22 February 1883 (Palser Records)

• ‘Kenilworth’. Sold

7 April 1883

J. Palser & Sons, Stock Book, 7 April 1883 (Palser Records)

• ‘Harbour Scene’. Sold

25 April 1883

J. Palser & Sons, Stock Book, 25 April 1883 (Palser Records)

• ‘Castle’. Sold
• ‘Coast Scene’. Sold

1 May 1883

Thos. Agnew & Sons, Stock Book, 1 May 1883 (Agnew’s Archive)

• 6990 – ‘Chester Cathedral’. Bought from Capes Dunn & Co. for ‘H. M. Ormerod’ for an unspecified sum plus 5 per cent commission (TG1349)
• 7004 – ‘Pont au Change, Paris’. Bought from Capes Dunn & Co. for ‘Dr Roberts’ for an unspecified sum plus 5 per cent commission

10 December 1883

J. Palser & Sons, Stock Book, 10 December 1883 (Palser Records)

• 1949 – ‘Windsor Castle and Park’. Bought for £4. Sold to ‘Appleby’ for £15 (TG1369)

1797 - 1798

Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West

TG1369