THOMAS GIRTIN (1775 -1802)

Jedburgh Abbey from the river

c.1798-9

watercolour on paper

41.9 x 54.6 cm

inscribed: Girtin

P.72

Girtin painted the village and abbey of Jedburgh in Roxburghshire over a number of years. The earliest view of the abbey was taken from a drawing by James Moore in 1793 and later engraved in the Copper Plate Magazine, pl.cxlii, published in 1797. A sketch of the village dated 11 October 1796 is the only precisely dated study by Girtin. The National Gallery of Scotland now owns the finest view of the village, dated 1800 (G & L no.355), while other watercolours of the abbey are in the British Museum (1796-7) and the National Gallery of Ireland (1798, G & L nos. 187, 253).

An exact contemporary of TURNER, Girtin was born in Southwark, the son of a brushmaker. In 1789 he was apprenticed to Edward DAYES, a topographical watercolourist. His friendship with Turner began at a young age, and they would study at Dr MONRO’s ‘Academy’ where according to Joseph Farrington  RA (1747-1821) ‘Girtin drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. In 1796, free from his apprenticeship, Girtin began his tour of Yorkshire, Northumberland and the Scottish borders. He died prematurely young at twenty-seven, causing Turner to utter his famous observation: ‘If poor Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved’.

EJ/CB

 PROVENANCE: Bluett and Rayer families, Holcombe Court, Devon, then by descent; Major Rayer;  Rev. G.W. Jenkins; ‘Auction in country’; Sir George Davies; Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, February 1952.

EXHIBITIONS: 79^th Annual Watercolour Exhibition, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1952, no.53; English watercolours from the Hickman Bacon and other collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1952, no.46; Loan Exhibition of Watercolours by Thomas Girtin, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1953, no.55; Watercolours and Drawings from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., 1962, no.59; English Watercolours from The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Bedford, Reading, Reading Museum and Art Gallery, 1965, no.19; Wordsworth Bicentenary Exhibition, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Southampton, Southampton Art Gallery, 1970, no.48; Watercolours by Thomas Girtin, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery and London, V&A, 1975, no.47.

REFERENCES: T. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, p.173, no.286; A. Bury, ‘The Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford: A Preliminary Survey’, Old Water-colour Society’s Club Volume, 1961, pl.xiii; F. Hawcroft, Watercolours by Thomas Girtin, p.42, no.47.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.

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