- Museum number
- 1849,0609.75
- Description
-
Bridgnorth, Shropshire; view of a six-arched bridge with its toll-house built over one of the buttresses towards the right, the town beyond rising left on a hill, the church tower prominent, on the water a one-masted boat left moored to a ring in a buttress, and a small boat close to the nearer bank, a man with buckets of water and a dog in the foreground, and three figures on or near the bridge to the right. 1802
Watercolour
- Production date
- 1802
- Dimensions
-
Height: 614 millimetres
-
Width: 939 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This watercolour is painted on the largest sheet that Girtin ever used, comparable in size to two views of Harewood executed c.1801 (Tate 2002, cat.148). The size, the fact that it is dated as well as signed, together with the excessively grave and sombre tonality all suggest that Girtin may have intended it as an exhibition piece, an aim he did not live to fulfil. The basic elements of the composition, with the bulk of the tollhouse silhouetted against a light patch in an otherwise dark sky, and the gleam of light echoed in a reflection in the foreground, recapitulates the schema of The Mill by Rembrandt (National Gallery of Art, Washington, now attributed to Aert de Gelder). The painting was exhibited in London in 1793-4 and hailed as the pre-eminent example for the treatment of light in a northern landscape, where a humble subject achieved sublime status through the consummate management of chiaroscuro. The composition here is in reverse to the Rembrandt, suggesting Girtin may have referred to the print published in France in 1786, but the colouring of Bridgenorth watercolour provides strong evidence that he retained a vivid recollection of the original. In an essay published in 1815, the watercolourist Francis Stevens cited The Mill as one of the most influential works of modern times, leading young artists to regard nature in an entirely new point of view (Views of cottages and farm-houses in England and Wales, p. 25, quoted in M.Pidgley, The Mill by Rembrandt in The Romantic windmill, Hove Museum and Art Gallery, 1993, p.17).
The low viewpoint, which also plays its part in magnifying the importance of the bridge and the ramshackle tollhouse, may well owe something to Piranesi, in engravings such as View of the Ponte Salario from the Vedute di Roma (J. Wilton-Ely, G.B.Piranesi, The complete etchings, 1994, no180). That Girtin was able to combine such apparently disparate sources and still appear so powerfully original is an indication of the full maturity he attains in this work. No less than Turner, he wished his art to be seen as challenging, and even surpassing, the leading masters of earlier times.
For the drawing on which 1849-6-9-75 is based, and discussion of the topography, see 1850-5-13-10. For further discussion of Girtin and Rembrandt, see M. Pidgley, op.cit. and M.Kitson, Turner and Rembrandt, Turner Studies vol. 8, no. 1, p.4n.
In a letter in the Departmental file, C.F.Bell draws attention to the sale of Charles Lambert F.S.A. at Christie's on 24 March 1817, where lot 51 included 'A view of Bridgnorth and a large view of Rye' by Girtin, bought by Castle [?] for £5.10.0. Bell questions whether it was not in fact the Bridgnorth which was large, and that this was the BM drawing.
Etched by F. Short in the 'Portfolio', 1888, vol. 19.
Stainton, 84.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1934, BM, Exhibition of English Art, no.353
1958 Apr, BM, Eight centuries of landscape ... water-colours, case 62
1985, BM, British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860, no.84
1993 Jan-Apr, London, Royal Academy, 'British Watercolours', no. 152
2002 July-Sep, London, Tate Britain, Thomas Girtin
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Portfolio
- Acquisition date
- 1849
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1849,0609.75
