- Museum number
- 1855,0214.6
- Description
-
St Anne's Gate, Salisbury; the gate and adjoining buildings seen at right from the street which curves to the right, bordered left by old house, two carts on the road, and groups of people and pack horses near the foreground. 1802
Watercolour over graphite
- Production date
- 1802
- Dimensions
-
Height: 327 millimetres
-
Width: 526 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Binyon stated that this unfinished watercolour was the artist's last work, made on 1 November 1802. As Girtin and Loshak comment, this was perhaps on the authority of an inscription on an old mount, subsequently lost. The sky has faded substantially; even though unfinished, the watercolour must have been reckoned of some significance to have been exposed at an early period. Chambers Hall, the first recorded owner of the drawing, usually acquired works in very good condition; the fact that he added this example to his substantial collection of Girtin's work suggests that he believed it to have some special documentary value. The inscription was made by Girtin's brother, according to the testimony of J.J.Jenkins, Secretary of the Royal Watercolour Society, who visited Chmabers Hall on 12 July 1852, when he saw the watercolour in its inscribed mount (see S. Morris in 'Thomas Girtin. Genius of the North', 1999, p. 15, n. 37). In the Tate 2002 catalogue, Smith discounted such explanations, and dated the work c.1800, which is perhaps more plausible stylistically, though the question of the dating can remain, nonetheless, open to debate. As to its status, Girtin and Loshak judiciously record two other watercolours which have also been claimed as Girtin's last, 'Storiths Heights' (G&L 487; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) and 'Morpeth Bridge' (G&L 489ii; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle).
This is Girtin's only watercolour of Salisbury. The cathedral was the subject of a magnificent series of views by Turner (1797-1805, W196-203), but Girtin does something more modest; he takes one of the old entrances to the cathedral close, but rather than presenting it as a specimen of a type or period of architecture, he shows it embedded into a varied, but otherwise fairly undistinguished street scene. Similar views of the vernacular buildings of provincial towns had interested him for some years; a pair of street scenes in Weymouth were probably sketched on the spot in 1797 (G&L 194, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate 2002, cat. 130; G&L 195, Huntington Library, California). A closer comparison can be found in the watercolour of the main street of Jedburgh, dated 1800 (G&L 355, National Gallery of Scotland, Tate 2002, cat. 162). This is an aspect of the expanding repertoire of the independent watercolourist which was particularly taken up in the years after Girtin's death by John and Cornelius Varley (see John's two views of the High Street, Conway, in the Victoria and Albert Museum 1741 and 1742-1871 and Cornelius's 'Market Place, Ross, Herefordshire', dated 1803 in the same collection, 108-1895). St Anne's Gate dates from the early fourteenth century, though the chapel above it was added later. This was used as a music room by later occupants, and it was said that Handel gave his first public performance in England here. Girtin's view also includes part of Exeter Street, which bounds the close to the East.
In its unfinished state, the watercolour provides an interesting insight into Girtin's working methods. The foreground figures are all carefully planned form the outset, but will be represented with a few strong highlights of the reserved white paper. The two carts further back are no less detailed, but are allowed to blend in more with the prevailing tonality of the middle distance. A finished watercolour of a cart, perhaps based on another study of the kind that Girtin could have referred to in adding such incident here, is in the Department, 1855-2-14-4 (G&L 338, where dated 1799-1800).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1953 Aug BM, P&D, 'Canaletto and the English draughtsmen', no.38
2002 July-Sep, London, Tate Britain, 'Thomas Girtin and the Art of Watercolour', no.76
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Acquisition notes
- See note on 1855-2-14-2
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1855,0214.6
