Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after James Moore (1762-99) [Aw128]
PEMBROKE CASTLE, 1792–1793
Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil; signed at base: T. Girtin (H. 15 cm, W. 21 cm)
Trained as a draughtsman from a young age, Thomas Girtin was an apprentice to the topographical watercolourist Edward Dayes (1764–1804) from 1789. Around 1792, at the age of seventeen, he gained the support of James Moore (1762–1799), a wealthy linen draper based in Southwark. Moore was a keen antiquarian who published several illustrated books on ancient buildings. He travelled around Britain numerous times between 1784 and 1797, recording his observations of castle ruins and monastic foundations through pencil sketches. As Moore’s drawings were not suitable for publication, he employed a number of artists, including Dayes, to turn them into studies that could be reproduced as engravings and aquatints. Girtin was employed by Moore to make watercolours based on a selection of these images, and this view of Pembroke Castle is one of about sixty that he produced. Moore sketched the castle on 26 August 1788, and his drawing was reproduced in Monastic Remains and Ancient Castles (1792) as an aquatint by George Parkyns.
Girtin’s association with Moore had a formative impact on his artistic development, encouraging his interest in Gothic architecture and ancient ruins. In 1794, the two artists embarked on an antiquarian tour of the Midlands, introducing Girtin to new subject matter in the same vein. Stylistically, Girtin’s work of the early 1790s shows the influence of Dayes. Here, the brickwork of the castle and the surrounding foliage are depicted with fine delicate washes over blue-grey underpainting, recalling the technique of the topographical watercolours that Dayes himself produced for Moore. Girtin later developed a bolder, more dramatic style, perhaps informed by his close friendship with JMW Turner. He died at the age of only 27, but his pioneering use of watercolour made him one of the most influential English landscape painters.
Exhibited: Sotheby’s, London, Watercolours from Winchester College, 1988, no. 3.
Literature: Thomas Girtin and David Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin (London, 1954), p. 137, no. 23; TG0132 in the Paul Mellon Centre’s online catalogue raisonné of the works of Thomas Girtin.
Provenance: James Moore (1762–99); his widow, Mary Moore (née Howett) (d.1835); bequeathed to Anne Miller (1802–90); bequeathed to Edward Mansel Miller (1829–1912); bequeathed to Helen Louisa Miller (1842–1915); bought by Thomas Girtin (1874–1960), 1912, £18; bought from him by Thos. Agnew & Sons (stock no.7989); bought by Harry Collison (1896–1945), 2 January 1919; gift of Harry Collison, 1940.