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Girtin's first tutor was Edward Dayes (1763-1804), a minor topographical watercolorist to whom Girtin was apprenticed in 1789 but soon surpassed. At first glance, the seventeen-year-old Girtin's early Tynemouth Priory, Northumberland appears to be a conventional topographical work in the manner of Dayes. It belongs to a series of around sixty views of monastic ruins that Girtin produced not from direct observation but from sketches made by the antiquarian and amateur artist James Moore. Girtin translated Moore's pen and ink sketches into finished watercolors with his teacher's characteristic monochrome underpainting and cool blue and gray coloring. But closer inspection reveals a far more sophisticated approach. Girtin pushed the priory's shattered east end up close to the viewer as well as placing it asymmetrically on the paper. The effect is disconcerting, especially when coupled with the abrupt shifts from light to dark and the turbulent gray clouds scudding in from the south. A glimpse of a passing ship's rigging reveals the forbidding placement of this ruin on a promontory overlooking the North Sea. Girtin's lighting is also boldly inconsistent. The east end is seen contre-jour, with sunlight coming in through the lancet windows, yet the wall casts almost no shadow over the south side or the overgrown chancel floor. Moreover, the standing male figure on the right casts his shadow on the wall behind him as if he were standing facing the sun. These subtle inconsistencies heighten the sense of unease, which the inclusion of human figures does nothing to alleviate. Not only are the pair overwhelmed by the scale of the ruins, but the man adopts a hostile crossed-armed pose, which does not suggest a charming scene of rustic courtship. The sense of the pair being alienated by the scale of the ruins and from each other represents the beginning of Girtin's more romantic approach to landscape that is quite different to anything seen in the work of Dayes. It is also at variance with Thomas Thornburn's Tynemouth: A Panegyrick Poem of 1792, which attempted to bill Tynemouth as a pleasant health resort for its "situation pleasant" and "fine salubrious air." Already Girtin was asserting his own approach to landscape. It has been pointed out that the young artist has signed this watercolor, a gesture of self-confidence that implies his independence from Dayes and the likelihood that he was already being employed directly by Moore, rather than as a mere apprentice to his master.

Matthew Hargraves

Hargraves, Matthew, and Scott Wilcox. Great British Watercolors: from the Paul Mellon collection. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2007, p. 93, no. 39