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The House on the Moor

Artist Thomas Girtin (English, 1775–1802)
Title The House on the Moor
Date 1798-1799
Medium Watercolor over graphite on paper
Dimensions Image: 8 9/16 × 12 1/2 in. (21.7 × 31.8 cm)
Sheet: 8 9/16 × 12 1/2 in. (21.7 × 31.8 cm)
Framed: 19 3/8 × 24 3/4 × 1 in. (49.2 × 62.9 × 2.5 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 68.129

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About this Work

Thomas Girtin died at a tragically young age, prompting J.M.W.Turner to quip that “If Tom Girtin had lived, I would have starved.” He was a leading members of a sketching society known as the Brothers, which helped to transform the watercolor medium into an esteemed art form. Except for a late series of views of Paris, including a print in the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection (Eskenazi Museum of Art 70.35.18), Girtin worked in the British Isles. He made frequent sketching trips to North Wales, the Lake District, Yorkshire, and the West Country.
Described by Alfred Mansfield Brooks, the first professor at Indiana University’s School of Art, Architecture + Design (originally called the Department of Freehand and Mechanical Drawing), as representing one of the best of the young Girtin’s many good sides, this monochromatic drawing has a simple, quiet grandeur in contrast to the picturesque formula found in much of eighteenth-century art.


1968, Transfer from the Indiana University Fine Arts Collection to Indiana University Art Museum (via Professor Diether Thimme)

1916, Indiana University Fine Arts Department purchase from the Estate of William Ward (by Alfred Mansfield Brooks)

before 1908, Collection of William Ward (British, 1829-1908), England

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

August 5, 2023–December 10, 2023, “Landscape and Abstraction in Watercolor 1780-1980,” Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

November 1–December 22, 1996, “Art in the Original: Selections from the Early Fine Arts Collection,” Hexagon Gallery, Indiana Univeristy Art Museum, Bloomington, IN

August 4–September 29, 1996, "Scenic Views: Eighteenth–Century Landscapes, Ruinscapes and Cityscapes," Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN

October 15–December 14, 1986, "British Watercolors from the 19th and 20th Centuries," Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN

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Cite this Page
"The House on the Moor | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2024. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=68.129