Although Girtin painted a general view of Lindisfarne in the mid 1790's which was probably done from a sketch by his master Edward Dayes, he does not seem to have actually visited the North of England (on the way to Scotland) until 1796. Our watercolour, which was previously unrecorded, was painted about two years later and shows the same range of arches and a wall of the central tower, but seen from the other side, as appears in the watercolour in the Fitzwilliam Museum (16 9/16 x 11 5/16in., repr. in colour in A. Wilton and A. Lyles, The Great Age of British Watercolour 1750-1880, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1993, pl.76; see also T. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, p.157, no.164 ii). Girtin also painted at least two watercolours showing both sides of the main arcade (see Girtin and Loshak, op.cit., nos. 67 and 184)