- Museum number
- 1855,0214.26
- Description
-
Blackfriars bridge and St Paul's, Section VI of Girtin's panorama of London 'Eidometropolis'; view looking across the river, the bridge coming into the foreground and viewed from a height, St Paul's at r. 1800-01
Pen and brown ink, with watercolour; squared for enlargement
- Production date
- 1800-1801
- Dimensions
-
Height: 354 millimetres
-
Width: 512 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- A related engraving (reg.no 1863,0110.98) is kept with these drawings.
See also 1855,0214.23-28
See also 1863,0110.98
The most recent full discussion of the panorama is Greg Smith,' A 'connoisseur's panorama' : Thomas Girtin's Eidometropolis and other London views, c. 1796-1802', edited by Sheila O'Connell, London Topographical Society, No. 180, 2018
The following is from L. Stainton, 'British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860' 1985:
No watercolour for the fourth section of the 'Eidometropolis' is known, but this working drawing (marked by oil-stains, which suggests that the final version was painted in oils rather than distemper, as has been thought) shows Girtin's mastery of the essentials of architectural draughtsmanship. In this study, his technique is derived from Canaletto, whose drawings and etchings he had copied as a student, adopting a similar technique of short lines interspersed with dots. While other contemporary artists - Joseph Farington for example - turned this into an irritating mannerism, it was developed by Girtin and Turner into an expressive and personal language.
Many City landmarks are recognisable in this drawing; on the extreme left (the west) is the spire of St Bride's, Fleet Street. In the far distance, the towers of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate; St Martin Ludgate; and Christchurch, Newgate Street. St Paul's dominates the skyline and must have created a particularly dramatic effect in the completed panorama, but its scale is slightly exaggerated. The amount of exact detail in this drawing suggests that Girtin may have used a camera obscura or some similar optical apparatus, although one contemporary account stated that "The artist, it seems, did not take the common way of measuring and reducing the objects, but trusted to his eye". This may have been a case of the art that conceals art. The squaring-up was obviously an essential stage in the development of Girtin's panorama from the initial small-scale rough sketches which he presumably made, but which have not survived, to the final canvases.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1985, BM, British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860, no.82d
1988/9 Nov-Jan, London, Barbican, 'Panoramania!', no. 35
2002 July-Sep, London, Tate Britain, 'Thomas Girtin and the Art of Watercolour', no.
- Acquisition date
- 1855
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1855,0214.26
