drawing
- Museum number
- 1991,0406.60
- Description
-
Montmartre, Paris; view over rooftops in foreground to buildings beyond on hill side
Watercolour with pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1775-1802
- Dimensions
-
Height: 167 millimetres
-
Width: 237 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Girtin visited Paris from November 1801 until May 1802, his only trip abroad before his early death a few months later. This small watercolour taken from near the centre of the city with Montmartre and its windmills in the distance, concentrates on the city's rooftops, and as such is strong evidence of his intention to produce a panorama of Paris much like his Eidometropolis of London (see 1991,1109.15&16). Other drawings of Paris were made for a set of prints which was only published after his death.
The most recent information on the views of Paris can be found in Greg Smith, 'Girtin v Girtin: New information on a panorma of London and his Picturesque views in Paris' in the British Art Journal, 18, no.3 (Winter 2017/18), 28-47, which supplements and corrects the earlier account in Greg Smith, Thomas Girtin, exh cat. Tate, 2002, pp. 189-205.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1995-6 Nov-Apr, BM, Recent Acquisitions (no cat.)
2002 July-Sep, London, Tate Britain, 'Thomas Girtin and the Art of Watercolour'
2013 Jun-Sep, London, Wallace Collection, The Discovery of Paris
- Acquisition date
- 1991
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1991,0406.60
