drawing
- Museum number
- 1991,1109.16
- Description
-
Albion Mills on the eastern side of the approach to Blackfriars Bridge; preparatory drawing for Section I of the panorama of London, the 'Eidometropolis', showing Albion flour mills in left foreground, with the tower of St Saviour's (now Southwark Cathedral) with St George's, Southwark in distance on r. 1801-2
Graphite and pen and brown ink; squared and numbered in graphite
- Production date
- 1801-1802
- Dimensions
-
Height: 290 millimetres
-
Width: 530 millimetres (irregular)
- Curator's comments
- Section 1 - The Albion Mills. Outline drawing
(For more information about this drawing, see the curatorial comment on the one acquired with it, 1991,1109.15). In this drawing the activity of the figures in the street is depicted more clearly than in the watercolour. The great variety of human incident Girtin brought to the large-scale version was an important feature of the life-like impression of the whole panorama.
The spots of oil staining the drawing have been taken as evidence that Girtin painted the panorama in oil (not tempera, as sometimes reported), a medium he was hardly familiar with. His only oil painting, 'Bolton Bridge', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801, was probably executed around the same time as he worked on the panorama.
For the watercolour study of this section and fuller information about the topography, see 1855-2-14-24
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1988, London, Barbican, 'Panoramania!', no. 35
2002 July-Sep, London, Tate Britain, 'Girtin and the Art of Watercolour', no.
- Acquisition date
- 1991
- Acquisition notes
- This drawing passed to T.C. Girtin from the artist; G.W. Girtin, thence by descent to the vendor, Tom Girtin.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1991,1109.16
