Biographies: Collectors, Dealers, Family, Fellow Artists, Patrons

Thomas Hearne (1744 - 1817)

Fellow artists

Thomas Hearne (1744–1817) was one of the leading topographical watercolourists of the older generation, known today in particular for the works he produced to be engraved for the two volumes of Antiquities of Great-Britain, Illustrated in Views of Monasteries, Castles, and Churches (1786–1807), which he himself published (Hearne, 1786–1807). A good example of his attractive and influential works is Newark Castle, from the River Trent (see source image TG0864), a watercolour that Girtin appears to have copied around 1795. Girtin was commissioned at about the same date by his early patron John Henderson (1764–1843) to produce four watercolour copies after engravings from Hearne’s publication, including Lanercost Priory Church: An Interior View of the Ruins from the South Transept (TG0867). Other copies of antiquarian subjects by Hearne were made by Girtin at the home of Henderson’s neighbour at the Adelphi, Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), including Glasgow High Street, Looking towards the Cathedral (TG0296). Monro’s posthumous sale in 1833 contained as many as three hundred drawings and sketches by Hearne, and there is no doubt that some of these also provided the sources for copies by Girtin. In addition to antiquarian subjects that Girtin did not have the opportunity to visit himself, the younger artist copied some of the rural scenes sketched by Hearne, and this in turn appears to have encouraged him to develop a type of picturesque farm subject around 1798–99 that noticeably expanded his repertoire (TG1341). Some of Hearne’s sketches may even have been made in Girtin’s company. A drawing of Hearne at work by Henry Edridge (1768–1821) is inscribed ‘at Bushey Mill 23 June 1801’ (see TG1923 figure 1), and a similar study of Girtin was possibly drawn at the same time (TG1923), perhaps on a visit to their mutual patron George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839), who lived at the nearby estate of Cassiobury Park.

(?) 1795

Newark Castle, from the River Trent

TG0864

(?) 1795

Lanercost Priory Church: An Interior View of the Ruins from the South Transept

TG0867

1794 - 1795

Glasgow High Street, Looking towards the Cathedral

TG0296

1798 - 1799

Valle Crucis Abbey, from the River

TG1341

(?) 1801

Thomas Girtin Sketching

TG1923

(?) 1801

Thomas Girtin Sketching

TG1923

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