John Jackson (d.1828) was the father-in-law of the artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), who married Elizabeth Poulter (unknown dates) in 1803. Jackson’s substantial collection of old master paintings and contemporary British drawings included thirty lots by Girtin consisting of over two hundred items (Exhibitions: Foster’s, 21–24 April 1828). The prices realised at the sale suggest that the bulk of these were slight sketches and it seems that more substantial watercolours left the collection at an earlier date, probably acquired by Chambers Hall (1786–1855), as noted by an early biographer (Roget, 1891, pp.118–19). Amongst the works by Girtin that it has been possible to identify as coming from the 1828 sale are the twenty ‘original pencil Sketches for Views in Paris’, such as The Ile de la Cité, with the Louvre and the Pont Neuf in the Distance (TG1865), and eight of the preparatory drawings the artist made for his London panorama, including The Thames from Westminster to Somerset House (TG1855). These were almost certainly amongst the drawings seized by John Girtin after the artist’s death in 1802 as a way of recouping the substantial loans he had made to Thomas, and John was no doubt the source of the bulk of the material owned by Jackson (Smith, 2017–18, pp.36–38).

1802

The Ile de la Cité, with the Louvre and the Pont Neuf in the Distance, Taken from the Pont Marie: Pencil Study for Plate Three of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1865

(?) 1801

The Thames from Westminster to Somerset House: Colour Study for the ‘Eidometropolis’, Section Four

TG1855