- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- A Sheet of Figure Studies Relating to Picturesque Views in Paris
- Date
- 1801 - 1802
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on wove paper
- Dimensions
- 16.5 × 23.6 cm, 6 ½ × 9 ¼ in
- Inscription
‘Lallimand Design’ top left, by Thomas Girtin; ‘3’ ‘2. 6’ and ‘9’; 'red Blu Brown'; and an illegible note, by Thomas Girtin; ‘25 [?] a per Reduit’ middle right in ink, not in Thomas Girtin’s hand
- Object Type
- Copy from an Unknown Source; Outline Drawing
- Subject Terms
- Figure Studies
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1900
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 484d as 'Seven sketches of standing or seated peasants'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2018
Provenance
Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–74); then by descent to George Wyndham Hog Girtin (1835–1911); then by a settlement to his sister, Mary Hog Barnard (née Girtin) (1828–99); then by descent to Francis Pierrepont Barnard (1854–1931); presented to the Museum, 1912
Exhibition History
London, 2002, no.92
Bibliography
Brown, 1982, p.342, no.749
Other entries in Picturesque Views in Paris and Other French Subjects

The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Quai d’Orsay: Pencil Study for Plate One of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Quai d’Orsay: Colour Study for Plate One of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Louvre and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Pont Neuf: Pencil Study for Plate Two of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Louvre and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Pont Neuf: Colour Study for Plate Two of Picturesque Views in Paris
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

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
British Museum, London

Paris with the Louvre, Taken from the Pont Marie: Copy of Plate Three of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Ile de la Cité, with the Louvre and the Pont Neuf in the Distance, Taken from the Pont Marie: Colour Study for Plate Three of Picturesque Views in Paris
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Pont Saint Michel, from the Pont Neuf: Pencil Study for Plate Four of 'Picturesque Views in Paris'
British Museum, London

Pont Saint Michel, from the Pont Neuf: Colour Study for Plate Four of 'Picturesque Views in Paris'
Private Collection

Paris: The Isle de la Cité and the River Seine, Taken from the Pont Neuf
Private Collection

A Panoramic View of Paris from Chaillot, Looking up the Seine with the Dome of Les Invalides: Pencil Study for Plate Five of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

Panoramic View of Paris from Chaillot, Looking up the Seine with the Dome of Les Invalides: Colour Study for Plate Five of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Banks of the Seine, with the Dome of Les Invalides
Private Collection

The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal: Pencil Study for Plate Six of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Six of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Colour Study for Plate Six of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Pont Neuf, Part of the Louvre, Notre Dame and the College of the Four Nations: Pencil Study for Plate Seven of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Pont Neuf, Part of the Louvre, Notre Dame and the College of the Four Nations: Colour Study for Plate Seven of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Pont Neuf and the Mint: Pencil Study for Plate Eight of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Pont Neuf and the Mint: Colour Study for Plate Eight of Picturesque Views in Paris
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Part of the Pont Neuf, with the Mint: Pencil Study for Plate Eight of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Pont au Change, the Théâtre de la Cité, the Pont Neuf and the Conciergerie Prison, Taken from the Pont Notre Dame: Pencil Study for Plate Nine of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Pont au Change, the Théâtre de la Cité, the Pont Neuf and the Conciergerie Prison, Taken from the Pont Notre Dame: Colour Study for Plate Nine of Picturesque Views in Paris
Aberdeen Art Gallery

The Porte Saint-Denis, Viewed from the Suburbs: Possible Colour Study for Plate Ten of Picturesque Views in Paris
Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris

The Porte Saint-Denis, Viewed from the Suburbs: Possible Colour Study for Plate Ten of Picturesque Views in Paris
Tate, London

The Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame, Taken from the Arsenal: Pencil Study for Plate Eleven of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame, Taken from the Arsenal: Colour Study for Plate Eleven of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Pantheon, from the Arsenal, Looking across the Seine: Pencil Study for Plate Twelve of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Pantheon, from the Arsenal, Looking across the Seine: Colour Study for Plate Twelve of Picturesque Views in Paris
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Pantheon, from the Arsenal, Looking across the Seine: Pencil Study for Plate Twelve of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

Bellevue and the Pont de Sèvres, Taken from near the Pont de Saint-Cloud: Pencil Study for Plate Thirteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

Bellevue and the Pont de Sèvres, Taken from the Terrace near the Pont de Saint-Cloud: Colour Study for Plate Thirteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Palace and Village of Choisy from the Banks of the Seine: Pencil Study for Plate Fourteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Palace and Village of Choisy from the Banks of the Seine: Colour Study for Plate Fourteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Water Works at Marly, Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Distance: Pencil Study for Plate Fifteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Water Works at Marly, Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Distance: Colour Study for Plate Fifteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The View from the Palace Terrace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Aqueduct of Marly in the Distance: Pencil Study for Plate Sixteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The View from the Palace Terrace at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Aqueduct of Marly in the Distance: Colour Study for Plate Sixteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Seventeen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Colour Study for Plate Seventeen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton

Saint-Cloud and Mont Calvaire, Taken from the Pont de Sèvres: Pencil Study for Plate Eighteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

Saint-Cloud and Mont Calvaire, Taken from the Pont de Sèvres: Colour Study for Plate Eighteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

The Banks of the Marne below the Bridge at Charenton: Pencil Study for Plate Twenty of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Banks of the Marne below the Bridge at Charenton: Colour Study for Plate Twenty of Picturesque Views in Paris
Untraced Public Collection, Israel

The Champ de Mars, Seen from the Trocadéro, with Sèvres in the Distance: Unused Pencil Study for Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Watermill above the Bridge at Charenton, near Paris
British Museum, London

The Watermill above the Bridge at Charenton: Pencil Study for Plate Nineteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
British Museum, London

The Watermill above the Bridge at Charenton: Colour Study for Plate Nineteen of Picturesque Views in Paris
Private Collection

La Rue Saint-Denis, Paris: A Scene for Thomas Dibdin's Pantomime Harlequin's Habeas
Private Collection, Norfolk

Paris: Porte Saint-Denis and the Boulevard Saint-Denis
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Part of the Tuileries Palace with the Louvre (Place du Carrousel)
The Higgins, Bedford

Part of the Tuileries Palace with the Louvre (Place du Carrousel)
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin

Paris: View over the Rooftops towards Montmartre
British Museum, London

Paris: The Ruins of the Roman Baths, Hôtel de Cluny
Tate, London

Paris: The Ruins of the Roman Baths, Hôtel de Cluny
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester

A Sheet of Figure Studies
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Sheet of Figure Studies Relating to Picturesque Views in Paris
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

A Sheet of Figure Studies: Women Washing Clothes at a River
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Studies of Women and Men, Including an Advocate Pleading
Private Collection

Paris: The Hôtel de Ville and the Church of Saint-Jean-en-Grève
Private Collection, Norfolk

The Church of Saint Corneille at Compiègne
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Porte Chapelle, Compiègne
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Paris: The Entrance to the Hôtel du Grand Prieur du Temple
British Museum, London

An Interior View of the Nave of Laon Cathedral
British Museum, London

A Wooded River in an Extensive Landscape
Private Collection

A River Scene with a Castle on a Cliff
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Wooded Landscape with a Hermit
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Buildings by a Road, with Passing Figures
Private Collection
Footnotes
- 1 The prospectus for Picturesque Views in Paris, presumably drafted by John Girtin, is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1802 – Item 4).
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About this Work
This informal sheet of figure studies made in Paris during the winter of 1801–2 includes an architectural sketch that resembles the Porte Saint-Denis (TG1892), a man in a carnivalesque costume (Girtin’s stay coincided with carnival time) and six other figures, two of which reappear in the prints of Picturesque Views in Paris. The seated man touched with colour to the left is thus shown in reverse in The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde (TG1885a), and Girtin tried out the counter-pose on this sheet, immediately to the left in faint pencil, whilst the standing figure with a strange hat, depicted in three related positions, features in The Pont Neuf and the Mint (TG1874a). One of the most striking elements of the Paris views is that Girtin matched the accurate delineation of the city’s monuments with carefully individualised figures, and their variety is in striking contrast to the more conventional staffage of his studio watercolours. Indeed, the prospectus for the prints issued by John Girtin (1773–1821) stresses just this point, stating that ‘PARIS since the Preliminaries of Peace having been the resort of most of the Fashionable World … the Costume … has been particularly attended to’. And as it was ‘so strikingly different to our own, and so extremely Picturesque’, the aquatints, it continued, ‘may be more worthy the Collection of the Connoisseur’ (Girtin, Paris Prospectus, 1802. 1 Given the target audience for the prints, it is likely that at least some of the figures were sketched from life, and Girtin presumably produced a number of other sheets such as this, though the inscription, ‘Lallimand Design’, may suggest otherwise in this particular case. This presumably refers to the French artist Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (1716–1803), and, given that Girtin probably owned a number of prints after his drawings (see source image TG1907), it is possible that some of the figures at least were copied from him, though an extensive search has not yet revealed any obvious examples.
Earlier in his career, Girtin reused a letter sent to his patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833) for an informal Study of a Woman Sewing (TG0917), and he did the same here with what appears to be part of a bill or quotation that he came across during his stay in Paris. The same support, identified by the paper historian Peter Bower as a white wove of French origin, was also employed for another group of figure studies (TG1899) (Smith, 2002b, p.119; Bower, Report). It seems, therefore, that Girtin travelled to Paris either with none of his favoured cartridge papers or with just a very limited supply, and that for informal sketches such as this he was forced to work on any sheet that came to hand.
1802
Paris: Porte Saint-Denis and the Boulevard Saint-Denis
TG1892
1802
The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Colour Study for Plate Seventeen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1885a
1802
The Pont Neuf and the Mint: Colour Study for Plate Eight of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1874a
(?) 1802
Lyon Cathedral
TG1907
1795 - 1796
A Study of a Woman Sewing
TG0917
1801 - 1802
A Sheet of Figure Studies
TG1899