- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- (?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Blackfriars Bridge
- Date
- 1790 - 1791
- Object Type
- Drawing for a Print
- Subject Terms
- London Architecture; River Scenery
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG0038
- Description Source(s)
- The original known only from the print
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About this Work
Charles Taylor’s (1756–1823) engraving of Blackfriars Bridge for his periodical The Temple of Taste was published on 1 October 1795. The original drawing, presumably by the young apprentice Girtin, has not been traced. In contrast to the majority of the London views used in the publication, which were adapted from existing images, the unusual, if not idiosyncratic, depiction of the bridge suggests that the watercolour used as the basis for the engraving was made specially. The artist thus adopts a low viewpoint from the north bank that shows only six of the nine arches of the bridge and gives great prominence to the Albion Mills at the Surrey end, in contrast to the more common view from the south bank, which includes St Paul’s Cathedral rising majestically above. The Albion Mills, which were to feature in Girtin’s London panorama, taken from the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge (TG1851), are shown here before the fire that consumed the majority of the building in March 1791. This suggests that the original drawing was made a number of years prior to its publication.
The prominence given to the Albion Mills, what Taylor called in the text that accompanied the engraving a ‘considerable and singular edifice’, reflected a common patriotic pride in British manufacturing at this date. The building, which was reputed to have required ‘£300,000 of capital’, is ‘without a rival’ and ‘no other country could have supported’ such an ambitious and pioneering venture, he argued. The ‘elegant structure’ of Blackfriars Bridge, ‘built after the design of Mr. Robert Mylne’, was a similar cause of patriotic pride for Taylor. The bridge, built between 1760 and 1769, was praised by architectural writers for the elegant use of ‘pairs of Ionic pillars’, which faced the piers. This ‘singular application of columns is beautiful from the river’, Taylor noted.
(?) 1801
The Albion Mills: Colour Study for the ‘Eidometropolis’, Section One
TG1851