- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- Paris: Porte Saint-Denis and the Boulevard Saint-Denis
- Date
- 1802
- Medium and Support
- Graphite and watercolour on laid paper (watermark: ornamented Strasbourg Bend)
- Dimensions
- 46 × 60.3 cm, 18 ⅛ × 23 ¾ in
- Inscription
‘off part are good effect’ top right, by Thomas Girtin; 'DEPOT / A / TABAC; ROSEU (?) TRAITEUR' as shop and street signs
- Object Type
- On-the-spot Colour Sketch
- Subject Terms
- City Life and Labour; Paris and Environs; Street Scene
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1892
- Girtin & Loshak Number
- 480 as 'Porte St.-Denis, Paris'; '1801-2'
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2001, 2002 and 2013
Provenance
Thomas Girtin (1775–1802); his posthumous sale, possibly Christie’s, 1 June 1803, lot 28 as 'Port St. Denis', £4 6s; ... C. F. Tomkins; his sale, Christie’s, 15 May 1845, lot 157; ... J. Hogarth and Sons; bought from them by the Museum, 1886
Exhibition History
Bristol, 1906, no.64; Paris, 1938, no.209; Paris, 1953, no.54; Paris, 1972, no.134; Manchester, 1975, no.99; Bordeaux, 1977, no.17; London, 1994, no.36; London, 2002, no.177; London, 2013, no.4
Bibliography
Finberg, 1919, p.14; Davies, 1924, p.27, pl.89; V&A, 1927, p.232; Davies, 1928, p.221; Binyon, 1933, p.111; Bury, 1942, p.42; Mayne, 1949, p.45, p.60, pp.70–71, p.98; Williams, 1952, pp.105–6; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.80; Lemaître, 1955, p.202; Hardie, 1966–68, vol.2, p.8; Lambourne and Hamilton, 1980, p.151; Hackney, 1992, p.46; Finch, 1991, pp.41–42; Bower, 2002, p.141
Place depicted
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 From a letter to the artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821). The only surviving letter from Thomas Girtin includes crucial evidence about the artist’s work in Paris and is transcribed in the Documents section of the Archive (1802 – Item 2).
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About this Work
This fine colour sketch shows the seventeenth-century Porte Saint-Denis from the south west, from the Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle, a view that is remarkably unchanged today (see figure 1). The suggestion that the large sheet dates from Girtin’s stay in Paris across the winter of 1801–2 is supported by the presence of an inscription to the top right (‘off part are good effect’), the unfinished foreground and the use of a limited number of tints, all of which are typical of a drawing coloured on the spot, though the reserved spaces for figures are normally associated with unfinished studio works, such as St Ann’s Gate, Salisbury (TG1756). The key to understanding the drawing’s status may lie with a letter the artist sent to his brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), in April 1802 in which he announced that he had hitherto sketched ‘from the windows of Hackey Coaches’, presumably due to concerns about attracting unwelcome attention as a foreigner, but had recently ‘altered my plan’. Continuing ‘to skech on a Large scale, and to Colour on the spot … would have been very tedious’, he added. Presumably, the artist was gathering material for Picturesque Views in Paris so that the change of plan, whereby he was for ‘getting the Best views I can. & merely skeches’, meant producing pencil drawings such as The Ile de la Cité, with the Louvre and the Pont Neuf in the Distance (TG1865), rather than much larger colour drawings like this example (Girtin, Letter, 1802).1 On balance, therefore, I suspect that this is an unused sketch for that publication, and that it was working in colour on this scale that proved impractical.
The triumphal arch known as the Porte Saint-Denis was on the route by which most British visitors entered Paris from the north, and this might explain why Girtin chose it as one of the views in Picturesque Views in Paris (TG1877), whilst the rest of the scenes selected for the publication focus on the river Seine. The drawing of the more distant view of the gateway that Girtin actually used for his publication likewise includes the revolutionary slogan ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’, which had replaced ‘LUDOVICO MAGNO’, and this is one of the few overt signs of recent revolutionary events. Nonetheless, the emphasis in this work too, had it been realised as either a print or a studio watercolour, would no doubt have been on life continuing as normal, as the crowds go about their daily business under even more prominent signs for ‘TRAITEUR’ (caterer) and ‘TABAC’ (tobacco), with the Boulevard Saint-Denis featuring just as much as the monumental gateway. It is to be remembered that the Paris prints were published with their titles in both French and English, and, until the resumption of hostilities between the two nations, they were aimed equally at the two markets, so it clearly would not have paid to evoke memories of recent violent events.
The paper historian Peter Bower has described the support used by Girtin as a white laid paper, manufactured by an unknown French maker, and this tends to confirm the idea that the work was made on the spot, rather than being an unfinished studio work created back in England (Smith, 2002b, p.141; Bower, Report). The same paper was also employed by Girtin for a view of the arch from the opposite direction (TG1891), which might suggest that the other work too was made on the spot. That work has always been said to be the basis for a theatre scene described in a contemporary playbill as showing ‘St Dennis’s Gate, Paris’, but in fact there is no proof that it was not this different composition that was worked up by the scene painters at Covent Garden (Dibdin, 1802). However, the presence here of figures, which would have been inappropriate if not disruptive in a theatrical scene, suggests this was probably not the case.
The sketch appears to have been copied, on a much reduced scale, by Girtin’s friend and colleague Henry Edridge (1768–1821) (see figure 2). It is not known how Edridge came to have access to the sketch; however, given that he is known to have collected Girtin’s work (such as TG1309) and also painted his portrait in miniature (TG1928), it is possible that he owned either it or another version of the composition. The latter is suggested by the fact that the figures, which are only blocked out in Girtin’s drawing, are actually shown more complete in the copy, and there are a number of other details that are no more than hinted at in the sketch, such as the shutters and the iron work on the balcony on the building to the left, that were more carefully worked out by Edridge. However, the fact that the copy replicates the same restricted range of tones as the Girtin sketch suggests that it was this watercolour that Edridge worked from, and that he perhaps saw his task as completing a sketch that had been left unfinished.
(?) 1802
St Ann’s Gate, Salisbury
TG1756
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
1802
The Porte Saint-Denis, Viewed from the Suburbs: Possible Study for Plate Ten of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1877
1802
La Rue Saint-Denis, Paris: A Scene for Thomas Dibdin’s Pantomime ‘Harlequin’s Habeas’
TG1891
1798 - 1799
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
TG1309
(?) 1796
Portrait Miniature of Thomas Girtin
TG1928