- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Henry Edridge (1769-1821)
- Title
-
- Portrait Miniature of Thomas Girtin
- Date
- (?) 1796
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour and gum arabic on ivory, held in a gold frame with a glazed reverse displaying a lock of Thomas Girtin's hair
- Dimensions
- 9.5 × 6.7 cm, 3 ¾ × 2 ⅝ in (frame: 28.3 × 25.1 × 4.4 cm, 11 ⅛ × 9 ⅞ × 1 ¾ in)
- Inscription
'Thomas Girtin / by / Henry Edridge ARA / inherited by Dr T C Girtin / given by him to his daughter / Mary (Barnard) / Left by her to her daughter / Ethel (Sutton). / Bought in 1935 by Sabina / wife of Thomas Girtin - / with lock of hair' on a label on the back
- Object Type
- Miniature
- Subject Terms
- Portrait of Thomas Girtin
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- TG1928
- Description Source(s)
- Viewed in 2010
Provenance
Mary Ann Girtin (née Borrett) (1781–1843); then by descent to Thomas Calvert Girtin (1801–84); given to his daughter Mary Hog Barnard (née Girtin) (1828–99); then by descent to her daughter, Ethel Sutton; bought by Sabina Girtin, née Cooper (1878–1959), 1935; Tom Girtin (1913–94); bought from his estate, 20 July 1996 by Ian Craft (1937–2019); his sale, Sotheby's, 14 July 2010, lot 69, unsold; Lowell Libson Ltd, 2010–13; bought by the Center, 2013
Exhibition History
London, 1951, no.618; Agnew’s, 1953a, no.92; London, 1962a, no.170; Lowell Libson, 2012, pp.73–75
Bibliography
Mayne, 1949, frontispiece; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, p.220; Walker, 1985, vol.1, p.217
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About this Work
This fine miniature, possibly the earliest image we have of the artist, appears to have been painted by Henry Edridge (1768–1821) around 1796, when Girtin was about twenty or twenty-one. The image is not dated, but the portrait seems to show a younger man than the fuller-faced individual depicted by John Opie (1761–1807) around 1800 (TG1930). Edridge presumably met the artist at the home of their mutual patron Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), and they remained friends throughout Girtin’s short professional life. The portrait artist owned watercolours by Girtin (such as TG1309); they went sketching together, with Edridge drawing the artist at work on one occasion (TG1923); and the older man was also one of the mourners who attended Girtin’s funeral on 17 November 1802. It seems likely that the miniature was made as an act of friendship, therefore, as neither the artist nor his family would have been in a position to have commissioned a miniature from a well-established portraitist who commanded substantial fees by the mid-1790s. According to an inscription on the back, the portrait has always been in the possession of the family, and the lock of Girtin’s hair that is mounted on the reverse of the frame suggests that it was an object of veneration for the artist’s widow, Mary Ann Girtin (1781–1843). Given this, I cannot help but wonder whether the work was not actually produced posthumously, with Edridge perhaps working from an earlier drawing for the artist’s widow.
A mourning ring, inscribed with the artist’s dates, is now in the collection of The Whitworth, Manchester, and it too has been passed down within the family. Certainly, it is possible to imagine that it was produced at the same time as the miniature, performing essentially the same function.
1800 - 1801
Sketch of Thomas Girtin’s Head
TG1930
1798 - 1799
The Eagle Tower, Caernarfon Castle
TG1309
(?) 1801
Thomas Girtin Sketching
TG1923