Girtin produced a second set of hand-coloured impressions of his etchings, which were carefully mounted and sold by John Girtin to the dedicatee of the publication, George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839), for £50 (see figure 1). The two sets have been the cause of considerable confusion, but, following the discovery of new evidence about John Girtin’s role in the project, it has been possible to distinguish their very different functions (Smith, 2017–18, pp.32–35). The set sold to the earl is thus complete, and it is carefully rendered and presented so as to resemble Girtin’s finished watercolours. In contrast, the group of eighteen hand-coloured etchings, which were once owned by Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford (1788–1861), are very much working drawings; indeed, in some cases they have been cut down, presumably to disguise their careless treatment whilst in the studios of the four men who were employed by the Girtin brothers to add aquatint to the plates. The practical function of such drawings is also evident in the fact that, in addition to providing instructions to the professional aquatinter regarding the distribution of light and shade and the basic form of the sky and the reflections in the water, they often include Girtin’s amendments, though they have been kept to a minimum here. In this case, the issue has been complicated further by the existence of what appears to be a second colour study by Girtin (see figure 2), though this may be a case of another artist adding colour to an impression of the soft-ground etching.
The print is notable for its foreground, which adds details of some of the industrial activities located on the banks near to the Arsenal that are not included in Girtin’s on-the-spot drawing. These feature even more prominently in a similar contemporary view that was included in the Voyage Pittoresque de la France (see figure 3) (La Borde and others, 1781–1800). Girtin made a number of watercolour copies from this source, and it is possible that he not only knew the French print but also was inspired to adopt a similar viewpoint, though he characteristically created a tidier, altogether more flattering portrait of the city in his view. The finished aquatints are, it should be noted, inscribed in both French and English, and there is no doubt that the Girtin brothers had hopes of selling prints to the French market, though this ambition was to come to nothing as hostilities between the two countries resumed a short time after the artist’s death.
1802
The Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame, Taken from the Arsenal: Pencil Study for Plate Eleven of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1878
1802
The Pont de la Tournelle and Notre Dame, Taken from the Arsenal: Pencil Study for Plate Eleven of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’
TG1878
About this Work