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

Description

Creator(s): Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)

Title

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

Date: 1802

Medium and Support: Watercolour over soft-ground etching on wove paper

Dimensions: 23.6 × 48.8 cm, 9 ¼ × 19 ¼ in

Part of

Studies for 'Picturesque Views in Paris'

Object Type: Drawing for a Print

Subject Terms: City Life and Labour; Panoramic Format; Paris and Environs; River Scenery

Collection

Tate, London
(T00990)

Catalogue Number: TG1877b

Description Source(s): Viewed in 2001

Provenance

Herbert Powell (1863–1950); entrusted to the National Art-Collections Fund (The Art Fund), 1929; presented to the Tate Gallery, 1967

Bibliography

Hughes, 1931, no.61; Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.199–200

About this Work

This view of the seventeenth-century triumphal arch known as the Porte Saint-Denis, seen from the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, was coloured by Girtin working over a soft-ground etching (see print after TG1877), which, in turn, may reproduce a pen and ink study (TG1877). Girtin’s normal practice when working on the production of the twenty aquatints that formed his Picturesque Views in Paris and Its Environs was to colour the outline in simple monochrome washes for the guidance of the professional engraver, in this case Frederick Christian Lewis (1779–1856), to aquatint the artist’s plate (see print after, above). The full colour used here to work up the soft-ground etching for plate ten means that it is not clear whether this was the case with this drawing or whether one of the other hand-coloured etchings was the model created for Lewis to work from. The issue has been complicated by the fact that the set of Girtin’s working drawings owned by Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford (1788–1861), did not include a colour study for plate ten, and it is the provenance of the hand-coloured etchings that helps considerably with an understanding of their function. For instance, we know that Girtin produced a second set of hand-coloured impressions of his etchings that were carefully mounted and sold by John Girtin (1773–1821) to the dedicatee of the publication, George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839) (see figure 1), and so one of the coloured etchings of Porte Saint-Denis, at least, can be ruled out as being the working study made for Lewis. But, in the absence of more complete details, the precise function of the other two hand-coloured prints remains uncertain, and it is even possible that neither fits the bill as the model for Lewis’ work.

**Figure 1.**
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), soft-ground etching, hand-coloured, *The Porte Saint-Denis, Viewed from the Suburbs: Possible Colour Study for Plate Ten of 'Picturesque Views in Paris'*, 22.9 × 48.9 cm, 9 × 19 ¼ in. National Galleries of Scotland (P 2344.3).

Digital image courtesy of National Galleries of Scotland (CC BY-NC 4.0).

1802

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

TG1877

1802

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

TG1877

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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