This distant view of the village of Chaillot as the river Seine bends to the left, taken from the Pont de la Concorde, was coloured by Girtin working over a soft-ground etching (see print after TG1885), which, in turn, reproduced an on-the-spot pencil drawing made in early 1802 (TG1885). Girtin added the washes for the guidance of Frederick Christian Lewis (1779–1856), who was employed to aquatint the artist’s plate, fleshing out the etched lines with tones that approximate to those of a monochrome sketch (see the print after, above). The completed print was published a couple of months after the artist’s death as plate seventeen of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris and Its Environs by his widow, Mary Ann Girtin (1781–1843), and his brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), the latter of whom, in addition to financing the project, took over the final stages of its production. The twenty prints were finally published together in an edition of around 130, with the etchings selling for four guineas, the aquatints for five guineas and a set of proof impressions six guineas (Hardie, 1966–68, vol.2, p.8; Smith, 2017–18, pp.32–35). The large prints were very much a luxury product, so it is somewhat surprising that the list of subscribers includes, in addition to many of the best known of Girtin’s patrons, a significant number of artists, amongst which are the names of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Sir William Beechey (1753–1839), Benjamin West (1738–1820), John Hoppner (1758–1810) and Henry Edridge (1768–1821) as well as many of Girtin’s fellow watercolourists, such as John Varley (1778–1842) and John Glover (1767–1849) (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).¹

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, though this example has not been traced. 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. In this case, the hand-coloured print was cut in two before being reassembled. 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 in this case these have been kept to a minimum. This is certainly not the case with a second colour study by Girtin (see figure 1), which includes in the foreground two prominent barges that are absent in both the soft-ground etching (see print after TG1885) and the finished aquatint (see the print after, above). It is possible that this work was part of the presentation set purchased by the Earl of Essex, and that the removal of the original mount and the work’s very faded condition have obscured this fact, but I suspect that it may have been a case of Girtin trying out a variation of the final composition. If this was the case, it is presumably not a coincidence that the smaller right-hand sheet of paper used for the original pencil drawing (TG1885) omits this area of the composition, supporting the idea that the outline, as it now stands, represents a change of mind by the artist.

1802

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Seventeen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1885

1802

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Seventeen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1885

1802

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Seventeen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1885

1802

The Village of Chaillot, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Pencil Study for Plate Seventeen of ‘Picturesque Views in Paris’

TG1885