This colour study, focusing on the contrasting types of domestic housing in the still underdeveloped area of Lambeth, south of the river Thames, was made by Girtin in preparation for the painting of his 360-degree panorama of London, which opened to the public in August 1802 as the Eidometropolis. Following the completion of the outline drawing of the third of the seven sections (TG1853), which fixed the positions of the buildings from his viewpoint on the roof of the Albion Place Terrace (see TG1850 figure 1), Girtin copied the sketch onto another sheet of paper, to which he then added colour (Smith, 2018, pp.45–46). This is not a sketch worked from nature, therefore, but was produced in the studio, where Girtin improvised the complex light and weather effects, which ensured the dramatic impact that marked out his version of the newly invented visual spectacle as the ‘connoisseur’s panorama’ (Monthly Magazine, October 1802, p.255).¹ The recent discovery of the payments made to ‘his men employed in painting the picture of London’ has made it clear that this and the other four surviving colour studies were made as guides for specialist scene painters to add the colour to the monumental circular canvas, measuring ‘1944 square feet’ (about 180 square metres) – that is, 18 ft high (5.5 m) with a circumference of 108 ft (5.5 × 33 m) (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).² Another recent discovery, a newspaper advertisement, actually goes as far as to show that the panorama was ‘taken … from Drawings painted by Mr. Thos. Girtin’ (Morning Chronicle, 14 October 1801). It may therefore be that Girtin was not involved in the painting of the monumental canvas at all, though it is also possible that he worked on some of the final details. 

The colour study for this section is particularly instructive of the radical way in which Girtin’s panorama subverted the subject hierarchy of topographical views. Thus, though it was the viewpoint that dictated the fact that the foreground of humble domestic buildings overshadows the famous landmarks in Westminster, it was the artist who chose to highlight the former and cast the distance into shade. Particularly interesting, in this respect, is the way in which the slate roofs of the newly built terraces in Stamford Street in the middle ground are illuminated, helping to create a visual interest in a typical stretch of featureless speculative building that conformed to the new building regulations. All of this contrasts both with the picturesque qualities of the older houses shown in the foreground and with the historical monuments seen in silhouette on the horizon. In fact, much of the land beyond was still undeveloped, and this is barely discernible in the outline drawing, nor is another intriguing detail seen alongside the terraces – namely, the last remnants of the tentergrounds that accompanied the textile industries that were once an important part of the Lambeth economy (Smith, 2018, pp.51–53). Thus, where the pencil drawing has the inscription ‘grass’, the colour study includes areas of paper left white to represent cloth drying in the sun. This, together with the windmills and the open spaces of Lambeth’s marshes, was soon to be lost to the sort of speculative development that Girtin makes such a feature of in his vision of the city in the process of change. 

The support employed by Girtin for all of the colour studies for the panorama has been identified by the paper historian Peter Bower as a white laid writing paper that was made by James Whatman the Younger (1741–98) at the Turkey Mill, Maidstone (Smith, 2002b, p.198; Bower, Report).

(?) 1801

Westminster and Lambeth: Outline Study for the ‘Eidometropolis’, Section Three

TG1853