Collections: Where to Find Girtin’s Work

British Museum, London

Public Collection in London, United Kingdom

The Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum is the home to one of the finest collections of watercolours, drawings and prints by Thomas Girtin. Shortly before his death, the distinguished collector Chambers Hall (1786–1855) presented the museum with a group of sixty-six drawings and watercolours by or attributed to the artist, including two of his finest finished studio works, Kirkstall Abbey, from Kirkstall Hill (TG1635) and Bridgnorth (TG1755). Another feature of Hall’s collection was the quality of the on-the-spot colour sketches he acquired, particularly of Welsh subjects, such A Mountain View, near Beddgelert (TG1321), and these were complemented by no fewer than five of the magnificent colour studies Girtin made for the Eidometropolis, the London panorama that opened shortly before his death, including two of the most spectacular weather effects, The Thames from Westminster to Somerset House (TG1855) and The Thames from Queenhithe to London Bridge (TG1861).

Works in the Collection