June 1830

‘A Gossip about Arts and Artists’, Fraser’s Magazine, vol.1 (June), p.535

These gentlemen were members of the original confederation of water-colour painters. But none of that confederation were actually originators of the existing art. Sandby, Rooker, Hearne, and Cozens, preceded them; the last of whom must be considered as the first who ventured upon those broad effects in water-colour, which Turner and Girtin afterwards carried to perfection. What Girtin would have produced had he lived, can, of course, be but matter of speculation; but his drawings were decidedly grander than those even of Turner at the same period; and his effects have never, to this moment, been surpassed by any artist in the same line. The man who comes-nearest to him in this respect is Dewint, and who, on the whole, must be allowed to be a more perfect artist.