May 1831

Anonymous [William Henry Pyne], ‘Exhibition of Painters in Water-Colours’, Library of the Fine Arts, vol.2 (May 1831), pp.52–60 (Pyne, 1831, pp.56, 58 and 59–60)

It rarely happens that the talents of men, however great they may be, are duly appreciated by their contemporaries. Some few indeed have had the felicity to be the exception to the rule. Girtin, one of the greatest geniuses that ever practised water-colour painting, made but little of his art; the dealers, however, who happened to possess his works, benefited by his death; they suddenly rose in estimation, and, continuing to be sought with avidity, they were purchased at almost any premium that was demanded. Not more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since his decease, and his fame still increasing, every scrap from his intelligent pencil contended for as a treasure, and his best works are not to be obtained at any price. …

In recurring to the two artists, who may be said to be the great luminaries of this modern art, we will here take the opportunity of inserting a short estimate of their respective talents.

Turner was well grounded in perspective under Malton. Girtin became an adept in the same science under the tuition of Dayes. Malton and Dayes were topographical draughtsmen. Their pupils soon left their preceptors in art an immeasurable distance behind.

Dr. Munro, – now the venerable, being almost of patriarchal age, heretofore the contemporary of Reynolds, Wilson, Gainsborough, and all the founders of the Royal Academy, and long reputed as an amateur artist and great collector of drawings, – was, in no small degree, instrumental to these youths, particularly to Turner. The Doctor’s collection, which contained some of the choicest works of Gainsborough, Cozens, and Hearne, was open to them; and they, with a laudable spirit of competition, and an ardent love of their profession, availed themselves of the advantage. Many copies made by Messrs. Girtin and Turner, under the roof of this gentleman, whilst they were yet considerably short of the age of manhood, were so admirable for freedom and correctness, that they were not unfrequently preferred to the originals from which they had been taken. …

Turner’s commencement from Nature was the depicting scenes whose principal features were remains ancient architecture. We remember his earliest topographical drawings; these had all the correctness of Hearne, with an endeavour to superadd that which his prototype did not attempt,—the representation of local colour. His first efforts, though somewhat crude, gave presage of his future superior feeling; for every stone, and brick, and tile on his buildings were varied in their respective tints. ‘He had,’ to use the observation of a departed connoisseur, ‘already learned to read Nature.’

Girtin was proceeding with the same observant eye to Nature, and equally attentive to that captivating quality, local colour. These two aspiring geniuses, emulous without envy, were developing new properties in the material in which they wrought their elegant imitations of what they selected, and raising the practice of water-colours, which had hitherto procured no higher title for the best works of the professors thereof than that of tinted drawings, to the rank and character of paintings in water-colours. Thus improving rapidly, as by inspiration, these two distinguished artists, whilst yet young men, achieved the honour of founding that English school, as it now stands recorded, the admiration of all enlightened nations.

It might be supposed that similarity of study at their commencement, and the apparent affinity of feeling for their art, would have led these young painters to practise in a similar style. On the contrary, nothing can be less like than the drawings of Turner and Girtin. We do not force comparisons, but their works are frequently as remote in general character, as those of Salvator Rosa and Claude de Lorraine.

Girtin made his drawings, with but few exceptions, on cartridge paper. He chose this material, as his object was to procure a bold and imposing chiar’oscuro with splendour of colour, and without attention to detail. Some of his happiest productions display these qualities united with magnificent effect, and certain of his topographical views are treated with an originality of feeling that cannot fail to captivate the artist and the connoisseur. Many of his works, however, betray a carelessness of execution which requires somewhat of prejudice in favour of originality to tolerate, or sometimes even endure. It may, indeed, be said of his works, as of those by the renowned Wilson, that they were not generally admired, because their merits were only felt by those who were competent to judge of the abstract perceptions of a great and original artist.

His mountainous scenery was oftentimes treated with grandeur of effect, obviously assuring us that he had been an attentive observer of those sublime appearances, created by storms and vapours, which occur in those elevated regions. He was one of those daring imitators of nature, who ventured to represent a mass of mountains dark and darker still, as they receded into the distance,—a figure of painting which none but the most poetic mind would presume to introduce into a pictorial composition. The flatness and freshness of verdure with which he described the valleys extending to the basis of their surrounding heights, he imitated with a felicity that perhaps has never been exceeded. The distant herds, too, which he introduced grazing on these plains, were so like what we have seen in nature, when a gleam of light penetrating a parting cloud has displayed them as so many gems glittering on a velvet mantle of vivid green.

Girtin’s admirers tolerated a defect in certain of his drawings, which proves how much allowance the enthusiastic amateur will make for the sake of genius. The paper which he most admired was to be had only of a stationer at Charing-cross; this was Dutch cartridge, with slight wire-marks, and folded like foolscap. It commonly happened that the part which had been folded when put on the stretching-frame, would sink into spots or expose the transverse line across the picture; so that where the crease appeared, the colour was some degrees of darker blue than the general tone of the sky. This unsightly accident was not only overlooked, but, in some instances, relished in the true spirit of dilettantiship, inasmuch as it was taken for a sign of originality, and in the transfer of these drawings from one collector to another, bore a premium according to that indubitable mark.

Late 1831

Anonymous [John Hornby Maw], A Concise Summary of a Series of Notes and Observations, Practical and Theoretical, on the Art of Landscape Painting, in Water Colours, Adapted to the Practice of Young Amateurs, London, 1831 (Maw, 1831, pp.18–19)

The collector and amateur artist John Hornby Maw (1800–85), writing anonymously, drew heavily upon the texts of William Henry Pyne (1770–1843) particularly his eye-witness account of Girtin at work (Pyne, 1823b).

The almost perfect development of the extent to which Water Colours were capable of rivalling the richness, depth, and transparency of the finest Oil Paintings was reserved for that highly-talented and original Artist, Thomas Girtin, in whose best work we are at a loss whether most to admire the simple grandeur of his efforts or the manly and unaffected vigour of his execution. 

His feeling for Colour was of an elevated character, and his knowledge being adequate to his feeling, he ventured, without fear or hesitation, to make out his general effect by arranging his Colour in broad masses, with so exuberant a pencil and with such decision, that those who remember to have seen him work say that his Colour might almost be said to have streamed on the paper, and that the tints in drying seemed to arrange themselves, as by magic, from the apparent chaos of liquid colour with which he would, in a few minutes, cover the entire surface of a sheet of cartridge paper. His Drawings are evidently worked from a very simple “Palette”, his Sky Tints consisting of Indigo for the Azure, melting into a faint tint of Light Red, (or Lake and Yellow Ochre), on approaching the horizon. Clouds, when warm in the lights, tinted with light Red and a very little Indigo, or Lake and Gamboge, are shadowed with Indigo and Lake. Distant Air Tones, pure Indigo or Indigo and Lake. Middle Distances, if consisting of Trees, Indigo, Lake, and Raw Sienna; if of Rocks or Stone Work, Indigo and light Red, shadowed with Indigo and Lake. Foregrounds, Banks, Hills, Roads, &c. a warm tint of Light Red and Indigo over which the Herbage Tints are glazed with Raw Sienna and Indigo, or a mixture of Gamboge, Burnt Sienna, and Indigo, agreeably harmonizing with such portions of the under-tint as are free form Herbage.

His foreground foliage is considerably varied in tint, is still composed from the same materials, “a ringing of changes” upon Gamboge, (or Raw Sienna) Burnt Sienna, and Indigo. In his groups of foreground Trees the local Tints are generally inserted in clear and distinct patches of colour, which however negligently they may be worked into form, are rendered admirably subservient to the general harmony of the whole picture, regarded as a composition of colour, and chiaro-scuro.

The author possesses a very fine drawing of an architectural subject, by Girtin, which, although anything but monotonous in colour, is painted throughout merely with Raw Sienna, Lake, and Indigo, and has been closely copied with the same materials.’

Highly as we must rate the talents of Girtin, it cannot however be denied that he sacrificed much that is valuable in Art at the shrine of colour, and considerably undervalued the amenities of painting as regards detail and individuality of character.

It has not been possible to identify the 'architectural subject' owned by Maw. He may well have had quite a substantial collection of works by Girtin, including the prime version of A Rainbow over the River Exe (TG1730) and two works consigned to auction in 1831 (Exhibitions: Christie's, 25 February 1831).

1831

M. H. Shuttleworth, Remarks on Landscape Painting in Water Colours, 3rd edn., London, 1831 (Shuttleworth, 1831, pp.iii-v, 13, 16)

Shuttleworth’s little known text is dedicated to the Society of Painters in Water Colours and begins with a brief account of the progress of the British school and Girtin's role in its development.

The Art of Painting in Water Colours springing from British Soil, and fostered by native talent, ought to be viewed by our countrymen with redoubled interest, from its commencement by Sandby, during its rapid progress, to its ultimate success, aided by the brilliant powers of a Girtin, a Turner, a Prout, a Cattermole, a Barrett, a Stanfield, or a Robson …

A new and brilliant aera in this school, hitherto holding an uncertain and dubious rank, sprung up under the auspices of Thomas Girtin, who was born February, 1773, and when his talents for Painting first developed themselves, assiduously studied nature. To his tour of Scotland, with his early Patron Mr. Moore, may doubtless be attributed that wildness of imagery and general boldness, which stamps with pre-eminence the finest productions of this Master.

Nothing could exceed the grandeur and originality of his conception, but a want of Drawing is frequently observable in many of his Paintings, and he is supposed to have been tempted to work with less regard to correctness of form, in proportion to the ease with which he produced depth and richness of colour, and to have become at length so enamoured of colouring and effect, as to consider Drawing of little consequence to the character of a picture.

But that vicious course which makes a wreck of the body, cannot fail to ruin the mind, the continued sensual indulgence of this extraordinary man enfeebled his mental powers, and the distinguished competitor of Turner, the thoughtless kind hearted Girtin, by a premature death in 1802, perhaps but saved his posthumous fame from the imputation of sinking into a mannerist.

In a substantial discussion on ‘Colouring’ Shuttleworth notes elements of Girtin’s practice.

THE BLUE TINTS FOR THE SKY are variously composed by different Artists, Girtin used indigo and lake … FOR THE SHADOWS OF CLOUDS Girtin used light or indian red and indigo, and an occasional addition of lake …

Girtin was one of those daring imitators of nature, who ventured to represent a mass of mountains dark and darker still, as they receded into the distance, a figure of painting which none but the most poetic mind would presume to introduce into a pictorial composition.

1800

A Rainbow over the River Exe

TG1730