7 February 1838

‘Artists’ and Amateurs’ Conversazione’, The Guardian, 7 February 1838, p.2

Reporting on the meeting of the Artists’ and Amateurs’ Conversazione.  ‘Mr. T. W. Atkinson contributed two fine water colour drawings, by Girtin’.

1838

Thomas Frognall Dibdin, A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in the Northern Counties of England and in Scotland, 2 vols., London, 1838 (Dibdin, 1838, vol.1, pp.270–71). Dibdin on a visit to Durham noted

I have made more than an indirect allusion to the pictorial charms of a View of this Cathedral, with the river Wear encircling its rocky base, from the northern entrance to the city. Whoever is lucky enough to bear in memory some of the matchless drawings of Turner and Girtin, some twenty years ago, of this identical view, and, not having seen the originals, is told that, beautiful as those drawings are, they are scarcely faithful mirrors, must needs think that the view of this Cathedral from the north —and especially as you near it, by the bridge—is indeed a most attractive object of admiration. I was told, however, that a good deal of the underwood, sprouting between the dark brown fissures of rock, had been recently cut away; and another drawback is perceptible in the curling volumes of black smoke which occasionally vulgarise the scene.