Watercolor over soft-ground etching on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 5 7/8 x 17 5/16 inches (15 x 43.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.4706
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
barges | houses | figures | clouds | buildings | architectural subject | cityscape | river | dome | monument
Associated Places:
Panthéon | Paris | Bassin de l'Arsenal | Seine | France | Île-de-France | Europe
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)Sainte-Genevieve La Pantheon - Symbole des revolutions (Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1989-09-26 - 1989-11-30)Thomas Girtin (Yale Center for British Art, 1986-01-21 - 1986-03-30)British Painting and the European Continent (Haus der Kunst Munich, 1979-11-20 - 1980-01-27)English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17)
Publications:
John Gage, Zwei Jahrhunderte englische Malerei, britische Kunst und Europa 1680 bis 1880 : [Ausstellung] Haus der Kunst Mèunchen, 21. November 1979 bis 27. Januar 1980: [Katalog] , Ausstellungsleitung Haus der Kunst Mèunchen, Mèunchen, 1979, pp. 334, 337, no. 193, fig. 193, ND466 Z85 (YCBA)Susan Morris, Thomas Girtin, 1775-1802, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1986, pp. 26, 48, 78, no. 108, NJ18 .G44 M67 (LC) (YCBA)Graham Reynolds, English Landscape 1630-1850, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 69, no. 120, pl. CXIV, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 98-99, no. 42, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
This view of Paris was among the last works Girtin made before dying of tuberculosis at just twenty-seven. Girtin had been in Paris between November 1801 and May 1802 making drawings for a vast panorama of that city, which he planned to exhibit in London. The scheme foundered, but he salvaged something from the trip by using these drawings to make a series of soft-ground etchings. This view belonged to a set of the etchings that Girtin colored by hand for his patron, the Earl of Essex, though he died before being able to present them in person. Despite his premature death Girtin's impact was immense. As his friend and early rival Turner later remarked: "If Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved." Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)