Lineage of Forrest · English · 1775 to 1802
Thomas Girtin
Dead at twenty-seven; Turner said that had Girtin lived, he himself would have starved.
Girtin and Turner were exact contemporaries and friendly rivals, and Girtin's broad, simplified handling of castles, abbeys and river towns changed what a landscape drawing could be. He died at twenty-seven. His last project, A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris (1802 to 1803), was etched in soft ground from his own drawings and shows the method plainly: the big masses of a city placed first, the detail kept to a few deliberate accents.
His graphite sheets of Warwick Castle and a castle on a shore are quick, structural and unafraid. They are a good model for the field sketch: the envelope, the main divisions, the shadow side, and stop.
Girtin, Warwick Castle, n.d.. Graphite on cream wove paper.
The Art Institute of Chicago · The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
What to steal
- 1Breadth. Big shapes, few values, no fuss.
- 2Knowing when to stop: the sketch ends when the design is complete, not when the detail runs out.
How to look
- In the Paris views, count the values. There are rarely more than four.
- Notice the sky: a large, quiet shape that lets the buildings carry the picture.
Works
8 public-domain
Warwick Castle
n.d. · Graphite
Castle on Shore
n.d. · Graphite
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of the Gate of St. Denis taken from the Suburbs
1802 · soft-ground etching with bistre wash
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Bell Vue and Pont de Sêve taken from the Terrace near Pont de St. Cloud
1802 · soft-ground etching with bistre wash
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: On the Banks of the Marne below the Bridge at Charenton
1802 · soft-ground etching with bistre wash
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Pont Neuf, and the Mint
1802 · soft-ground etching with bistre wash
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Pont de la Tournelle & Notre Dame taken from the Arsenal
1802 · softground etching and aquatint printed in brown
A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Pont au Change, the City Theatre, Pont Neuf, Conciergerie Prison, &c taken from Pont Notre Dame
1803 · Softground etching and aquatint printed in brown