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Works (?) Thomas Girtin

A Lane at Hampstead

1793 - 1794

Primary Image: TG0209: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), A Lane at Hampstead, 1793–94, watercolour on paper, 22 × 32.4 cm, 8 ⅝ × 12 ¾ in. Private Collection.

Photo courtesy of Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive, PA-F03141-0021 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Description
Creator(s)
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
Title
  • A Lane at Hampstead
Date
1793 - 1794
Medium and Support
Watercolour on paper
Dimensions
22 × 32.4 cm, 8 ⅝ × 12 ¾ in
Object Type
Studio Watercolour
Subject Terms
London and Environs; Picturesque Vernacular

Collection
Versions
A Lane at Hampstead (TG1388)
Catalogue Number
TG0209
Description Source(s)
Auction Catalogue; Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive

Provenance

Christie's, 2 March 1971, lot 6 as 'A Woman and Children in a Village Street' by Robert Dixon; bought by John Manning, London; J. Macleod; his sale, Christie’s, 27 April 1976, lot 135, unsold; J. Macleod, his sale, Christie's, 8 June 1976, lot 135, £600

Exhibition History

Manning Gallery, 1972, no.28

About this Work

This watercolour is known only from a black and white image taken when it appeared on the art market in 1976 having hitherto being attributed to Robert Dixon (1780–1815). The work is not signed and the new attribution to Girtin cannot be confirmed with any great degree of certainty, therefore. The most compelling reason to link it to Girtin comes from the existence of a watercolour of the same subject painted by the artist around 1799 (TG1388). The composition is different, with more prominent trees and the various elements are compressed to fit into a portrait format, but the scene is still recognisably the same, with a similar well appearing in front of a line of cottages. Of course, this may have been a matter of coincidence, with two artists happening upon the same picturesque stretch of road in a village near London, but the form of the foreground tree here and the lateral expansiveness of the composition are just enough to suggest that this watercolour dates from relatively early in Girtin’s career and that he revisited the subject in his maturity with different results. A date of, say, 1793–94 would link the work to a view of Harrow-on-the-Hill (TG0187), with which it shares a number of features, including its treatment of figures and a comparable foreground.

1798 - 1799

A Lane at Hampstead

TG1388

1794

Harrow-on-the-Hill

TG0187

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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