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Works Thomas Girtin and Thomas Kirk after Edward Dayes

First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private

1792

Primary Image: TG0061b: Thomas Girtin (1775–1802) and Thomas Kirk (1765–97), after Edward Dayes (1763–1804), First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private, 1792, watercolour over etching on paper, 46.7 × 58.5 cm, 18 ⅜ × 23 in. Brown University Library, Providence, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection.

Photo courtesy of Brown Digital Repository, Brown University Library Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection (Public Domain)

Description
Creator(s)
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Thomas Kirk (1765-1797) after Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
Title
  • First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private
Date
1792
Medium and Support
Watercolour over etching on paper
Dimensions
46.7 × 58.5 cm, 18 ⅜ × 23 in
Inscription

'Drawn by E.Dayes Draughtsman to HRH the Duke of York / Engraved by T.Kirk / Published Feb 1 1792 by Capt. Hewgill of the Coldsream Regt of Guards, & Sold by John & Josiah Boydell, Cheapside, & at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall'

Object Type
Hand-coloured Print
Subject Terms
Figure Study

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0061b
Description Source(s)
Library Website

About this Work

The Drummer from the First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660

The hand-colouring of prints such as First Regiment of Foot Guards, 1660: Drummer and Private was one of the tasks assigned to the young Girtin as an apprentice in the studio of Edward Dayes (1763–1804), and the menial nature of the work was said to be one of the causes of the breakdown in relations between the artist and his master (Girtin and Loshak, 1954, pp.24–25). The task is by its nature anonymous, but the attribution of the colouring of a number of impressions of a series of nine prints of military uniforms to Girtin on stylistic grounds is plausible, especially as Dayes was the author of the original drawings (sold at Sotheby’s, 29 June 1987, lot 315). Dayes’ Foot Guards and Line, comprising nine plates, each with two figures, was produced to meet the patriotic market stimulated by the onset of war with France and was published by ‘Capt. Hewgill of the Coldstream Regt of Guards’ in February 1792 (identifiable as Edwin Hewgill (c.1761–1809)). The series shows six figures each from three regiments: the First Regiment of Foot Guards, the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards and the Third Regiment of Foot Guards. Dayes’ watercolours were reproduced as simple outline etchings with stipple for the faces by Thomas Kirk (1765–97), and these etchings were then transformed by the hand-colouring. The process of tinting was particularly important for this publication, since to save labour the nine plates repeat three identical compositions, and it is only the colour that differentiates the uniforms of the regiments. Girtin also had the responsibility of colouring the three basic landscape settings in order to create variety within an otherwise very restricted format. Hewgill published more hand-coloured prints by Dayes of soldiers from a variety of other regiments at the end of 1792 and again in December 1793, and impressions of these are also in the collection of the British Museum. However, the quality of the application of colour is notably lower, particularly in the landscapes, and Girtin’s involvement in the production of Dayes’ prints seems to have been restricted to the first set of nine catalogued here.

Another hand-coloured impression of part of the print showing the drummer (see figure 1) has been attributed to the young Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) on the basis of a later inscription on the back of a companion print (see TG0063 figure 1). As with that print, it is hard to believe that Dayes would look outside his own studio for someone to colour an etching, and the differences between the impressions are no more than one might expect from an apprentice keen to vary details to maintain interest in an essentially tedious task. On balance, I am inclined to believe that the inscription was added later in error and that this impression too was coloured by Girtin in Dayes’ studio.

by Greg Smith

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