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Works (?) Thomas Girtin after Joseph Collyer

Horse Guards Parade

1790 - 1791

Print after: Charles Taylor (1756–1828), after (?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), engraving, 'Parade Front of Horse-Guards' for The Temple of Taste, no.13, 2 November 1795, 12.5 cm, 4 ⅞ in. Reprinted in The Public Edifices of the British Metropolis, no.12, 1820. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection Library.

Photo courtesy of Yale Center for British Art (Public Domain)

Description
Creator(s)
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) after Joseph Collyer (1748-1827)
Title
  • Horse Guards Parade
Date
1790 - 1791
Part of
Object Type
Drawing for a Print
Subject Terms
London Architecture

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0040
Description Source(s)
The original known only from the print

About this Work

Charles Taylor’s (1756–1823) engraving of Horse Guards Parade for his periodical The Temple of Taste was published on 1 November 1795. The original drawing, presumably by the young apprentice Girtin, has not been traced, though its source in an earlier print has been identified. The missing watercolour was, with a few minor modifications, copied from an engraving by Joseph Collyer (1748–1827), A View of the Buildings for the Horse Guards, from the Parade in St. James’s, which was published in 1773. Older prints such as this provided Taylor with a source for simple, unadorned images in which the architectural features of a building were rendered clearly and without picturesque distractions.

Horse Guards

The view from St James’s Park of the barracks built for the Horse Guards includes the parade ground in the foreground which gives the building its popular name. The building was designed by William Kent (1685–1748) and was erected between 1750 and 1759, swiftly becoming one of the most esteemed of the city’s architectural monuments. It seems that Taylor intended to include a second view of the building from Whitehall in a continuation of the series as a pen and ink drawing also survives (see figure 1). There is no stylistic evidence to suggest that Girtin made either this or two additional drawings for The Temple of Taste that were also not engraved, Greenwich (see TG0035 figure 1) and Northumberland House (see TG0035 figure 2).

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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