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Works (?) Thomas Girtin

St George's Church, Hanover Square

1790 - 1791

Print after: Charles Taylor (1756–1828), after (?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), engraving, 'St. George's Church Hanover Square' for The Temple of Taste, no.11, 1 September 1795, 12.5 cm, 4 ⅞ in. Reprinted in The Public Edifices of the British Metropolis, no.8, 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)
Title
  • St George's Church, Hanover Square
Date
1790 - 1791
Part of
Object Type
Drawing for a Print
Subject Terms
London Architecture

Collection
Catalogue Number
TG0032
Description Source(s)
The original known only from the print

About this Work

Thomas Malton the Younger (1748–1804), etching and aquatint, 'S<sup>t</sup>. Georges Hanover Square', 21 February 1787, 38 × 53.2 cm, 15 × 21 in. British Museum, London (1878,1228.170).

The drawing that formed the basis for this engraving by Charles Taylor (1756–1823) for his periodical The Temple of Taste has not been traced, but although the print is not inscribed with the artist’s name it is likely that the young Girtin, still an apprentice to Edward Dayes (1763–1804), was responsible for it. A few years later Girtin produced another watercolour of St George’s, Hanover Square, for his patron John Henderson (1764–1843) (TG0872), which was based on a print by Thomas Malton the Younger (1748–1804) (figure 1). Malton’s view is from a less oblique angle, however, and includes more of the terraced houses in St George Street. In contrast, both the ‘handsome portico’ and the ‘modest’ spire are given greater vertical emphasis in Taylor’s view; therefore, if the original watercolour was made after the work of another artist, it is unlikely that Malton was the source.

St George’s was one of ‘the fifty new churches’ built under the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711 and was a key part of the development of Hanover Square as a fashionable extension to the capital. It was designed in 1720 by John James (c.1673–1746) and was built between 1721 and 1725 with a six-column Corinthian temple portico that marked the church out from its domestic surrounds. The church came to have a personal significance for Girtin, for it was here in October 1800 that the artist married Mary Ann Borrett (1781–1843).

(?) 1795

London: St George’s, Hanover Square

TG0872

by Greg Smith

Place depicted

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