- Description
-
- Creator(s)
- Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
- Title
-
- St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
- Date
- 1795 - 1796
- Medium and Support
- Watercolour on paper
- Subject Terms
- City Life and Labour; London and Environs; Street Scene
Place depicted
Other entries in London and the Home Counties, Together with Miscellaneous Studies and Views
Windsor Castle, from the River Thames
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum
Great Bookham Church, from the East
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Park and Castle, from Snow Hill
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (National Trust)
The Gateway, St Albans Abbey
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey: The West Porch
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Albans Abbey, from the North West
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
An Interior View of St Albans Abbey, from the Crossing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
The Interior of St Albans Abbey
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Windsor Castle and the Great Park, from the South West
Private Collection, Norfolk
Windsor Great Park: Herne’s Oak with a Herd of Deer
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Stags Fighting amongst a Herd of Deer in Windsor Great Park, with the Castle in the Distance
Private Collection
A Herd of Deer in Richmond Park
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section One: Somerset House to Blackfriars Bridge
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Two: The Surrey Bank
Private Collection
A Panoramic View of the Thames from the Adelphi Terrace, Section Three: Westminster Bridge to York Stairs
Private Collection
Westminster, from the West Corner of the Adelphi Terrace
Private Collection
The Thames with St Paul's and Blackfriars Bridge
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
Shipping on the Thames, Looking down Limehouse Reach towards Greenwich, with the Church of St Alfege in the Distance
Private Collection
A Haystack on a Farm, on the Road to Harrow-on-the-Hill
Private Collection
A Panoramic Landscape, near Norwood
Private Collection
St James’s Park, with Westminster Abbey in the Distance
National Gallery of Art, Washington
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
St Paul's Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Untraced Works
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A River Scene, with Boats
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
An Imaginary Coast Scene with the Horizontal Air Mill at Battersea
Private Collection
London: The Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
London: The Interior of the Ruins of the Leathersellers’ Hall
British Museum, London
Turver’s Farm, Radwinter
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Farm with an Unidentified Windmill
Private Collection
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence
Barns and a Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Private Collection, Norfolk
Trees and Pond, Said to Be near Bromley
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
A Sandpit, near Logs Hill, Widmore
Private Collection
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stone-next-Dartford
British Museum, London
A Farmhouse in a Woodland Setting, Said to Be in Devon
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Farm Buildings, Probably in Surrey
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester
Tintern Village, Seen across the Forge Pond, Formerly Known as ‘The Mill-Pond’
Private Collection
A Picturesque House Overlooking a River, with Distant Windmills
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington
The West End of an Unidentified Church
Private Collection
Effingham Churchyard, Formerly Known as 'A Country Churchyard'
Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
An Unidentified Windmill, Probably in Lambeth
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Unidentified Buildings, Herne Hill
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
Study of a Sailor on Board a Ship; A Fishing Boat
Private Collection
The Frozen Watermill, from William Cowper's The Task
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
An Unidentified Subject, Probably from James Macpherson’s Poems of Ossian
Tate, London
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
The Archangel Gabriel Awaiting Night, from John Milton's Paradise Lost
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
Portrait Study of a Man, Said to Be the Artist George Barret the Younger
Private Collection
A Study of a Lion from the Tower of London
Private Collection
An Open Field with a Cart and Horses, Known as ‘The Carter’
British Museum, London
A Church Seen across Fields, with Another Sketch Depicting a Woman
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino
A Landscape with Figures by Railings
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Self-Portrait of the Artist at Work
British Museum, London
An Unidentified Landscape, with a Church amongst Trees
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
A Cottage and a Windmill Surrounded by Trees
Private Collection
St Paul’s Cathedral, from the Thames
Private Collection
The Head of a Youth, Here Identified as Joseph Mallord William Turner
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Old London Bridge, with the Shot Tower in Construction, and St Olave's Church
Private Collection
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
About this Work
This view of St Paul’s Cathedral from St Martin’s-le-Grand, one of three finished watercolours of the subject, has not been traced and is known only from an aquatint published in 1815 and again in 1819 by the artist’s brother, John Girtin (1773–1821) (see the two prints after, above). We can be reasonably sure that the print was derived from a lost watercolour because the figures and the dispositions of the various carts and horses differ significantly from those in both of the two surviving drawings (TG1395 and TG1396) and another version that was unfinished (TG1393), and it is inconceivable that an engraver would have had the skill or time to improvise such a complex set of variations on Girtin’s characteristic staffage. The missing watercolour is likely to date from the same time as the earliest of the surviving versions, since overlaying an image of the print shows that the form of the architecture in both follows the same general outlines, unlike in the later work, which alters the perspective and opens up the scene to good effect.
John Girtin owned a large number of works by Thomas at various times, effectively dealing in his brother’s work as well as publishing his drawings both before and after his death. It is not known how John came to gain access to the original drawing in this case, though it is possible that it came from the collection of George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839), to whom the print is dedicated. John struggled with financial problems throughout his precarious career, and he no doubt hoped to benefit financially from publishing a large-scale engraving by the ‘late THOMAS GIRTIN’. But St Martin’s-le-Grand was John’s childhood home as well as his brother’s, and the project no doubt came with a personal significance for him too, not least as the scene was about to be transformed, with the family home facing demolition to make way for the ‘Scite for the NEW POST OFFICE’. The florid inscription, engraved by John, who was by profession a letter engraver, makes nothing of the personal family associations of the site, however, adding instead a long quote from Thomas Pennant’s (1726–98) Some Account of London about the ancient collegiate church that once stood to the east of the road (Pennant, 1793, p.392). This was presumably aimed at the antiquarian market, whose members might not be expected to be interested in a lively street scene in one of the less fashionable of the city’s thoroughfares, despite its nestling under the great dome of St Paul’s.
1796 - 1797
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
TG1395
1795 - 1796
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
TG1396
1795 - 1796
St Paul’s Cathedral, from St Martin’s-le-Grand
TG1393