Girtin produced a second set of hand-coloured impressions of his etchings, which were carefully mounted and sold by John Girtin to the dedicatee of the publication, George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (1757–1839), for £50, though the whereabouts of this example is not known. The two sets have been the cause of considerable confusion, but, following the discovery of new evidence about John Girtin’s role in the project, it has been possible to distinguish their very different functions (Smith, 2017–18, pp.32–35). The set sold to the earl is thus complete, and it is carefully rendered and presented so as to resemble Girtin’s finished watercolours. In contrast, the group of eighteen hand-coloured etchings, which were once owned by Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford (1788–1861), are very much working drawings; indeed, in some cases they have been cut down, presumably to disguise their careless treatment whilst in the studios of the four men who were employed by the Girtin brothers to add aquatint to the plates. The practical function of such drawings is also evident in the fact that, in addition to providing instructions to the professional aquatinter regarding the distribution of light and shade, they often include Girtin’s amendments, though these have been kept to a minimum in this case.
What appears to be another coloured study by Girtin worked over his own etching is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art (see figure 1). However, its unfinished state, with a broad wash of colour overlaying the figures, strongly suggests that this is not the missing presentation drawing bought by the Earl of Essex.
Girtin’s viewpoint closely matches that adopted by Jean-Baptiste-François Génillion (1750–1829), whose view of the Pont Neuf was engraved for the Voyage Pittoresque de la France (see figure 2) (La Borde and others, 1781–1800). Girtin copied at least five watercolours from this source, and it is therefore likely that he knew this print of the Pont Neuf. However, if he based his view on the French prototype, he chose to respond to it by creating a very different foreground, so that, in stark contrast to the crowds of working men and women that populate the same area, Girtin created a more orderly scene in which elegantly dressed couples promenade, flanked by a troupe of well-turned-out cavalry. The latter was no doubt a reference to a nation on a war footing, but in no way could it have been construed as being critical of the French, and Girtin’s views of the Parisian quays are noticeably more refined than those found in the Voyage Pittoresque. The finished aquatints are, it should be noted, inscribed in both French and English, and there is no doubt that the Girtin brothers had hopes of selling prints to the French market, though this ambition was to come to nothing as hostilities between the two countries resumed a short time after the artist’s death.
Figure 3.
(?) Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), watercolour over soft-ground etching on wove paper, The Pont Neuf and the Mint: A Hand-Coloured Impression of Plate Eight of 'Picturesque Views in Paris’, 1802, 20 × 57.2 cm, 7 ⅞ × 22 ½ in. Cleveland Museum of Art. Dudley P. Allen Fund (1950.219.8)
Digital image courtesy of Cleveland Museum of Art. Dudley P. Allen Fund
This hand-coloured impression of plate eight comes from a set of the Paris prints that was sold in 1947 when they were listed in the sale catalogue ‘as soft-ground etchings, before the aquatint ground was added, coloured by the artist’ (Sotheby’s, 5 March 1947, lot 454). The colouring is of no great quality and were it not for the provenance I would in all likelihood have suggested that the washes were added to the etching by an amateur working from the published aquatints. However, knowing that this set of prints came from the collection of Richard Ford (1796–1858) who inherited the presentation set of hand-coloured outlines (see TG1871a figure 1) from the Earl of Essex makes an attribution of the watercolour washes to Girtin plausible if not entirely convincing. John Girtin’s subscription list for the prints notes that in addition to buying the ‘Paris Drawings’ for £50 the Earl of Essex also paid for two sets of proofs and a set of the etchings.2 The extra sum paid for the etchings suggests that they may have been enhanced, though this might have been the work of John Girtin.
1802
The Pont Neuf and the Mint: Pencil Study for Plate Eight of Picturesque Views in Paris
TG1874
1802
The Pont Neuf and the Mint: Pencil Study for Plate Eight of Picturesque Views in Paris
TG1874
1802
The Tuileries Palace and the Pont Royal, Taken from the Pont de la Concorde: Colour Study for Plate Six of Picturesque Views in Paris
TG1871a
About this Work
This view of the Pont Neuf, with the building housing the Mint to the right, was coloured by Girtin working over a soft-ground etching (see print after TG1874), which, in turn, reproduced an on-the-spot pencil drawing made in early 1802 (TG1874). Girtin added the washes for the guidance of Frederick Christian Lewis (1779–1856), who was employed to aquatint the artist’s plate, fleshing out the etched lines with tones that approximate to those of a monochrome sketch (see the print after, above), though the effect has been spoilt by the drawing’s very faded condition. The completed print was published a couple of months after the artist’s death as plate eight of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris and Its Environs by his widow, Mary Ann Girtin (1781–1843), and his brother, John Girtin (1773–1821), the latter of whom, in addition to financing the project, took over the final stages of its production. The twenty prints were finally published together in an edition of around 130, with the etchings selling for four guineas, the aquatints for five guineas and a set of proof impressions six guineas (Hardie, 1966–68, vol.2, p.8; Smith, 2017–18, pp.32–35). The large prints were very much a luxury product, so it is somewhat surprising that the list of subscribers includes, in addition to many of the best known of Girtin’s patrons, a significant number of artists, amongst which are the names of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Sir William Beechey (1753–1839), Benjamin West (1738–1820), John Hoppner (1758–1810) and Henry Edridge (1768–1821) as well as many of Girtin’s fellow watercolourists, such as John Varley (1778–1842) and John Glover (1767–1849) (Chancery, Income and Expenses, 1804).1