This view of the Rialto Bridge in Venice is based on an etching by Henry Fletcher (1710–c.1753) that reproduces, at one remove, a painting by Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) (1697–1768) (see the source image above). Girtin’s source, which has not hitherto been recognised, is part of a little-known group of etchings known as Series of Venice Views, published by Joseph Baudin (unknown dates) in 1739, and another print showing the Doge’s Palace (see source image TG0902) was the model for a second watercolour (TG0902). Baudin’s publication, with its rather crude, harsh etching style, therefore provided Girtin with images of the two most significant Venetian sights that do not feature prominently in the more sophisticated prints produced by Antonio Visentini (1688–1782) after Canaletto, from which the artist made three, slightly later watercolour views (TG0898, TG0899 and TG0900). Canaletto’s original oil painting, one of three versions of the composition, shows the famous bridge from the south with the Palazzo dei Dieci Savi on the left and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi beyond the bridge. Just as significantly, the print reproduces Canaletto’s assemblage of shopkeepers and gondoliers, which transform an architectural view into a lively picture of Venetian life, and Girtin carefully preserved this in his copy.

Girtin produced Venice: The Rialto Bridge at the same time as two copies of prints by the architectural view painter Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721–1820) (TG0893 and TG0896). In these, he again employed the same mix of brushwork with pen and ink to reinforce a highly detailed pencil drawing, and in both cases the works came from the collection of his early patron John Henderson (1764–1843). Girtin produced as many as twenty or so copies after contemporary and older prints for Henderson, all presumably worked from impressions in the patron’s collection. The majority of the resulting copies are in watercolours, so they follow the pattern of the bulk of the work produced by Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of another early collector, Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833); namely, they provided the patron with more finished versions of material that he already had access to, either as sketches or as reproductive prints. The pen and ink drawing under consideration here is rather different, since the outline, however complex, is no more finished than its source. It may be that as with Dartford High Street (TG0843), the outline was conceived as the first stage in the production of a watercolour (TG0844), and a companion view of the Doge’s Palace (TG0902), taken from the same source, has indeed been rendered as a finished studio work. However, the more likely reason for the work’s appearance is that Henderson appreciated Girtin’s sketches in their own right, and it seems that he commissioned drawings such as this as examples of the young artist’s expertise with the pencil, pen and brush, much as others collected the sketches of earlier revered practitioners. Overlaying images of the drawing and its source shows how close a copy of the etching it is – indeed, the congruence of the two is such that it may have been traced – but there is still much to be admired in Girtin’s inventive and fluent use of line, not least in the figures, which add to the work’s interest as a piece of draughtsmanship.

On a technical note, the paper historian Peter Bower has identified the support employed by Girtin as a white wove drawing paper, probably manufactured by James Whatman the Younger (1741–98) (Bower, Report). It is the same paper that is employed in other Henderson commissions, including another Venetian scene copied from the same source (TG0902).

1796 - 1797

Venice: The Doge’s Palace

TG0902

1796 - 1797

Venice: The Doge’s Palace

TG0902

1797 - 1798

Venice: The Grand Canal, from Santa Maria della Carità, Looking to San Marco Basin

TG0898

1797 - 1798

Venice: The Grand Canal, Looking East from the Palazzo Flangini to San Marcuola

TG0899

1797 - 1798

Venice: The Grand Canal, Looking North East from near the Palazzo Corner to the Palazzo Contanari degli Scrigni

TG0900

1796 - 1797

Rome: The Temple of Saturn, Called the Temple of Concord

TG0893

1797 - 1798

The Temple of Augustus at Pula in Istria

TG0896

1795 - 1796

Dartford High Street

TG0843

1795 - 1796

Dartford High Street

TG0844

1796 - 1797

Venice: The Doge’s Palace

TG0902

1796 - 1797

Venice: The Doge’s Palace

TG0902