Watercolor over soft-ground etching on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 5 7/8 x 17 5/16 inches (15 x 43.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.4706
Gallery Label:
This view of Paris was among the last works Girtin made before dying of tuberculosis at just twenty-seven. Girtin had been in Paris between November 1801 and May 1802 making drawings for a vast panorama of that city, which he planned to exhibit in London. The scheme foundered, but he salvaged something from the trip by using these drawings to make a series of soft-ground etchings. This view belonged to a set of the etchings that Girtin colored by hand for his patron, the Earl of Essex, though he died before being able to present them in person. Despite his premature death Girtin's impact was immense. As his friend and early rival Turner later remarked: "If Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved." Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)