DOI issue:
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DOI article:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: The centenary of Thomas Girtin: his genius and work
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26228#0115
^T^HE CENTENARY OF THOMAS
GIRTIN: HIS GENIUS AND
1 WORK. BY WALTER SHAW
SPARROW.
THE subject of this paper was born in February,
1775; about two rnonths before the date now
commonly accepted for the birth of Turner, and
these two painters of genius thus united by their
natal year were destined also to be inseparably
linked together in the history of art, as the real
founders of the beautiful and various school of
English water-colour painting. It was they who
freed that school from its subserviency to the
engraver's craft, and enabled it to work side by
side, almost on equal terms, with the landscape
painters in oil colours.
When Girtin and Turner were young men
struggling for a name by which to live, the leader-
ship was not in Turner's hands; it was taken and
heldfirmlybyGirtin;and
there can be no doubt
that he, throughout his
short life of twenty-seven
years, was the stronger
workman of the two, the
more enterprising and
self-reliant. Had Turner
died with him, in Novem-
ber, 1802, Girtin's name
to day would stand higher
than Turner's. But
Turner outlived his com-
rade by nearly half a cen-
tury, and the work done
byhimafterGirtin'sdeath
is not only that by which
his fame is now measured
and preserved; it is also
thatinwhichhisgenius
has been made to tyran-
nise in criticism over the
trulynobleresultsofGir-
tin'sinitiationasapioneer.
But, happily, the injus-
tice that criticism can be
made to do is not lasting;
it cannot long endure in
dehance of the self-evident
facts that not only tell
against it, but prove it to
be injustice ; and any criti-
cal visitor to the Diploma
Galiery at Burlington
XVIII. No. 70.—DECEMBER,
House must see at a glance that Turner's famous
picture, the ZW<G&?*73, is full of Girtin, being
Girtinesque in spaciousness of design and in the
serene spirit of its workmanship. Nor is this fine
painting the only one in which Turner lives as the
follower of a young man only two rnonths his
senior. Ruskin had no doubt that Turner, in his
frrst years of life, owed rnore to Girtin's teaching
and companionship than to his own genius; and
a good many competent judges now believe, surely
with perfect justice, that Turner in his life-work
was usually at his best when he kept most
rigorously in touch with the concentration of
Girtin's strength and the calm dignity of Girtin's
mastery of composition.
Turner's danger was a tendency to set undue
store by complexity of design, by too much elabora-
tion of effect in details. Like a professional detective,
he did not care to discover what he needed for his
success in a simple and direct manner. Mysteries
GIRTIN: HIS GENIUS AND
1 WORK. BY WALTER SHAW
SPARROW.
THE subject of this paper was born in February,
1775; about two rnonths before the date now
commonly accepted for the birth of Turner, and
these two painters of genius thus united by their
natal year were destined also to be inseparably
linked together in the history of art, as the real
founders of the beautiful and various school of
English water-colour painting. It was they who
freed that school from its subserviency to the
engraver's craft, and enabled it to work side by
side, almost on equal terms, with the landscape
painters in oil colours.
When Girtin and Turner were young men
struggling for a name by which to live, the leader-
ship was not in Turner's hands; it was taken and
heldfirmlybyGirtin;and
there can be no doubt
that he, throughout his
short life of twenty-seven
years, was the stronger
workman of the two, the
more enterprising and
self-reliant. Had Turner
died with him, in Novem-
ber, 1802, Girtin's name
to day would stand higher
than Turner's. But
Turner outlived his com-
rade by nearly half a cen-
tury, and the work done
byhimafterGirtin'sdeath
is not only that by which
his fame is now measured
and preserved; it is also
thatinwhichhisgenius
has been made to tyran-
nise in criticism over the
trulynobleresultsofGir-
tin'sinitiationasapioneer.
But, happily, the injus-
tice that criticism can be
made to do is not lasting;
it cannot long endure in
dehance of the self-evident
facts that not only tell
against it, but prove it to
be injustice ; and any criti-
cal visitor to the Diploma
Galiery at Burlington
XVIII. No. 70.—DECEMBER,
House must see at a glance that Turner's famous
picture, the ZW<G&?*73, is full of Girtin, being
Girtinesque in spaciousness of design and in the
serene spirit of its workmanship. Nor is this fine
painting the only one in which Turner lives as the
follower of a young man only two rnonths his
senior. Ruskin had no doubt that Turner, in his
frrst years of life, owed rnore to Girtin's teaching
and companionship than to his own genius; and
a good many competent judges now believe, surely
with perfect justice, that Turner in his life-work
was usually at his best when he kept most
rigorously in touch with the concentration of
Girtin's strength and the calm dignity of Girtin's
mastery of composition.
Turner's danger was a tendency to set undue
store by complexity of design, by too much elabora-
tion of effect in details. Like a professional detective,
he did not care to discover what he needed for his
success in a simple and direct manner. Mysteries