DOI Heft:
Nr. 116 (November 1902)
DOI Artikel:Shaw Sparrow, Walter: The centenary of Thomas Girtin: his genius and work
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0094
Thomas Girtin
he loved for their own sake, and he thought it ably, that has kept Turner so long from winning
worth his while to hoodwink his companions even for himself a just appreciation in France; and
in matters so ordinary as his age and the year and one is tempted also to believe that his recog-
place of his birth. The first impressions which he nition in England would be less wide-spread
received from Nature were simple and beautiful, than it is to-day if it rested solely on the first-
but they took possession of his intricacy-weaving hand effects made by his pictures, unsupported by
mind, remaining there sometimes for years; and such friendly commentating as helps a willing
it happened frequently that their growth in trans- student to reach Turner through a medium
formation became a thing which Turner himself of literary descriptions and memories. But,
either could not, or would not, fully govern in his in any case, one thing is certain, namely, that
art. That his pictures often suffered in this way Girtin's example counted for much in Turner's
is certain; none can doubt that the greatness in life, being the one strong influence that some-
his work is often so profuse, so complex, and so times prevented him from dwarfing the vast-
scattered that the eye is bewildered. A wonderful ness of his work by making his design too
fertility of resource in imaginative composition is intricate and too profuse Thus he owed much to
evident everywhere, but it often lacks a com- Girtin: and his debt, one thinks, was similar in
pleted unity of appeal. It is this weakness, prob- kind, though far from equal in persistence of effect,
to that which Shakespeare
owed to the necessity of
pleasing the general pub-
lic : a discipline, this,
that ran counter to an
overplus of swift-coming
thought, which might have
shown itself in Shake-
speare's work in a settled
obscurity of expression.
Turner himself said, or
is reported to have said,
that he could never quite
get the results achieved
by Girtin, and whether
he said that or not the
criticism is true—true of
Turner's water-colours.
One has no wish to pit
these two painters one
against the other, as the
short-lived Schiller was
pitted against the veteran
Goethe; but one must
needs point out that Tur-
ner in his water-colours
was never Girtin's su-
perior in all the essentials
of great art. What unity
of impression did he ever
produce as nobly austere
and powerful as the one
achieved by Girtin in that
great dawn-picture the
majestic Bridgenorth ? Or,
"PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL" FROM THE WATER-COLOUR BY THOMAS GIRTIN againj when did he paint
(In possession of'the Whitworth Institute, Manchester) in water-colour a sunset
82
he loved for their own sake, and he thought it ably, that has kept Turner so long from winning
worth his while to hoodwink his companions even for himself a just appreciation in France; and
in matters so ordinary as his age and the year and one is tempted also to believe that his recog-
place of his birth. The first impressions which he nition in England would be less wide-spread
received from Nature were simple and beautiful, than it is to-day if it rested solely on the first-
but they took possession of his intricacy-weaving hand effects made by his pictures, unsupported by
mind, remaining there sometimes for years; and such friendly commentating as helps a willing
it happened frequently that their growth in trans- student to reach Turner through a medium
formation became a thing which Turner himself of literary descriptions and memories. But,
either could not, or would not, fully govern in his in any case, one thing is certain, namely, that
art. That his pictures often suffered in this way Girtin's example counted for much in Turner's
is certain; none can doubt that the greatness in life, being the one strong influence that some-
his work is often so profuse, so complex, and so times prevented him from dwarfing the vast-
scattered that the eye is bewildered. A wonderful ness of his work by making his design too
fertility of resource in imaginative composition is intricate and too profuse Thus he owed much to
evident everywhere, but it often lacks a com- Girtin: and his debt, one thinks, was similar in
pleted unity of appeal. It is this weakness, prob- kind, though far from equal in persistence of effect,
to that which Shakespeare
owed to the necessity of
pleasing the general pub-
lic : a discipline, this,
that ran counter to an
overplus of swift-coming
thought, which might have
shown itself in Shake-
speare's work in a settled
obscurity of expression.
Turner himself said, or
is reported to have said,
that he could never quite
get the results achieved
by Girtin, and whether
he said that or not the
criticism is true—true of
Turner's water-colours.
One has no wish to pit
these two painters one
against the other, as the
short-lived Schiller was
pitted against the veteran
Goethe; but one must
needs point out that Tur-
ner in his water-colours
was never Girtin's su-
perior in all the essentials
of great art. What unity
of impression did he ever
produce as nobly austere
and powerful as the one
achieved by Girtin in that
great dawn-picture the
majestic Bridgenorth ? Or,
"PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL" FROM THE WATER-COLOUR BY THOMAS GIRTIN againj when did he paint
(In possession of'the Whitworth Institute, Manchester) in water-colour a sunset
82