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#0102
Thomas Girt in
Thames sketches illustrated in this article, and the
fact will be borne in upon you. Monet, one feels
quite sure, after seeing the out-door impressions
just named, will welcome Girtin as a precursor.
Girtin's tones, as I have said, are quiet; they make
no attempt to vie with the wondrous grey brilliancy
of Nature's hues; they translate, they interpret,
they do not imitate; but the effects produced by
their delightful harmonies in a low key are yet
quite wonderfully real at their best, when unharmed
by "foxey" tints of decomposed indigo and Roman
ochre, two vicious colours much used in Girtin's
time.
In his most fortunate efforts there are two
qualities that cannot be praised too highly; the
one is weight of style, the other is an unfailing
sense of structure expressed in bold draughtsman-
ship. Suppose we examine these qualities carefully,
under separate headings.
z. Draughtsmanship.—Girtin drew so well that
his hand and eye worked together as by some secret
spontaneous impulse, unerringly, and with consum-
mate ease, firmness, fluency, truthfulness, and
precision. With equal skill and daring he will
draw for you a ruined abbey or a vast prospect, a
noble cathedral or a busy, crowded street, a carter
with his team of horses, a cold dawn breaking over
a stretch of moorland, a storm in the mountains
a waterfall, a view of old Paris, a simple English
village, or a great line of huddled old houses seen in
rapid perspective across a river. His every touch
is quick with vitality, full of meaning, full of know-
ledge ; there is nothing slovenly or haphazard in
his most rapid suggestions of form by blots of colour.
No wonder that his friends loved to watch him at
work, and delighted to talk together about the
" sword-play" of his enchanted brush. Remember
also how Cotman as well as Turner, how Dewint
and R. P. Bonington, not to speak of many lesser
men, came under his sway and profited much by
following his example. Mr. Roget does not ex-
aggerate when he says that a group of rising painters
sprang up around Girtin, and became, under his
influence, the school of water-colour that flourished
in Great Britain during the first half of the nine-
teenth century. And another fact of equal impor-
tance comes to mind. Leslie, in his "Memoirs
of Constable," shows that Girtin's ascendency
over young men of genius was not confined to the
painters in water-colour. Const able himself, the great
hope of the landscapists in oils, altered the whole
course of his practice after studying about thirty of
Girtin's works that Sir George Beaumont brought to
his notice as examples of breadth and truth. Yet
"GODALMING CHURCH "
90
FROM THE WATER-COLOUR BY THOMAS GIRTIN
(In possession of the Whitworth Institute, Manchester)
Thames sketches illustrated in this article, and the
fact will be borne in upon you. Monet, one feels
quite sure, after seeing the out-door impressions
just named, will welcome Girtin as a precursor.
Girtin's tones, as I have said, are quiet; they make
no attempt to vie with the wondrous grey brilliancy
of Nature's hues; they translate, they interpret,
they do not imitate; but the effects produced by
their delightful harmonies in a low key are yet
quite wonderfully real at their best, when unharmed
by "foxey" tints of decomposed indigo and Roman
ochre, two vicious colours much used in Girtin's
time.
In his most fortunate efforts there are two
qualities that cannot be praised too highly; the
one is weight of style, the other is an unfailing
sense of structure expressed in bold draughtsman-
ship. Suppose we examine these qualities carefully,
under separate headings.
z. Draughtsmanship.—Girtin drew so well that
his hand and eye worked together as by some secret
spontaneous impulse, unerringly, and with consum-
mate ease, firmness, fluency, truthfulness, and
precision. With equal skill and daring he will
draw for you a ruined abbey or a vast prospect, a
noble cathedral or a busy, crowded street, a carter
with his team of horses, a cold dawn breaking over
a stretch of moorland, a storm in the mountains
a waterfall, a view of old Paris, a simple English
village, or a great line of huddled old houses seen in
rapid perspective across a river. His every touch
is quick with vitality, full of meaning, full of know-
ledge ; there is nothing slovenly or haphazard in
his most rapid suggestions of form by blots of colour.
No wonder that his friends loved to watch him at
work, and delighted to talk together about the
" sword-play" of his enchanted brush. Remember
also how Cotman as well as Turner, how Dewint
and R. P. Bonington, not to speak of many lesser
men, came under his sway and profited much by
following his example. Mr. Roget does not ex-
aggerate when he says that a group of rising painters
sprang up around Girtin, and became, under his
influence, the school of water-colour that flourished
in Great Britain during the first half of the nine-
teenth century. And another fact of equal impor-
tance comes to mind. Leslie, in his "Memoirs
of Constable," shows that Girtin's ascendency
over young men of genius was not confined to the
painters in water-colour. Const able himself, the great
hope of the landscapists in oils, altered the whole
course of his practice after studying about thirty of
Girtin's works that Sir George Beaumont brought to
his notice as examples of breadth and truth. Yet
"GODALMING CHURCH "
90
FROM THE WATER-COLOUR BY THOMAS GIRTIN
(In possession of the Whitworth Institute, Manchester)