A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: View of Pont de la Tournelle & Notre Dame taken from the Arsenal
Thomas Girtin (British, 1775–1802)
aquatint by Frederick Christian Lewis (British, 1779–1856)
1802
- Medium
- softground etching and aquatint printed in brown
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 19.9 x 48.7 cm (7 13/16 x 19 3/16 in.); Image: 15.1 x 44.5 cm (5 15/16 x 17 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- England, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Prints
- Credit line
- Gift of John Bonebrake
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Girtin, along with his rival J. M. W. Turner, extended the technical possibilities of watercolor and in doing so demonstrated that watercolors could have the visual impact of oils. His reduction of landscape to simple and monumental forms, his panoramic compositions, and his sensitivity to natural effects, such as cloud formations, influenced subsequent generations of watercolor painters. Anxious to take advantage of the Peace of Amiens (October 1, 1801), Girtin went to Paris to see the artistic treasures brought back from Italy by Napoleon and installed in the Louvre. He made graphite sketches of the city and its environs and upon his return to London made etchings based on his drawings. Girtin died of tuberculosis shortly thereafter, and the series was published by his widow and brother.
