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Lot Essay
A comparable watercolour of Rochester, Kent from the North, of a similar date is illustrated in S. Morris, Thomas Girtin, New Haven, 1986, p. 54, no. 2.
Girtin does not seem to have visited the Lake District until the Summer of 1800, on his way back to London from Scotland (and perhaps again in Spring 1801). His master, from 1788 until 1792 or later, Edward Dayes could well be the source of this very early watercolour; other possibilities are Thomas Hearne or the antiquarian James Moore with whom Girtin collaborated in 1790-1 and later (see T. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, p. 51, an example illustrated, pl. 8). The present watercolour is comparable in style of treatment with Rochester, signed and dated 1791 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection; illustrated Girtin and Loshak, op.cit., pl. 7).
Girtin does not seem to have visited the Lake District until the Summer of 1800, on his way back to London from Scotland (and perhaps again in Spring 1801). His master, from 1788 until 1792 or later, Edward Dayes could well be the source of this very early watercolour; other possibilities are Thomas Hearne or the antiquarian James Moore with whom Girtin collaborated in 1790-1 and later (see T. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, p. 51, an example illustrated, pl. 8). The present watercolour is comparable in style of treatment with Rochester, signed and dated 1791 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection; illustrated Girtin and Loshak, op.cit., pl. 7).