mined Girtin's health, perhaps never very robust. Imprudences in sketching, neglect to change wet clothes, fatigues of various kinds, had changed the young artist.

Sunken eyes, hectic flushes, night perspirations, hollow cough, all fatal symptoms indicating consumption; Girtin must go to France. The Peace of Amiens is concluded; no more "yellow drawings" for Turner, his friendly rival, to praise-no more sunny days on the Thames or the Ouse-no more watchings of London and the great dome, azure with its circumambient veil of air, from the roof of Blackfriars mills—no more watching the twilight lose its transparency and turn to solid darkness over Welsh mountains. There are but a few short months, and the black train will thread the gate of the Coventgarden churchyard, where poor Tom now lies a-cold.

Turner painted his friend Girtin's portrait in oil. It is, I believe, still extant, but I have never seen it. I know well the admirable stalwart likeness Cornish Opie took of him.* It shows me the frank, generous nature of the hearty, kindly fellow whom Turner and every one would love; the strong black brow, the crisp dark hair curling down over it, the keen, far-seeing eyes, the bold chin, the bold features. And as I look at it I think of Turner's words in after-life, "If Tom Girtin had lived I should have starved," as indicative of the great admiration the survivor felt for the dead man. There were, indeed, at the time of Girtin's death, many who looked upon him as a greater artist than * Now at the house of Mr. Girtin, Canonbury-square.

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GIRTIN'S IMITATORS.

Turner; there are many now who think, had Girtin lived, that he would have surpassed Turner.

His

I do not. Girtin's prodigious dash, vigour, and breadth had become, it is true, the rage, so that his foolish admirers even imitated his low tone by washes of dirty colour, and with hues never seen in heaven above or on the earth beneath. They smeared immense sheets of atlas with brown and indigo, and thought at one swoop that they had imitated their master, Girtin's gem-like depth and his grand simplicity. But Girtin, though sometimes rapid, was strikingly patient. He was as bold as Wilson; he was also as careful. vigour and richness he had got, not merely by copying Canaletti, but by looking at nature with his own eyes. Girtin, who at first began with mere neutral greys and greens, soon advanced to laying the chiaroscuro with the three primitive colours, producing warm and cool russets by their combination, and afterwards glazing. Subsequently, however, like Turner, Girtin laid in at once the local colour that he saw in an object.

I do not think that Girtin had an imaginative mind. He had a fine, dashing, broad manner, frank, pure, and honest as his own nature; but he could never have designed the "Dragon of the Hesperides," nor could he have thrown such an atmosphere of poetry round the old Téméraire as Turner did. His mind was not so far-reaching, so insatiably active, so comprehensive. He was a social man, and he did not live for his art alone; he was not the enthusiast, all compact, like Turner, and yet I have seen an evening view at Battersea by him so full of tranquil

DAYES'S CRITICISM.

119

poetry, that I have for the moment been inclined to rank him almost above Turner. Even Cuyp himself scarcely ever produced a harmony more perfect, more full of inner, yet half-dimmed light. It had something of De Wint's low-toned colour, but it was instinct with a higher genius.

เ

"Just before Girtin's death," says one of his contemporaries, "Dayes happened to call on a collector of drawings-an old drivelling dilettante — who patronized every dashing style, when he saw a smart portfolio, inscribed in gilt letters with the name of one of Girtin's closest imitators. 'What have we here?' said Dayes. They are the works of a pupil of your old disciple,' replied the collector. 'Pray, Mr. Dayes, look at them, and favour me with your opinion.' Dayes untied the portfolio, and on beholding the first subject, a large drawing of a mountainous scene among the lakes in Cumberland, he exclaimed, in his emphatic manner, 'Oh, ye gods, the blue-bag! the blue-bag!' Dayes was a man of quick discernment, and very pointed in his remarks, and nothing could be more characteristic of the whole collection than his exclamation; and so he kept on, as he turned over every drawing, still making the burthen of his song, 'Oh, the blue-bag! the blue-bag!' 'So,' said he, 'because Master Tom [Girtin] chooses to wash in dirty water, ergo this puppy, this ass, this driveller, and the rest of the herd, forsooth must wash in dirty water too! Yes, by the Lord! and with the very puddle-water which he has made more dirty!' Then laughing aloud, he exclaimed:Dietreci begat Cassanova! Cassanova

120

GIRTIN'S COLours.

begat De Loutherbourg! Loutherbourg begat Frankey Bourgeois (the founder of the Dulwich Gallery); and he, the dirty dog, quarrelled with Nature and bedaubed her works.'"

A contemporary writer says of Girtin:

"It was a great treat to see Girtin at his studies (unlike Turner), he was always accessible. When he had accomplished the laying in of his sky, he would proceed with great facility in the general arrangement of his tints on the buildings, trees, water, and other objects. Every colour appeared to be placed with a most judicious perception towards effecting a general union or harmony. His light stone tints were put in with thin washes of Roman ochre, or the same, mixed with light red, and certain spaces, free from the warm tints, were touched with grey, composed of light red and indigo, or, brighter still, with ultramarine and light red. The brick buildings with Roman ochre, light red, and lake, and a mixture of Roman ochre, lake, and indigo, or Roman ochre, madder-brown, and indigo; also with burnt sienna and Roman ochre, and these colours in all their combinations. For finishing the buildings which came the nearest to the foreground, where the local colour and form were intended to be represented with particular force and effect, Vandyke brown and Cologne earth were combined with these tints, which gave depth and richness of tone, that raised the scale of effect without the least diminution of harmony: on the contrary, the richness of effect was increased from their glowing warmth, by neutralizing the previous tones, and by throwing them into their

respective distances, in proper keeping. The trees, which he frequently introduced in his views, exhibiting all the varieties of autumnal hues, he coloured with corresponding harmony to the scale of richness exhibited on his buildings. The greens for these operations were composed of gamboge, indigo, and burnt sienna, occasionally heightened with yellow lake, brown pink, and gamboge; these mixed, sometimes, with Prussian blue. The shadows for the trees, indigo, burnt sienna, and a most beautiful shadowtint, composed of grey and madder brown; which, perhaps, is nearer to the general tone of the shadow of trees than any other combinations that can be formed with water colours. He so mixed his greys that, by using them judiciously, they served to represent the basis for every species of subject and effect, as viewed in the middle grounds under the influence of Girtin's atmosphere, when he pictured the autumnal season in our humid climate; which constantly exhibits to the picturesque eye the charms of rich effects in a greater variety than any country in Europe."

The following is another somewhat different version of some of Girtin's favourite tints:

"For blue clear skies, washes of indigo and lake; for cloud shadows, Indian red and indigo, with an occasional addition of lake. For light stone, thin washes of Roman ochre, or the same mixed with light red; for cooler spaces, a grey composed of light red and indigo; for brighter surfaces, a mixture of ultramarine and light red. For brick buildings, Roman ochre, light red, and lake, or a mixture of Roman