On loan
Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong, China): British Landscape
- Artist
- Thomas Girtin 1775–1802
- Medium
- Watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 298 × 514 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by Mrs Ada Montefiore 1933
- Reference
- N04728
Display caption
This, Girtin's most celebrated work, was much admired by Turner. According to an anecdote, 'A dealer went one day to Turner, and after looking round at all his drawings in the room, had the audacity to say, I have a drawing out there in my hackney coach, finer than any of yours.
Turner bit his lip, looked first angry, then meditative. At length he broke silence:
Then I tell you what it is. You have got Tom Girtin's White House at Chelsea
'. The focus of the watercolour, the white house itself, is created by leaving the paper more or less unpainted. The windmill at the left was known as Red House Mill. Beyond it is the horizontal windmill at Battersea and towards the right Chelsea Parish Church.
Gallery label, September 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(41,337)
-
- bridges and viaducts(4,129)
-
- bridge(3,995)
- industrial(2,087)
-
- windmill(316)
- religious(6,856)
-
- church(4,472)
- residential(5,541)
-
- house(2,666)
- reflection(717)
- sunset(493)
- cloud(1,764)
- UK countries and regions(24,411)
-
- England(19,255)
- River Thames(733)
- transport: water(8,020)
-
- boat, sailing(3,531)
You might like
-
After Thomas Girtin Chelsea Reach, Looking towards Battersea, engraved by T. Lupton
published 1823 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Battersea Church and Bridge, with Chelsea Beyond
?1797 -
Thomas Girtin Lancaster Church and Bridge
c.1797 -
Thomas Stothard View at Chelsea near the Garden of the Apothecaries Company
date not known -
Amelia Long (Lady Farnborough) Chelsea
date not known -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Zion House, Isleworth
c.1802–10 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Sion Ferry House, Isleworth: Sunset
1805 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner London: York House Water-Gate, Westminster, with York Buildings Waterworks
1794–5 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Thames and Kew Bridge, with Brentford Eyot in the Foreground and Strand-on-Green Seen through the Arches: Low Tide
1805 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner A House by the River: ?Strawberry Hill
1805 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner View on a River, with Boats and Distant Buildings
1796–7 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Richmond Bridge and Hill from Upstream, Fisherman on a Boat at Left
1805 -
William Blake Landscape near Felpham
c.1800 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Syon House Seen through Trees
1805 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Waterloo Bridge, with St Paul’s Cathedral and Somerset House; Thames Barge in the Foreground
c.1808–10