Who is Thomas Girtin?

Answer 1

Thomas Girtin was an 18th century painter who greatly influenced watercolor painting. As a young boy, he apprenticed to Edward Dayes, an accomplished mapmaker watercolorist. Girtin's work advanced from coloring prints and architectural drawings to using watercolors as an art medium in its own right.

Prior to Girtin's work, watercolor paint was used as merely a coloring agent, similar to the use of colored card stock today. Watercolors were considered background color agents for architectural drawings and map making. Having been thoroughly trained in both disciplines, Girtin advanced watercolors into a stand alone medium in it's own right, just as oil painting was its own medium.

Thomas Girtin was an accomplished draftsman, as is evidenced by his early work, but he experimented with the watercolor pigments, gradually using the delicate washes to build extraordinary paintings that compared favorably to the oil paintings of the day. He is credited with inventing the Romantic style of painting in England, due to his experimentation with mixed media of watercolor, ink, and varnish.

Girtin was only 27 when he died. His contemporary and friend, J.M.W. Turner, remarked that had Girtin lived, Turner would not have achieved his own considerable success.