Girtin, Thomas (1775-1802)

English landscape painter, one of the most important watercolourists of the 18th century. His work is characterized by broad washes of strong colour and bold compositions, for example The White House at Chelsea (1800; Tate Gallery, London). He was a friend of J M W Turner.

After desultory early training, he spent a fruitful period in company with the young J M W Turner, making copies from J R Cozens and also copying and studying the drawings of Canaletto. By 1796 he had begun to develop a personal style, replacing tinted topographical drawing by watercolour paintings in which free brushwork, strength of tone, and broadly handled masses brought a new vigour into the art, and indeed suggested new possibilities for landscape in either watercolour or oil.

Turner set himself to rival Girtin in this development of watercolour, and John Constable, seeing examples of Girtin's work in the painter George Beaumont's (1753-1827) collection, was at once impressed by the technical suggestion they offered.