Thomas Girtin Panoramic view thought to be Primrose Hill, London

Inscribed verso: Primrose Hill coloured on the spot by/Girtin, watercolour over pencil on oatmeal paper.
19.7 x 48.7 cm.; 7 ¾ x 19 inches

Provenance
Arthur Boney, his sale, Sotheby’s, 7 October 1947, lot 34, bought by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. , London;
Ray Livingston Murphy (1923-1953), New York, by 1950, his sale, Christie’s, 19 November 1985, lot 35;
Robert Tear, OBE (1939-2011), his sale, Sotheby’s, 9 July 2014, lot 189;
With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art;
Private collection, U.K. until 2024

Literature
T. Girtin and D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, no. 416, p. 191;
G. Smith, Thomas Girtin (1775-1802): An Online Catalogue
Archive and Introduction to the Artist, TG1761

Exhibited
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Prospects, 1950, no. 18., pl. 9b;
Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, London, British Drawings and Watercolours, 2015, no. 17

This panoramic landscape has been identified as showing Primrose Hill in north London, on the basis of an inscription on the back of the drawing, and Thomas Girtin (1874–1960) and David Loshak consequently dated it to 1800–1801. The area was then undeveloped. It did not become a place of leisure and recreation until well into the nineteenth century, since when the rapid expansion of the city northwards changed the appearance of the landscape so greatly that it may never be possible to confirm the identification of the view with certainty.

The work may well have been coloured on the spot, as the inscription suggests, as it is worked in a limited palette without much foreground detail.