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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Thomas Girtin
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(1775–1802) English watercolourist, an exact contemporary of *Turner and at the time of Girtin's early death widely considered Turner's rival as the leading figure in the new style of landscape painting. Girtin's annual summer sketching tours were focused on three areas - the northeast, from York to Jedburgh (first visit 1796), the west country from Somerset to Devon (1797) and north Wales (1798). The peace of *Amiens gave him his first brief chance to visit Paris, in November 1801. He was already ill with tuberculosis, of which he died the following year. Turner, a personal friend, testified to art's great loss in his tribute: 'If Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved.' Together Girtin and Turner freed the British watercolour tradition from its reliance on the drawn line, making possible the suggestion of landscape and light by colour and wash alone and thus completing the development pioneered by John Robert *Cozens, whose work they had together been paid to make copies of in their student years.
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