A 'connoisseur's panorama'

de Greg Smith, Sheila O'Connell, London Topographical Society

"This is the first major study of Thomas Girtin's great panorama of London since Hubert Pragnall's groundbreaking publication for the London Topographical Society fifty years ago. Taking advantage of a wealth of recent archival discoveries, the book discusses in depth the production and consumption of Girtin's contribution to the remarkable cultural phenomenon of the turn of the eighteenth century, the 360-degree all-encompassing urban panorama. The book reproduces in full-page colour all of the surviving outline and colour drawings Girtin made for the project, including two sheets discovered very recently -- one of which is published here for the first time -- allowing readers to fully appreciate the extraordinary detail and variety of the topographical content of Girtin's long lost monumental canvas. The result of the artist's sketching campaign from the roof of the Albion Terrace on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge is a unique snapshot of London in 1802, a city in the grip of rapid expansion and change, but which the ephemeral panorama was paradoxically well qualified to capture.."--Front jacket flap.