84 
to make drawings.” Such was his. attach- 
‘ment to his profeffion, that he worked at it 
only eight days before he died. Before the 
lofs of his health his fpirits were eminently 
high. He was interred at St. Paul’s, Covent 
oe his remains being attended by Sir 
William Beechey, Mr. Hearne, Mr. Turner, 
and Mr. Eldridge, who thus paid their laft 
tribute of refpect-to talents which they were 
fo eminently qualified to appreciate. He was 
inftru@ed in the firt rud'ments of his art by 
a drawing-mafter, of the name of Fifher,who 
then lived in Alderfgate ftreet 3 and he was 
for a fhort time the pupil of als Dayes. He 
ely made nature his model; but the firft 
matter that ftruck his Leslee forcibly was 
Canaletti. Sir Jothua Reynoids was accuf- 
tomed to fay, that the colouring of RuLens 
was fun-fhine ; and this Girtin foes to have 
felt, for in the latter part of his life he fe- 
duloufly ftudied the colouring of that great 
matter. ae was the firft who introduced the 
cuftom of drawing upon cartridge paper ; by 
which means he avoided that fpotty, glit- 
tering glare, fo common in drawings made 
on white paper; and fome of his later pro- 
ductions have as forcible and fpirited an 
effet as an oil piéture, and are more clear. 
‘In his fr manner he made the outline with 
;a pen, but lately did away that hard outline, 
which gives fo edgy an effect to drawings 
that are not in other refpeéts deftitute of 
merit; and, having firft given his general 
forms with Indian ink, Guim bis work by 
putting on his different tints. ‘This may be 
confidered as a new {fchool; and, if judi- 
-cioufly managed, is certainly a great im- 
provement in the art. It has been faid, 
.that he made great ufe of the rule, and pro- 
duced fome of his moft forcible efeGs by 
-trick :—nothing can be more oppofite to 
truth. His eye was peculiarly accurate; 
and by that he tormed his judgment of pro- 
portions. Whoever infpected- his pallet 
would find it covered-with a greater variety 
/of tints than almoft any of his contempora- 
ries employed —Mr, Moore was his firft pa- 
tron, and with him he went a tour into Scot- 
Jand, The profpeéts he faw in that country 
gave that wildneis of imagery to the fcenery 
ef his drawings, by which they are fo sre- 
eminently diftinguifhed. He alfo went with 
Mr. Moore to Peterborough, Litchfield, and 
ans ee 3 and indced to many other places 
emarkable for their rich fcenery, either in 
nature or architecture. That gentleman has 
adrawing that Girtin made of Exeter cathe- 
.Gral, which was i Iain ly, coloured on the 
ipot where it was drawn: fer he was fo un- 
commonly indefat igable, that when he had 
made a fketch of any place, he never. withed 
to guit it until he had given it all the proper 
.tints. This we, particularly notice, becaufe 
it was generally fuppoled he was Careleis in 
making his fmetches, when, in fadt,, he was 
Dr. Gilbert Thompfon. 
wlege..of P hyficians. 
[ Feb. }, 
remarkably accurate in making them, though 
very carelefs of them after they were made. 
He was early noticed by Lord-Harewood, Mr. 
Lafcelles, and Do€or Monro3. in whofe. 
colleGtions are fome of thofe fine fpecimens 
of the arts, by the ftudy of which he form- 
ed his tafte. The Doctor has in his pof- 
feflion fome .of his earlieft, and many of 
his fineft, drawings. He painted two pic- 
tures in oil; the firft wasa View in Wales, 
which was exhibited, and much noticed, in 
180x 3 and the fecond, the Panorama View 
of Londen, which is now on exhibition in 
Spring Gardens, and may, if taken in all its 
points, be fairly confidered as the moft clafii- 
cal piture that has yet been painted in that 
branch of the art, which may fairly be de- 
nominated the triumph of perfpecive. — About 
twelve months before his death he went to 
France, where he ftaid till May. His laft, 
and indeed his bef, drawings were the 
Views of Paris, which were purchafed by 
Lord Effex, and from which his brother in- 
tends publifhing engravings, Thefe views. 
were taken at different times of the day; 
and, as the Parifians are rather jealous of 
any perfon, efpecially a foreigner, taking 
views of their metropolis, he, on thofe oc- 
cafions, ufually took a coach for a given 
number of hours, and ftopped oppofite to the 
place of which he intended to make a defign ; 
and he was fo anxious to get the tints of na- 
ture, that he frequently remained in it the 
whole days He etched all the plates in the 
foft ground, fo that they have all the effe@& 
of drawings. He delineated two of the fcenes 
at Covent Garden theatre ; one a view of the 
Conciergerie at Paris, for a. pantomime of Dib- 
din’s, and the other the Rue St. Denis. Mr. 
Opie painted his portrait on a three-quarter 
canvas, and Mr. Edridge painted him in mi- 
niature; both of them are good pictures, 
and ftrongly refemble the original. He had 
a mafk taken from his face, and from that 
afk Mr. Garrard, the animal-painter, in- 
tends forming a buft. 
Aged 77, at his houfe. in Salter’s-hail- 
court, Gilbert Thompfon. M.D, of the Royal 
College of Phyficians, London. He was 
born at Warrington on the sth of December, 
17263 his parents being of the fociety of 
Friends. He was educated under the tuition 
of his uncle, Gilbert Thompfon, who was of 
the tame fociety, and an eminent fchool- 
mafter at Lankey, near Warrington. Ale 
though Dr.’‘Thompfon received from his un- 
cle a competent fortune, yet he went to ftu- 
dy medicine at Edinburgh, where he gra- 
duated in 1753, having publifhed a Thefis de 
ExerciHtatione. He fettled as a phyfician in 
London in 1754, and was fome time after- 
wards admitted a member of the Royal Col- 
In 1771 he married 
Maz y Edmondfon, of Wray, in Lancafhire, 
whe has furviyed him. He fucceeded the 
late 
