Published to accompany the first comprehensive overview of Girtin's career for 25 years, marking the bicentenary of his death, this catalogue brings together the most outstanding examples of his work. Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) had a tragically short career but in this time succeeded in developing a technique to revolutionize watercolour painting and produced a number of powerful works, helping to establish a British school of watercolour painting and providing one of the cornerstones of Romantic landscape imagery. This text offers a revaluation of the artist's achievements, encompassing a wide ranging analysis of his working methods and materials as well as his relations with patrons, the print trade and fellow professional artists.