Ruskin noted that Turner might have had to struggle if either Cozens or Girtin had lived ( Works, 5.409) and Cook and Wedderburn include a quotation from Thornbury's biography of Turner written in 1877 in which Turner is recorded as saying 'Had Tom Girtin lived... I should have starved' ( Works, 5.409). Ruskin considered that following the work of Wilson:' our true and modest schools began, an especial direction being presently given to them in the rendering effects of aerial perspective by the skill in water-colour of Girtin and Cozens' ( Works, 33.378) and in 1887, he told Girtin's great-grandson:
'I have the deepest and the fondest regard for your great-grandfather's work, holding it to be entirely authoritative and of pure artistic feeling and insight into what is noblest and capable of rendering dignity in familiar objects. He is often as impressive to me as Nature herself, nor do I doubt that Turner owed more to his teaching and companionship than to his own genius in the first year of life' (Works, 14.498).
Ruskin considered that it was Dr Monro who had 'companioned' Turner and Girtin ( Works, 13.405) and that Girtin was one of the first watercolour masters along with Cozens, Robson, Fielding, Cox, Prout, and De Wint who formed a 'true and progressive school' ( Works, 14.247).