A history of water-colour painting in England
From Introduction:
Water-colour painting has often been claimed as the most truly English of our national attainments in the fine arts, and few who have carefully examined the continental galleries will care to dispute the fact that this art as practised in our own country has, in the hands of a series of skilful exponents, achieved a position of individuality and commands a degree of success unrivalled by any of the foreign schools. When we endeavour to trace the ancestry of the water-colour art of today and to show its descent from the times of the Elizabethan miniaturists, the " Kramers," of quaint Master Richard Haydock,^ — Nicholas Hilliard and his " schollers," through the foreign artists in tempera of the Dutch school, — Ostade and his contemporaries, we encounter very serious difficulties.
Perhaps the earliest attempt to write the history of the Enghsh Water-Colour school will be found in the pages of the Somerset House Gazelle, a weekly journal conducted by W. H. Pyne. The editor contributed a series of articles during the year 1822, which furnish authentic details concerning the lives of Barret, Nicholson, Glover and certain of the most eminent painters of that day, and the notices of the Exhibitions of the Old Water-Colour Society, doubtless penned by the same hand, are a storehouse of information for t writers. W
hen the author's father undertook, in 1857, to form a historical series of water-colour drawings and to prepare a catalogue of the artists' works, he was painfully surprised to find how slight were the materials extant, and how little was known concerning the painters of this country in the past. In his preface to the South Kensington Catalogue, he says of watercolour painting: — " Already the names of some of its first professors are being lost for want of record, and their works dispersed in folios and forgotten; yet these men are the founders of the art; out of their practice, however imperfect, arose the excellence and richness of the succeeding school; and while at tlie present time such efforts are making and such expense is very properly incurred, to trace step by step the history of the revival of art in Italy, it is surely right to illustrate the labours of our own countrymen who have founded a new art, and to treasure up the incontestable proofs of its origin and progress."
The appreciation of this our native art has grown amazingly since the second decade of the present century when the Old Water-Colour Society secured their new gallery in Pall Mall, and much has been written in recent times about the masters of the English school. It may seem to some, therefore, that but little need existed for a handbook, giving a few scant details of the history of water-colour painting in this country: the author has, however, deemed it advisable to bring together the facts already extant into a small compass and to furnish the student with a concise account of the origin and progress of the art. The present work differs in some respects from others of the same character in that it is illustrated with reproductions from the drawings by eminent painters, selected from the National Collections at South Kensington, and in the Print Room of the British Museum.
For permission to copy these works, the author tenders his sincere thanks to the Lord President of the Council on Education and to the Trustees of the British Museum. It is always an important advantage in a work of this kind when the student can consult for himself the examples selected as illustrations, and every lover of water-colour painting can himself examine the admirable drawings in our public galleries.
Some contents:
INTRODUCTION — THE VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF WATER-COLOUR PAINTING 1
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHIC DRAWINGS — PAUL SANDBY, R.A. — WILLIAM ALEX-
ANDER — JOHN WEBBER, R.A. — EDWARD DAYES — THOMAS HEARNE 9
ANDER — JOHN WEBBER, R.A. — EDWARD DAYES — THOMAS HEARNE 9
CHAPTER II.
JOHN R. COZENS — JOHN SMITH (WARWICK SMITIl) — THOMAS GIRTIN
— GIRTIN's METHOD OF WORKING — HIS CARTRIDGE PAPER — LETTER FROM PROFESSOR RUSKIN 21
— GIRTIN's METHOD OF WORKING — HIS CARTRIDGE PAPER — LETTER FROM PROFESSOR RUSKIN 21
CHAPTER III.
FRANCIS WHEATLEY, R.A. — WILLIAM HAMILTON, R.A. — SAWREY
GILPIN, R. A.— JOHN HAMILTON MORTIMER, A.R. A.— WILLIAM
PARS, A.ll.A. — MICHAEL ANGELO ROOKER, A.R. A.— SAMUEL H.
GRIMM — WILLIAM MARLOW — JOHN CLEVELEY — ROBERT
CLEVELEYS — JOHN ALEXANDER GRASSE — JULIUS C^SAR IBBETTON — THOMAS Stothard, R.A. — WILLIAM BLAKE 39
GILPIN, R. A.— JOHN HAMILTON MORTIMER, A.R. A.— WILLIAM
PARS, A.ll.A. — MICHAEL ANGELO ROOKER, A.R. A.— SAMUEL H.
GRIMM — WILLIAM MARLOW — JOHN CLEVELEY — ROBERT
CLEVELEYS — JOHN ALEXANDER GRASSE — JULIUS C^SAR IBBETTON — THOMAS Stothard, R.A. — WILLIAM BLAKE 39
CHAPTER IV.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A, — HIS EARLY DRAWINGS
— HIS LATER DRAWINGS — HIS INFLUENCE ON THE ART . . . 53
CHAPTER V.
THE SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS — ITS FORMATION —
THE FIRST MEMBERS — THE FIRST ASSOCIATES — THE SOCIETY
OF PAINTERS IN OIL AND WATER-COLOURS — THE GALLERY IN
PALL MALL EAST — THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN
WATER-COLOURS— OTHER WATER-COLOUR SOCIETIES ...... 65
THE FIRST MEMBERS — THE FIRST ASSOCIATES — THE SOCIETY
OF PAINTERS IN OIL AND WATER-COLOURS — THE GALLERY IN
PALL MALL EAST — THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN
WATER-COLOURS— OTHER WATER-COLOUR SOCIETIES ...... 65
CHAPTER VI.
THE FOUNDERS OF THE WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY— GEORGE BARRET
— ROBERT HILLS — WILLIAM HENRY PYNE— NICHOLAS POCOCK —
SAMUEL SHELLEY — WILLIAM FREDERICK WELLS — WILLIAM
SAWREY GILPIN — FRANCIS NICHOLSON— JOHN VARLEY
— ROBERT HILLS — WILLIAM HENRY PYNE— NICHOLAS POCOCK —
SAMUEL SHELLEY — WILLIAM FREDERICK WELLS — WILLIAM
SAWREY GILPIN — FRANCIS NICHOLSON— JOHN VARLEY
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