Part 5 (1/2)

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CHAPTER VII

PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS

(1750--1875)

Water-colour painting is in one sense the most ancient mode of pictorial art We find exayptians, in the Ro is, in coh the stateinning of the fifteenth century, is non to be a mistake The earliest pictures were produced with colours soluble in water and redients necessary to fix thes were executed in te in diste on paper, and Mantegna's _Triumph of Caesar_ (Hampton Court) furnish examples of the like process on canvas The art of water-colour painting was practised by the early Italian and German artists, and by those of the Flemish and Dutch schools In most of the illuminations of missals, in this and other countries, water colours were used, mixed extensively with body white Such was the case with the earlyopaque colours, and gradually advanced to transparent pig in water colours, the creation of a School of Water-Colour Art, in the sense in which that ters to this country It was not to the tempera painter, nor to the illuminator of missals, nor to the early miniaturist that e this ers, and landscapes for the antiquary The earliest of such works were executed in outline with a reed pen Examples are to be seen in some small pictures by Albrecht Durer, in the British Museuments used were transparent, and applied on paper The earliest of these pictures are in rey; next, colour was added here and there, and the whole effect was so like that of a coloured print Such were ”the tinted,” or ”steyned” drawings in which our inated The earlytime, as may be seen in the historic collection of water-colour paintings at South Kensington, but gradually the art developed, better pigments were used, and, as early as 1790, a marked improvement accrued, which led to the triumphs of Girtin and Turner, and the e belongs to the modern school of water colours--it started from nature, untraraphers were brought face to face with nature; some of them, like Webber and Alexander, extended their observations to foreign lands; others, finding out the beauties of their own country, were content to copy nature It remained to our artists towards the end of the last, and early in the present century, to give a new and higher character to water-colour art, which fros has risen to be a purely national and original school

Practised by a succession cf enius, a distinct branch of art has been created, taking rank orks in oil More luminous, and hardly less powerful than pictures in that medium, it has lent itself, in skilled hands, to the fullest expression of nature, and perfect rendering of the ideal

PAUL SANDBY (1725--1809) has been called ”the father of water-colour art;” but as he never advanced beyond the tinted mode, and to the last used Indian ink for shadows, and the pen for outlines, the title is un served in the Drawing Office in the Tower, he settled at Windsor in 1752, and becae III He was one of the original members of the Royal Acade master in the Military School at Woolwich He painted hbourhood of Windsor, and for Sir Watkin W Wynn and Sir Joseph Banks landscapes in Wales Speci are in the South Kensington collection, including _An Ancient Beech Tree_, which is painted in body-colour; _The Round Te and figures_, is in the fully tinted manner

THOMAS HEARNE (1744--1817) came early from Wiltshi+re to London, and was intended for trade He was, however, apprenticed to Woollett, the engraver In 1771, he went to the Leeward Isles as draughtsman to the Governor, and this new occupation induced hiraphy He tinted landscapes, with local colour largely used His _Village Alehouse_, _View of Rich scenes after Van de Velde, and _Caistor Castle_ are at South Kensington

WILLIAM PAYNE, who at one time held a civil appointment in Plymouth dockyard, came to London in 1790 He had previously exhibited tinted pictures of Devonshi+re scenery, which attracted the notice of Reynolds

He is best known as the introducer of a neutral colour, styled _Payne's Grey_

ALEXANDER COZENS (died 1786), a natural son of Peter the Great, was born in Russia After studying art in Italy he ca Gifted with a fine poetic feeling, and having a noble sense of breadth, this artist made a deep impression on those who followed him

JOHN WEBBER (1752--1793) travelled in Italy, France, and Switzerland, and htse, and a witness of his death

JOHN ROBERT COZENS (1752--1799), son of Alexander Cozens, was one of the earliest who practised water-colour painting in the modern sense of the term His works in the tinted manner are full of poetic beauty, and exhibit a marked iton i Palace near Albano_ Constable, as reatest genius who ever touched landscape” He was the first to go beyond topography, and to ih he worked ns in his pictures of a noble progress, which was soon to become more marked

JOHN SMITH (1749--1831), called ”Warwick Smith,” probably because he travelled in Italy with the Earl of Warwick, or on his behalf Six of his Italian sketches are at South Kensington Gainsborough said ”he was the first water-colour painter who carried his intention through” In 1816 he was President of the Society of Painters in Water Colours We must here briefly mention THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756--1827), who is best known by caricatures, including illustrations to ”Doctor Syntax,” ”The Dance of Death,” and ”Dance of Life”

WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1767--1816) accohtsman to the Mission He was afterwards s in the British Museum He illustrated many books of travel

JOSHUA CRISTALL (1767--1847), one of the foundation members of the Water-Colour Society, of which he was ures with landscape backgrounds, and genre subjects His _Young Fisher Boy_ and _Fish Market on Hastings Beach_ are at South Kensington

HENRY EDRIDGE, who s in Paris and in Nor the miniature painters

ROBERT HILLS (1769--1844) represented ani in water colours, and may be styled the father of this branch of art He frequently worked in conjunction with other artists; as in _Deer in a Landscape_ (South Kensington), where the deer are painted by Hills, and the landscape is by Barret

MICHAEL ANGELO ROOKER (1748--1801) originally practised as an engraver, but, having been instructed in painting by Paul Sandby, forsook the graver, and worked as a student at the Royal Academy Subsequently, he became principal scene-painter at the Hays, as rove Priory Church_ (South Kensington Collection)

Conspicuous a those artists who showed that the power and richness which were supposed to belong to oil painting only, could be produced in water colours, was--

THOMAS GIRTIN (1773--1802), who entirely revolutionised the technical practice of his forerunners, by laying in a whole picture with the local colours of its parts Girtin found a friend and helper in Dr Monro, who possessedpainters of the day free access to them In the riverside scenery visible froenial subjects for his art, as well as amid the old-world spots about Chelsea and Wandsworth Later, he extended his travels, choosing cathedral cities in England, and visiting the Lake district, Scotland, and Wales Girtin loved to depict scenes of gloorandeur, such as the melancholy cumberland hills, and the sterner scenery of Scotland, whilst Turner, his friend and felloorker at Dr Monro's house, depicted light, even when treating similar subjects to those which his friend affected Girtin spent a great deal of valuable ti a panorae of twenty-nine, but he had lived long enough to , and to add power of effect, of colour, and of execution to the poetry hich Cozens had invested it Favourable specimens of Girtin's art may be seen in a _View on the Wharfe_ and _Rievaulx Abbey_ (South Kensington)

GEORGE BARRET the younger (1774--1842) was one of the foundation hted in sunset effects

WILLIAM DE LA MOTTE (1780--1863) was originally a pupil of President West, but abandoned oil for water colours He painted landscapes in the style of Girtin, but more chiefly architecture and marine pieces

Of JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775--1851), we shall speak hereafter as a painter in oils; here we reater even than that of Girtin ”Many date the perfect develop from Girtin, but it is far more due to Turner, hile he could paint in that th of Girtin, added to that strength, delicacy and _quality_” (_Redgrave_) Turner is famous as a painter both in water colour and in oil, and as the artist of ”Southern Coast Scenery,”