Diploma Lecture Series 2013 Revolution to Romanticism: European Art and Culture 1750-1850
The Art of Nature: British Landscape Watercolours
Cathy Leahy
7/8 August 2013
Lecture summary:
The period from the last decades of the eighteenth century through to the mid nineteenth-century has become known as the “golden age” of the British watercolour. During this period the medium was revolutionised from its traditional associations with topographical drawings and lowly status into an independent and highly original art form. The modest views of the eighteenth-century topographical draughtsman with their pen outlines and pale washes of colour gave way to the powerful landscapes of the Romantic generation which were characterised by dense colours, fluid handling and bold articulation of form. Artists such as John Robert Cozens, J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, David Cox and many others practised in the newly fashionable watercolour medium and their work was at the forefront of radical developments in landscape painting. New ways of representing the natural world were forged that were informed by an intense scrutiny of nature and were expressive of the artist’s personal response. This period of intense creativity and experimentation in the medium gave rise to a powerful new expressive freedom that is the focus of this lecture.
Slide list: 1. Jean-Baptiste Claude Chatelain A view of the Wrekin Hill from Ercall, Shropshire, c.1748, watercolour over pencil with pen & black ink, Tate 2. Wenceslaus Hollar, Sterborough Castle, Lingfield, Surrey, pre 1643, watercolour over pencil and black ink, British Museum 3. Paul Sandby, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Repository, c 1768-96, Grey wash and watercolour over pencil, British Museum *4. Paul Sandby, Windsor Castle: the Round Tower and Devil’s Tower from the Black Rod, c.1767, watercolour and gouache over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 5. Paul Sandby, Fields at Bayswater, 1793, watercolour over pencil, British Museum 6. Francis Towne, Lake Torfi, near Lugano, 1781, pen and ink and watercolour, National Gallery of Victoria 7. Francis Towne, Ariccia, 1781, pen and ink and watercolour, National Gallery of Victoria 8. Francis Towne, Elter Force, near Ambleside, Westmorland, 1786, pen and ink and watercolour, National Gallery of Victoria 9. Thomas Hearne, Newark Castle, Nottingham, 1777, watercolour over grey wash and pencil, British Museum Proudly sponsored by
10a. Michel Angelo Rooker, Landscape with ruined castle and cathedral, pen and ink and watercolour, British Museum 10b. Thomas Hearne, An old oak mid 1780s, pen and ink and watercolour, British Museum 11. Thomas Gainsborough, Upland landscape 1778, grey wash heightened with white, National Gallery of Victoria 12a. William Pars, The Rhone Glacier and Source of the Rhone, 1770, watercolour over pencil and ink, British Museum 12b. J. R.Cozens, View on the Reichenbach c.1776, pencil and watercolour, British Museum 13. John Robert Cozens, Entrance to the Valley of the Grand Chartreuse in the Dauphine, c.1783, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford *14. J.R.Cozens The goatherd; View on the Galleria di Sopra above Lake Albano, 1778, watercolour over traces of pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 15. Thomas Girtin, Mynnydd Mawr, North Wales, 1799, watercolour, Private collection 16. Thomas Girtin, View near Beddgelert, North Wales, c.1799, watercolour over pencil, National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff *17. Thomas Girtin, Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire, from Kirkstall Hill, 1800, watercolour over pencil, British Museum 18. Thomas Girtin, The stepping stones on the Wharfe, above Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, 1801, watercolour over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 19. J. M. W. Turner,The Ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey with Dinas Bran beyond, 1794-5, pencil and watercolour, Tate 20. J. M. W. Turner, Derwentwater, with the Falls of Lodore and Borrowdale from the Headland beyond Calfclose Bay, c.1797-1801, pencil and watercolour on paper, Tate 21. J.M.W. Turner, Buttermere Lake, with part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a shower, 1798, oil on canvas, Tate 22. J. M. W. Turner Looking down a Deep Valley towards Snowdon, with an Army on the March, 1799-1800, gouache and watercolour, Tate 23. J. M. W. Turner, The St Gotthard Road between Amsteg and Wassen Looking up the Reuss Valley, c.1803 or 1814-15, Tate 24. Exhibition of Water-coloured drawings, Pl.34 in Ackerman’s Microcosm of London, 1808, hand- coloured etching and aquatint 25a. John Varley Moel Hebog, near Snowdon, North Wales, c.1818, watercolour, National Gallery of Victoria 25b. John Varley, Dolgelly near Barmouth, North Wales, 1818, watercolour 26. John Glover, Classical landscape, Italy , c.1820, watercolour, Private collection 27. Cornelius Varley, Lord Rous’s Park, 1801, watercolour over pencil, British Museum 28. John Linnell, View of Kensington Gardens, c.1811, watercolour over pencil, Metropolitan Museum of Art 29. John Sell Cotman, The Drop Gate, Duncombe Gate 1805, pencil and watercolour, British Museum 30. John Sell Cotman, The Scotchman’s Stone on the Greta, Yorkshire 1805, watercolour over pencil, British Museum 31. John Sell Cotman, Ruins of Walsingham Priory, Norfolk, 1807-8, watercolour over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 32. Peter De Wint, Lincoln Cathedral, c.1810, watercolour over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 33. Peter de Wint, Richmond, 1843 watercolour over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria 34. David Cox, The Brocas, Eton, c.1820s, watercolour, British Museum 35. David Cox, Ulverston Sands, late 1820s/early 1830s, watercolour, British Museum *36. David Cox, Bettws-y-Coed, 1844, watercolour over black chalk, National Gallery of Victoria 37. John Constable, London from Hampstead Heath, 1830, watercolour, British Museum 38. John Constable, London from Hampstead, with a double rainbow, 1831, watercolour with scraping out, British Museum 39a. J.M.W. Turner, Weymouth, Dorsetshire, c.1811, watercolour with scratching out, Tate 39b. after J.M.W. Turner, Weymouth, Dorsetshire, Published in Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England, 1814, engraving 40. J. M. W. Turner, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, c.1828 watercolour with stippling and scratching out, Art Gallery of South Australia 41. J. M. W. Turner, Scarborough Town and Castle: Morning, Boys Catching Crabs, 1811, watercolour, Art Gallery of South Australia 42. J. M. W. Turner, Colour beginning for Scarborough Town and Castle: Morning, Boys Catching Crabs c.1809, watercolour, Tate 43. J. M. W. Turner, Venice, Moonrise, 1840, watercolour, Tate *44. J. M. W. Turner, The Red Rigi, 1842, watercolour, wash and gouache with some scratching out, National Gallery of Victoria 45. J. M. W. Turner, The Blue Rigi, 1842, watercolour, Tate 46. J. M. W. Turner, Sample study for the Red Rigi, 1841-2, watercolour, Tate
Reference: Jane Bayard, Works of Imagination and Splendour: The Exhibition Watercolour, 1770-1870, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1981 (ex. cat)
Martin Hardie, Watercolour Painting in Britain, 3 vols, ed D. Snelgrove with J. Mayne and B. Taylor: I: The Eighteenth Century, London, 1966, revd 1967; II: The Romantic Period, 1967; III: The Victorian Period, 1968
Anne Lyles and Robin Hamlyn, British Watercolours from the Oppé Collection, Tate Gallery Publishing, London, 1997, (ex. cat)
Kim Sloan, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, The Poetry of Landscape, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1986
Kim Sloan, ‘A Noble Art’, Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c.1600-1800, British Museum Press, London, 2000 (ex. cat)
Greg Smith, Thomas Girtin: The Art of Watercolour, Tate Publishing, London, 2002 (ex. cat)
Greg Smith, The Emergence of the Professional Watercolourist: Contentions and Alliances in the Artistic Domain 1760-1824, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2002
Lindsay Stainton, British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860, British Museum Publications, London, 1985 (ex. cat)
Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Gallery Publishing, London, 1997
Andrew Wilton, British Watercolours 1750 to 1850, Phaidon, Oxford, 1977
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Art and Life, New York, 1979
Andrew Wilton and Anne Lyles, The Great Age of British Watercolours 1750-1880, Royal Academy of Arts, London and Prestel Verlag, Munich, 1993 (ex. cat)
Images:
Paul Sandby Windsor Castle: the Round Tower and Devil’s Tower from the Black Rod, c.1767 Watercolour and gouache over pencil, National Gallery of Victoria
J.R.Cozens The goatherd; View on the Galleria di Sopra above Lake Albano, 1778, watercolour over traces of pencil, National Gallery of Victoria
Thomas Girtin, Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire, from Kirkstall Hill, 1800, watercolour over pencil, British Museum
David Cox, Bettws-y-Coed, 1844, watercolour over black chalk, National Gallery of Victoria
J. M. W. Turner, The Red Rigi, 1842, watercolour, wash and gouache with some scratching out, National Gallery of Victoria