HISTORY OF WATERCOLOR PAINTING by Robert Lee Mejer Distinguished Professor of Art at Quincy University WHS, MOWS, IWS, TWSA-MASTER, ISEA-NAUTILUS FELLOW, SDWS, NWS WHS President 2012-2016 ORIGINS Altamira, Spain “Bison”: 15000 B.C. Support: Limestone Medium: Earth pigments Yen Tz’u-Yu, Sung Dynasty, China: 1200 B.C. Support: Silk Paper Invented 109 A.D. Medium: Sumie Ink=Tonal Washes (alla-prima) Egyptian Tomb Painting “Ramesses Offering Osiris” : 1200 B.C. Support: Limestone & Papyrus Medium: Earth Pigments & Minerals with Gum Arabic and Egg White Francesco di Stefano (1422-1457), Italian “Allegory of Rome” : 1447-55 Support: Parchment (170 BC) Medium: Watercolor and Lead White (opaque) Western Papermaking: Fabriano 1283, Arches 1492, and J Whatman 1780/1850 (3-Surfaces) First “Modern” Master of Watercolor Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), German“View of The Arco Valley in Tyrol”: 1495 Support: Paper Medium: Watercolor Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), German “The Hare”: 1502 Support: Paper Medium: Watercolor Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), German “The Large Piece of Turf’: 1503 Support: Paper (Introduced to Europe in 1295) Medium: Watercolor and Gouache Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), German “Wing of a Roller”: 1512 Support: Vellum Medium: Watercolor and Gouache Lucas Cranach, The Elder (1472-1553), German “Two Birds Hanging from a Nail”: 1530 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache Nikolaus Manuel-Deutsch (1484-1530), Swiss “Portrait of a Young Women”: 1529 Medium: Watercolor Hans Holbein, The Younger (1497-1543), German “Design for Façade: 1520-22 Medium: Watercolor and Ink Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) “Landscape of Birmingham Port”: 1632 Medium: Watercolor Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), French “View of Monte Mario Tiber”: 1640 Medium: Bistre Brown Wash Watercolor Equipment

Winsor & Newton Brushes: Sable Palette: Chinese White, Pan-moist Color Box, Quills & Large Wash Brushes Handkerchief, Brushes, Gum Water, Saucers, Water Watercolor Pigments John Rand (1801-1873), American William Reeves (UK)-1766 Sold first water- patented first collapsible metal tube soluble dry cake watercolors for artist’s oil paint in 1841 Winsor & Newton (UK) modified their 1835 moist cakes & created a semi-liquid formula for metal tubes in 1846 along with a patent for Chinese White Watercolor Paper

Stretching Paper Scrapers-Highlights ENGLAND: HISTORICAL NOTES 17th & 18th Century interest in Topography with two visions of reality: the Ideal/Picturesque and Realistic /Anecdotal

Romanticism (1800-1850)-Emphasis on emotion, individualism and sublimity/beauty of nature. Free from classical notions of form in art. Originality was essential. Hudson River School (1825-1870)-American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism.

• 1768 Royal Academy of Arts, England • 1780 Royal Academy Provide Room for Watercolor & Drawings • 1804 Society Painters in Watercolor/1883 became Royal Society of Painters in Watercolor • 1805 English National Expo on Watercolors (12,000 paid to see) • 1855 Paris Worlds Fair (114 English Watercolors) • John Ruskin-First Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, and English art critic. Influenced the birth of art studies at Harvard. He was Turner’s ardent champion. Published in 1857 “The Elements of Drawing” a watercolor tutorial. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), English “An Urn in Woodland Dell”: 1760 Medium: Watercolor and Black Chalk Hubert Robert (1733-1808), French “Two Young Ladies Drawing Ancient Ruins”: 1786 Medium: Watercolor and Pen William Blake (1757-1827), English “Cain Fleeing from the Wrath of God” 1800-1809 Medium: Watercolor & Black Ink over Graphite William Blake (1757-1827), English “Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Cart”: 1824-1827 Medium: Watercolor & Black Ink over Graphite Joseph Turner (1775-1851), English “Venice”: 1819 Medium: Watercolor Joseph Turner (1775-1851), English “Grand Canal, Venice”: 1833 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache Joseph Turner (1775-1851), English “Simplon Pass-Switzerland” 1841 Medium: Watercolor& Gouache; Cream Wove Paper John Constable (1776-1837), English “Old Sarum”: 1834 Medium: Watercolor John Constable (1776-1837), English “Stonehenge”: 1836 Medium: Watercolor Jean Ingres (1780-1867) “Odalisque”: 1864 Medium: Watercolor John James Audubon (1785-1851), American “Purple Crackle”: 1822 Medium: Watercolor Theodore Gericault (1791-1824), French “English House Guard” 1820-1822 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache over Graphite; Brown Wove, Soft Surfaced Paper Theodore Gericault (1791-1824), French “Portrait of the Artist’s Turkish Servant Mustaphe” 1821 Medium: Black Chalk and Watercolor Richard Parke Bonington (1802-1828) “The Leaning Towers”: 1826 Medium: Watercolor John Lewis (1805-1876), English “Life in Harem, Cairo”: 1841 Medium: Watercolor Thomas Cole (1801-1884), American “The Oxbow, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Ma, after a Thunderstorm” 1836 Medium: Oil on Canvas Edward Everett (1818-1903), Anglo-American “Islands of the Mississippi”: 1870 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache Edward Everett (1818-1903), Anglo-American “Mississippi River”: 1876 Medium: Watercolor and Gouache German-American Louis Prang (1824-1909) In 1856 he contracted with the American Crayon Company to manufacture his non-toxic moist pan watercolor sets designed for students.

-He is the reason art education survives in American schools -He wrote the curriculum and text books, and then provided training for the first batch of America’s art teachers

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), American “Portrait of Lady”: 1875 Medium: Watercolor Winslow Homer (1836-1910), American “Gloucester Sunset”:1880 Medium: Watercolor Winslow Homer (1836-1910), American “Eastern Point Light”: 1880 Winslow Homer (1836-1910), American “Key West-Hauling Anchor”: 1903 Medium: Watercolor