Watercolour Painting
Techniques, Origins, History, Famous
Watercolour Paintings.
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Watercolour Painting
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Watercolour PaintingContents • What Is Watercolour
Painting? Note: "Gouache", a form of opaque watercolour, differs from regular watercolour because its pigments are bound with glue and its lighter tones are produced by adding white pigment. |
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ART EDUCATION
S. Giorgio Maggiore: Early Morning |
In fine art painting, the term 'Watercolour' denotes a painting medium in which colour pigments are bound in water-soluble agents. Originally, these binders were animal glues or certain sugars, but nowadays the standard substance is gum arabic. A variety of additives can be used (eg. honey, glycerin) to increase plasticity and create other effects. Watercolours are generally applied by sable or squirrel-hair brushes onto white tinted paper or card, although supports can encompass canvas, leather, and papyrus. In China and Japan, watercolour art (known as brush or scroll painting, or ink and wash) is the universal painting medium, except that East Asian watercolourists typically use only black inks. Watercolour dries much faster than oil painting and permits the creation of finer, more precise works of art. However, regular exposure to light causes colour to fade, and many masterpieces - including several examples of landscape painting by JMW Turner (1775–1851) - have suffered irreparable damage. |
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GREATEST PAINTINGS |
Watercolours are a highly versatile medium, they can be applied to everything from paper to canvas, stone, wood and fabrics. Many fine versions of watercolour paintings rendered on paper, manuscripts, maps and miniatures can be found in our museums today. While watercolour painting dominated Asian art for thousands of years, in Western art it was largely confined to preparatory sketches until the late 18th century. In what is now referred to as the Golden Age of watercolour painting, artists from the school of English landscape painting raised the status of watercolour painting to a serious and independent artform. In addition to William Turner, famous watercolourists from the English school included: Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), John Constable (1776-1837), and Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-28). In the late 19th century and 20th century, European artists like Emil Nolde (1867-1956) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918), as well as American painters such as Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924) and John Marin (1870-1953), produced hundreds of colourful paintings using the medium. |
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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT |
In 'pure' watercolour painting, (sometimes called the 'English Method') no white is used. Instead, patches or spots of white paper are left unpainted to depict white objects or reflected light. Colour tones and atmospheric effects are achieved by staining the paper when wet with varying amounts of colour pigments. Referred to as a 'wash', this technique can also be used to minimize or erase individual brush strokes, or to create large areas of similar colour (eg. blue sky). The artist controls the effects of these washes by varying the dilution of the pigments. JMW Turner - perhaps the greatest English watercolourist - preferred to add white to his paintings and used other methods to create his unique effects of light. (For interpretation of great paintings including watercolours, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed). Watercolour art dates from Stone Age cave painting when early Paleolithic man first painted pictures of animals and humans on their caves using charcoal, ochre and other natural pigments. It was later popularized in Egyptian art after the discovery of papyrus (paper). However, papyrus is very fragile and the only paintings that have survived from the Ancient Egyptian era are those that were buried in pyramids in dry conditions. In traditional Chinese art, watercolours developed around 4,000 BCE, primarily as a medium of decorative art. By the 4th century CE, watercolour landscapes had become established as an independent form of Chinese painting, and would eventually dominate all Chinese brush painting. For a guide to the principles behind Oriental fine arts and crafts, see: Traditional Chinese Art: Characteristics. During the Middle Ages in Europe, watercolours were used to create illuminated manuscripts and colour maps. During the era of Renaissance art they were used to make portrait miniatures or create studies from nature. Watercolour Painting in the 15th and 16th Centuries Modern watercolour painting has its roots in the Northern Renaissance. Its first supreme practitioner was the German artist Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) who anticipated many of the English watercolour techniques in a series of magnificent plant studies and landscapes. Durer was one of the first artists to recognize the potential of this medium. His early watercolour paintings focused on depicting topography, but over time he placed much greater emphasis on capturing atmosphere. He also produced highly realistic nature studies, typically combining watercolour and gouache on paper. Famous examples include A Young Hare (1502) and Great Piece of Turf (1503, Graphic Collection, Albertina, Vienna). However, despite efforts by painters of Flemish Baroque and Dutch Baroque schools, the medium - with the exception of botanical or wildlife illustration, which developed a specialist watercolour tradition of its own - was largely confined to preparatory sketching, or large scale design drawings, until that is, the advent of English watercolourists in the late eighteenth century. 19th Century English School of Watercolourists Today, watercolour painting is commonly associated with the achievements of the English school of landscape painters (especially Paul Sandby, Thomas Girtin and JMW Turner). This group was active from the late-18th century to the mid-19th century, the so-called Golden Age of Watercolour. Initially the artists restricted their paintings to tint washes. This is a drawing made in ink or pencil, and a brush and water is used to spread the ink to create a tint effect. A restricted range of colours were allowed, but the overall effect was quite monochromatic. While some artists continued to create tinted drawings, others began to push the boundaries. Artists like William Pars (1742-82), John Warwick Smith (1749-1831), Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and Turner, began using a wider palette of stronger colours to create a more painterly effect. Watercolours soon became popular throughout the UK with an upsurge in wildlife and plant paintings, as well as new demands for plein-air painters to replicate the scenes and topography of both tourist and military sites, and to accompany archeological and anthropological expeditions around the globe in order to document images of flora and fauna. A new Romantic style of watercolour painting emerged. Using rough-textured paper, paint was applied with a freer brushwork to capture fleeting effects in the landscape. Popular watercolour landscape painters included David Cox (1783–1859), Cornelius Varley (1781–1873) and Samuel Prout (1783–1852). England Ireland America Notable twentieth century watercolourists have included the Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), the Swiss modernist Paul Klee (1879-1940), and the French expressionist painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). In the United States, important watercolour artists included: Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), John Marin (1870-1953), Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924), Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) and Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). American art movements favouring watercolour art included both the Ohio School (from the Cleveland Museum of Art), and the California Scene (from the CalArts Academy). List of Famous Watercolour Paintings Very few watercolour paintings, if any, are as famous as oil paintings. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, watercolour paints fade much faster than oil paints when exposed to light. They lose their vibrancy and can look 'washed-out' very quickly - not a winning formula when it comes to public appreciation. This is why the best art museums typically display their watercolour collection only for limited periods of time. For the remainder of the time the paintings are stored in dark temperature-controlled basements. Secondly, most watercolours are painted on paper, which is more prone to damage and decay than canvas or wood. As a result, most masterpieces of watercolour painting simply have not survived the test of time. For an explanation of landcapes from the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, please see: Analysis of Modern Paintings (1800-2000). The following is a list of watercolour paintings worth seeing: - Albrecht Durer: A Young Hare (1502,
Albertina, Vienna) |
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