History of the Royal Watercolour Society

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May 30, 2011

Bankside Gallery - Home of the 'RWS'

In one of our previous posts entitled ‘Royal Watercolour Society Exhibition – A Year in the Life of the Royal Albert Hall’ we touched on the work of the Royal Watercolour Society and we thought it would be a good idea to give you a bit more history on the world’s oldest watercolour society.

Founded in 1804, essentially the Royal Watercolour Society originated as a protest group of watercolour artists who felt they were being poorly represented by the Royal Academy and were dissatisfied by the way in which their watercolour pictures were hung disadvantageously amongst the oil paintings. Also, the Royal Academy would not elect as their president an artist who painted only in watercolour.

This renegade group of artists therefore decided to form their own society for watercolours only and hence the Watercolour Society was born.

Another society calling itself the ‘New Society of Painters in Miniature and Watercolour’ was set up a couple of years later, and from this time the original group was called the ‘Old’ Watercolour Society, however later on they were given permission by Queen Victoria to use ‘Royal’ in their title, hence the name today ‘The Royal Watercolour Society’.

Founder members included John Varley, Joshua Cristall and George Barratt who were painters of landscape mostly in the Old Master tradition. Within a few years, David Cox, Peter de Wint and Copley Fielding joined the Society, bringing much needed vitality. As time went on artists such as William Hunt, Miles Birkett Foster, JF Lewis and Samuel Palmer also became members, and the society flourished.  There was no coherent ‘RWS style’ and it was not a school of painting in the sense of the French or Italian schools.

Instead it was simply a society that many of the finest painters in watercolour of the time wanted to join, whose only relation to each other artistically was the fact that they had elected each other to membership.  This tradition of electing members remains in place today and new members are elected by the current Membership of the Society based on the quality of their work alone.

Categories: European Artists, Exhibitions, Watercolour Facts, Watercolour Societies.

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Samuel Prout – Master of British watercolour architectural painting

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May 22, 2011

Samuel Prout was a painter, draughtsman and writer and is arguably one of the masters of British watercolour architectural painting.

He was born on 17th September 1783 in Plymouth, England and together with his fellow pupil, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Prout was encouraged at an early age to study drawing by Dr John Bidlake, the headmaster of the grammar school he attended in Plymouth.  In 1801, he met the topographer and antiquarian, John Britton, who was so impressed with his work, he invited him to London to make drawings of antiquarian subjects and copy works of other artists, including Thomas Hearne, William Alexander and J. M. W. Turner.  So in 1803 he moved to London where he met his future wife, Elizabeth Gillespie whom he married in 1810 and together they had four children.

To earn a living for him and his family, he painted marine pieces, took in students, and published drawing books for learners. He was one of the first to use lithography in his artwork but it was not until about 1818 that he truly discovered his niche when he made his first visit to the Continent.  His eye caught the picturesque features of the architecture which he went on to record with skill and immediately established his reputation with these Continental street scenes, gaining praise from the likes of John Ruskin, whose work often emulated Prout’s.  Ruskin was quoted as saying “Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout”.

In 1829, Prout secured the coveted position of  ’Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary’ to King George IV and afterwards to Queen Victoria.

Prout is often compared to his contemporaries such as Turner, Gainsborough, Constable and Ruskin, whom he also taught, but whilst Turner concentrated on the beauties of nature, Prout was much more interested by the cityscape.  There was hardly a place in France, Germany, Italy (particularly Venice) or the Netherlands where he had not visited, searching out sculptured pieces of stone or antique gables to paint.

He died in February 1852 at his home in London following after a stroke and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

Categories: European Artists.

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J W S Cox – American Watercolorist

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May 10, 2011

It might not be a name you’re familiar with but J.W.S. Cox was an innovative watercolorist who’s claim to fame was ‘inventing’ and exploring the full possibilities of the wet-on-wet watercolor technique; in other words immersing paper in water and painting wet watercolor pigments on to the wet paper, so that the pigments could spread and take on a life of their own with some fascinating results.

So what more can we tell you about this artist?  Well, he was born in 1911 in New York and was the son of an architect and his artistic tendencies were evident from an early age.  He graduated from Pratt Institute in New York City in 1933 and despite having to work at various jobs during the Great Depression, he still found time to study the works of some of the famous watercolorists at the time including Turner and Cezanne.

In 1936, Cox got his first break when he went to Paris to study at the Academie Colarossie and also with ‘Fauvist’ artist, Othon Friesz, but found this style too sloppy.  So in 1938 he returned to Boston and entered the Eliot O’Hara summer classes and by the end of that year, he had illustrated a historical novel ‘Listen for the Voice’. In 1939 he joined the Art Department of Boston University where he taught huge classes of students how to paint in watercolor, and established a studio in Rockport, where he developed his “sponge painting” and palette-knife watercolor techniques.

Wanting to remain “his own man” and not paint commercial pictures, Cox developed a unique and individual style, and despite becoming a member of various societies, including the Boston Watercolor Society and the American Watercolor Society, he shunned publicity and preferred to paint rather than socialise.

In summary, Cox was a ‘Renaissance Man’ and as well as being a great artist and travelling the world painting scenes few had ever seen, he can also be accredited with being a teacher, art school administrator, illustrator and lecturer. He was once quoted as saying his goal was “to present myself and the soul of nature as truthfully and with as much inspiration, vitality and freshness as is possible, through the medium of watercolor.”

He died in Florida of a heart attack in 1982.

Categories: American Artists, Watercolour Facts.

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Royal Watercolour Society Exhibition – ‘A Year in the Life of the Royal Albert Hall’

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May 1, 2011

The Royal Watercolour Society represents the finest watercolour painting in Britain.  Established in 1804, it is the oldest watercolour society in the world, and is second only to the Royal Academy of Art in it’s importance as an art society.

The Society has defined a watercolour to mean “a painting in a water-based medium on a paper-based support”.  This allows the work by the Members, who are all elected by their peers, to embrace both established and experimental practices and the Royal Watercolour Society exhibitions reflect these different approaches.  These exhibitions are held twice a year, in the spring and autumn, at their home in the Bankside Gallery but they also hold special exhibitions throughout the year, one of which is currently on at the moment in the Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Albert Hall - Winter

“A Year in the Life of the Royal Albert Hall” is the culmination of a year-long partnership between the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Albert Hall, where for the first time, Members of the Royal Watercolour Society have been allowed full access to the Royal Albert Hall and have been working backstage and behind the scenes to capture the many events that take place there. The result is a collection of large watercolours which are currently being exhibited along the ground floor corridor and tell the fascinating story of a year in the life of the Hall, from it’s various performances and audiences, to it’s staff, restaurants, and even the boiler room!

The exhibition is taking place from 23rd April to 7th June 2011 and can be viewed either when attending a performance at the Hall or by visiting on one of the following free open days, when Society Members will be available to discuss their work and their experience of painting at the Royal Albert Hall.

Saturday 23rd April, 11am – 3pm

Sunday 15th May, 11am – 3pm

Saturday 21st May, 11am – 3pm

Categories: European Artists, Exhibitions, Watercolour Facts.

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