Shores of the River Nile,1300 B.C. ,the Egyptians illustrated their books,(history,magic,science,religion...),even the famous "Book of the Dead",with the colors to watercolour.
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The tecnique was used,(who would have thought it?),a little everywhere...Greece,Rome,Byzantium,Syria...to paint miniatures,at first the opaque watercolur was used,then,in the Charlemagne period,came alternated also the use of that transparent one.The epochs about which we are talking,completely different in terms of customs and habits...from Egyptian to the low Middle Age to the Renaissance...are united through the realisation of manuscripts using the technique of watercolour.Little lines to help understand how Ancient this technique is and how Its Conservation throughout time is Perfect.Looking at the past,it is certainly necessary to stop at the 16th century,where we encounter the figure of Albrecht Dürer,the most important painter and etcher of the epoch.
Albrecht Dürer "Leveret" |
Dürer during his life,over and above his drawings ,books,woodcuttings and etchings,also painted almost 200 pictures of which 86 are watercolours and his first famous picture is,precisely that,a watercolour.In the spring of 1804 the first society of watercolourists in the world was founded in England,"The Society of Painters in Watercolour" to which Queen Victoria,in 1881, added the title "Royal"The exhibition put on a year after the foundation,(1805),was a success of public and sales,12,000 people actually bought entry tickets to see the watercolours!
In 1864 to Barcelona it came founded the firs association of Spanish watercolourist called "Centre of watercolourist".The promoter was Mariano Fortuny,an extraordinary watercolourist,certainly one of the greatest of the 19th century.Fortuny drew and painted,(in oils and watercolors),with an extraordinary talent and technique,and made the painting of watercolor known in Spain,promoting it also in Italy and France.In the Usa in 1866 the "American Society of Watercolours" was founded.The technique was already well-known and appreciated at this time,because Eakins and Homer,who were two of the most celebrated painters in oil,also painted with watercolours.Amongst the greatest watercolourists of the Usa we shouldn't forget Whistler,Prendergast,Sargent,(born in Italy),and Cassat.In Madrid in 1878 the "Society of Watercolourists"was founded.In Germany it was from the second half of the 19th century,that was begun to appreciate the painting to watercolor truly,(nobody in fact had until the succeeded Dürer!),a technique which was used also from some Impressionists like Morisot,Jongkind,Boudin and of course Cézanne,an artist who,however,went further than Impressionism and represented Post-Impressionism,creating the bases of Cubism.If we look at a watercolor painting by Paul Cézanne we can see how the technique and the style he uses belongs to the present.It is also necessary to remember some of the greatest english watercolourists of the 18th and 19th century:Girtin,De Wint,Cox,Turner,Varley,Cristall,Fielding...
 David Cox "The old church and village of Clapham" - detail |
 Peter De Wint "Bridge over a tributary of the river Witham" - detail |
Turner was a very talendet painter,the watercolours carried out during his visit to Venice are splendid with their light effects and truly remarkable colours.
 Joseph Mallord William Turner "Venice" - detail. |
Particular mention should be made of Richard Bonington who was an exceptional artist in creating country scenes and figures and it was really the value of his watercolors which spread this technique in France where he lived for some years and where in 1775 started to use the word "acquarelle" instead of the english word "watercolour"Jacob Alt lived between two worlds between the 1700 and the 1800,and he was watercolourist of enormous capacity and creativity.
 Jacob Alt "The parochial church of Bolzano" - detail |
It does not go then forgotten John Cotman,one of the best landscape watercolourists of the 19th century,expert in wet-on-wet watercolours,he had a fantastic capacity to harmonise colours and create contrasts.Illustrious watercolourist also Rudolf von Alt who in the course of his life carried out about 6000 watercolour paintings,a sensitive creator of atmosphere,also working to ample strokes of the brusch,he succeeded to evidence his love for the detail with elegance and style.
 Rudolf von Alt "Vipiteno:the new city" - detail |
In the 18th century it is then necessary to cite Ducros,another great watercolourist;in Switzerland,(together with Aberli),he became known for his landscapes,he was able to create an infinite range of colours starting with ochre,siena and azure,therefore to confuse he who it was not expert and to push him to think that it is was a painting to oil instead that a watercolor.
 Abraham Ducros "Nocturnal tempest to Cefalù |
The Dutch painter Jongkind,who together with Boudin,was one of the principal promoters of Impressionism,painted also splendid watercolours from the accurate drawing and generally the theme was marine.During the first half of the 20th century one diffused,also,the tendency to paint to watercolor with more color prejudicing the trasparency and therefore imitating oil paintings.The watercolourists derived something,also, from various movements that were diffused in the first half of the century ,(between which also very vivid colours and typical contrasts of the Fauvists),remaining but distant from figurative art.
A curiosity:the first abstract watercolor in history was painted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1910,with the title "Cossacks".
These short historical signals sure reassume in excessive way pregressing of the watercolor in the time,but I hope can serve,without to bore,to he who is not pratical and he who has been approached from little this Fascintaing Technique,to understand the Qualitative and Quantitative Value of a type of expression whose Importance today is as great as oil painting.
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