IN THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY watercolourists would expect their ;drawings' to be kept in cabinets and would probably earn their living teaching drawing, accompanying noblemen on their travels or even as military draughtsmen. A hundred years later they had attained the same status as any other artist: participating in public exhibitions and (with luck) making a living from the sale of their work, to be displayed framed alongside oils. One of the most important Factors in this transformation was the foundation, in 1804, of the Society of Painters in Watercolours and the Society's first public exhibition the following year. It is the bicentenary of these events which we celebrate with the present exhibition.

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IN APRIL 1805 the newly created Society of Painters in Watercolours, noxv known as the Royal Watercolour Society, held its first exhibition. After the Royal Academy. the RWS is the oldest artists' exhibiting society in Britain. Its early years saw the rise to prominence of watercolour painting a golden age of British art and a medium in which Britain produced artists of remarkable genius.

This book celebrates the Society's bicentenary by bringing together the work of its founders, Joshua Cristall,John Varley, W.S. Gilpin, W.H. Pyne and W.E Wells. It also surveys the period from 1805 to 1855 in considerable detail and illustrates the work of the major watercolourists of the time Thomas Girtin,J.M.W.Turner,Francis Towne, Peter deWint, A.V Copley Fielding, John Linnell, John Sell Cotman and many others.

The journey of British watercolour painting from topographical and picturesque views to the challenging, highly coloured virtuoso works of the mid-nineteenth century is one of the roller-coaster rides of British art history. To celebrate the Royal Watercolour Society is to celebrate the best of this explosion of talent.

The book accompanies an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery from 2 February to 24 April 2005 and at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, from 13 May to 7 August 2005.

Foreword and acknowledgcments

The Royal Watercolour Society Biccntenarv

Introduction

Watercolour before the \\Vatercolour Society

1805: The first exhibition

'This little republic of Art'

Riyals

Oil and watercolour

'This astonishing magician'

Works of splcndour and imagination

'The taste and spirit of our times'

Footnotes

Chronology

Artists' biographics and exhibited works

Bibliography

Author's acknowledgements

Picture credits

Index