Royal Watercolor Society

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Sell Cotman
Joseph Crawhall
Copley Fielding
Elizabeth Adela Forbes
John Frederick Lewis
William Andrews Nesfield
James Paterson
Marianne Stokes
William Turner of Oxford

The Royal Watercolor Society (RWS) is a British association of painters who work with watercolors and is located in the Bankside Gallery at 48 Hopton Street in London , which is also home to the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers . The Royal Watercolor Society is not to be confused with the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors .

history

The Royal Watercolor Society was founded in 1804 as the Society of Painters in Water Colors . In addition, the abbreviation Watercolour Society was soon used . Numerous artists who worked with watercolors and submitted their pictures to the Royal Academy of Arts had long believed that their pictures were unfavorably hung at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy compared to oil paintings. There was also growing annoyance that the Royal Academy had never honored an artist who used watercolors. At a meeting in the Stratford Coffee House on Oxford Street in London on November 20, 1804, it was decided, on the proposal of Frederick William Wells (1762-1836), to found his own society to organize an exhibition of paintings in watercolors. In attendance were John Varley , Cornelius Varley , William Sawrey Gilpin , Robert Hills , John Claude Nattes , Francis Nicholson , Samuel Shelley , William Henry Pyne and Nicholas Pocock . Six more members were later added. The first exhibition was held in 1805 and was a great success with excellent sales and visitor numbers, so annual exhibitions were encouraged.

The Society's profits peaked in 1809 when more than 22,000 visitors produced over £ 626 in profits shared between twenty members and seven employees. However, poor housekeeping and the economic uncertainty caused by the renewed war with France led to a decline in visitors until the liquidation of the company in 1812 became inevitable. The society was re-formed in December 1812 under the name Society of Painters in Oil and Watercolors with largely the same membership, but at the price that oil paintings were now also permitted. It was not until 1820 that the decision was taken again to exclusively exhibit paintings in watercolors that had previously been submitted by members.

In protest against this admission restriction, the New Society of Painters in Water Colors was founded in 1831 , which also exhibited paintings by non-members and is now known as the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors . During this time, the names of the two societies as the Old Watercolor Society and the New Watercolor Society emerged , although they never had an official character. From 1860, works by artists who had just been elected members of the Society were presented in the Diploma Collection . Under the chairmanship of John Gilbert , the society received the right to call itself Royal Society of Painters in Water Colors (RWS) on the basis of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1881 .

The Society established an Art Club in 1884 to promote interest in watercolor painting by hosting conversation evenings with professional and amateur artists. It was dissolved after the centenary in 1984 and transferred to the Friends of the Bankside Gallery . In 1891 John Lewis Roget published a two-volume history of the society under the title A History of the Old Water-Color Society , based on essential preparatory work by John Joseph Jenkins, secretary from 1854 to 1864. In 1923 the Old Watercolor Society Club (OWSC) was founded, which produced numerous essays by artists and scholars on painting.

Winter exhibitions first appeared in 1862. Exhibition spaces at that time were the galleries at Spring Gardens, Pall Mall, Brook Street, Old Bond Street, and the Egyptian Hall , where the New English Art Club also exhibited. Since 1823 the company had its seat at 6 Pall Mall, from 1938 at 26 Conduit Street. After the lease on Conduit Street expired in 1980, they moved together with the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers , with whom most of them were Members and since 1888 the business premises had been in the Bankside Gallery . In 1988 the name of the society was changed to the Royal Watercolor Society .

Official names

  • 1805-1812: Society of Painters in Water Colors
  • 1812-1820: Society of Painters in Oil and Watercolors
  • 1820-1881: Society of Painters in Water Colors
  • 1881–1988: Royal Society of Painters in Water Colors
  • since 1988: Royal Watercolor Society

Known members

literature

  • Timothy Wilcox: The Early Years of the Royal Watercolor Society 1805-55 , Philip Wilson Publishers 2005, ISBN 0-85667-602-0
  • Royal Watercolor Society: Watercolor Masters Then & Now , Cassell Illustrated 2006, ISBN 1-84403-447-X
  • Greg Smith: A Guide to the Archives of the Royal Watercolor Society , Ashgate Publishing 1998, ISBN 1-85928-445-0
  • Michael Spender: The Royal Watercolor Society Diploma Collection , David & Charles 1988, ISBN 0-7153-8932-7

Web links