The Emergence of the Professional Watercolourist

by Smith, Greg

• ISBN13: 9780754600053
• ISBN10: 075460005X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Co

Summary

Accounts of the key artists who furthered the development of the art of watercolours have long been a feature of the history of British art, but this is the first book to place the watercolourists' achievement in the broader context of the emergence of a new professional group with its own distinctive identity. Beautifully illustrated and drawing on a wealth of primary research, this book examines the multifarious relationship that evolved between watercolourists and oil painters, artisans and amateurs in this period and, in particular, describes the alliances they forged in order to enhance their status and ensure the commercial viability of their work.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
List of Tables	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: `Profession' and the social history of watercolours	1	(12)
I Contentions
The development and maintenance of the media hierarchy: watercolours, oils and the Royal Academy	13	(38)
Problems of identity and definition: watercolour enters the public domain, 1760-1768	13	(10)
Watercolourists and their work at the Royal Academy, 1768-C.1812	23	(10)
Watercolour versus oil, c.1800-1824	33	(18)
Dangerous associations 1: watercolour and artisanal practices	51	(46)
Replication, mass production, mechanisation, and the division of labour: the status of watercolour practice compromised	51	(21)
Watercolourists and artisans: defending borders and transcending boundaries	72	(25)
Dangerous associations 2: professionals and amateurs	97	(36)
A troubling presence: the amateur in the public domain	97	(10)
Charlatans, masters, and drudges: the watercolourist as a teacher	107	(8)
Encouraging emulation and maintaining distinctions	115	(18)
II Alliances
Creating new markets for watercolours	133	(44)
The `painting in water colours': the emergence of a fashionable and modern commodity, c.1790-1805	133	(10)
Diversification and specialisation: new subject types, c.1805-1824	143	(12)
Embracing commerce: the exhibitions of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1805-1824	155	(10)
A middle-class market emerges?	165	(12)
Establishing professional status and identity, c.1795-1824	177	(52)
Two contrasting alliances: the watercolour societies and the professional ideal	177	(14)
The `progress of water colours': a triumph for the English School, 1805-1824	191	(19)
The watercolourist as genius	210	(19)
Conclusion: Watercolourists and their art in 1824	229	(4)
Select bibliography	233	(18)
Index	251