British Watercolours At The V&a

Editorial Reviews – Amazon

This is an introduction to British watercolours, featuring 100 of the best examples from the National Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The selection includes many of the greatest watercolours ever painted, by British artists, including: John Constable, William Turner, Gainsborough, Girtin, Cozens, Cotman, Crome, De Wint, Varley, J.F. Lewis and Samuel Palmer. There are also comments on masterpieces by painters who are now less well-known, such as Bowler and Boyce, Robinson and Richardson. The range of images is wide, from landscape scenery in Britain and abroad – the traditionally accepted subject matter for watercolour painters, treated by both amateur and professional artists – to satirical comment on contemporary life and the careful depiction of flowers and animals. The historical period is also broad, from the 16th-century watercolours by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues to the 1992 work by Andy Goldsworthy, which is partly photographic and partly watercolour mixed with the liquid from a melted snowball. Ronald Parkinson is the author of “John Constable, The Man and His Art”.