ALBRECHT DURER Alpine Landscape 1495 watercolor on paper       210mmx213mm Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England

In the West, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) is the first master of the wash technique, in which color comes from layers of transparent washes and where the paper is reserved for the lights. The transparent style came into ascendancy in early 19th century England in the landscape paintings of Thomas Girtin (1775-1802) and John Sell Cotman (1782-1842). J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is recognized as a visionary both in materials and methods. In 1832, Winsor-Newton was founded and soon after introduced zinc white which made it possible for the English school of watercolor to emulate and vie with oil painting as a separate technique of major rank. In 1846, Winsor-Newton introduced watercolor in tubes and watercolor paraphernalia become available to the public. An abundance of how-to-do-it manuals appeared, leaving one with the hope of technical mastery through the conquest of details.

JMW TURNER Goldau 1843 watercolor and scratching out on paper 330.5x47cm Private collection

Watercolor became known as an amateur’s medium. In America, Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) brought watercolor to a new level of ambition with their bold use of the medium. In the early 20th century, the early modernists Wassily Kandinsky, (1886-1944) Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Emil Nolde (1867-1956) in Germany and Arthur Dove (  ), John Marin (  ), Charles Demuth (  ) and Georgia O’Keeffe (  ) in America found the liquidity of the medium perfect for evoking organic nature.  In the 1970’s large rolls and sheets of paper allowed artists to expand the scale of watercolor.  Currently, artists with varied aesthetic approaches have rediscovered the potential of watercolor, reasserting its equality as a serious medium.  >>