The importance of the nineteenth-century British watercolorists has often been underestimated. J.W.M. Turner's late, ethereal watercolors, so central to the canon, became widely popular only with the advent of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s. Turner's friend Thomas Girton, one of the first artists to exploit watercolor as a medium in its own right, was another innovator, whose landscape art demonstrates astonishing visual, spatial, emotional, and technical breadth. Another of Turner's contemporaries, John Sell Cotman, produced watercolors astonishing in their apparent modernity; his work, too, really began to become popular only in the twentieth century. Other nineteenth-century watercolors, by both English and French artists, anticipate Impressionism in their growing freedom of expression. This lavishly illustrated edition focuses on Sir Hickman Bacon's collection, the world's most important, offering a timely and landmark addition to our understanding of watercolor painting.
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About the Author
Eric Shanes is a painter and freelance art historian and lecturer. He is Chairman of The Turner Society.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GLORIOUS COLLECTION,
This review is from: The Golden Age of Watercolours (Hardcover)
Sir Hickman Bacon was a man ahead of his time as is reflected in his magnificent collection of British landscape drawings and watercolors. It is now the largest collection of English watercolors still in private ownership.As an accompaniment to a London exhibit The Golden Age Of Watercolours presents the best of this collection - works by artists who painted during the mid nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. We find J. M. W. Turner, premier watercolorist, who, it is said, painted with his doors locked so as not to risk anyone discovering the secrets of how he obtained the effects of depth and breadth in his paintings. Thomas Girtin, a rambunctious artist who was imprisoned for defaulting on his apprenticeship, was also favored by Bacon. While incarcerated Girtin amused himself by covering the walls of his cell with landscapes. A guard was astonished to see this artwork, and played a part in Girtin's eventual release. The inventiveness of John Sell Cotman was recognized by Bacon long before Cotman won popular approval, as was the work of Richard Parks Bonington. Art historian Eric Shanes has penned an essay recounting the making of this collection which accompanies the glorious illustrations. - Gail Cooke
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN AMAZING COLLECTION,
This review is from: The Golden Age of Watercolours (Hardcover)
Sir Hickman Bacon was a man ahead of his time as is reflected in his magnificent collection of British landscape drawings and watercolors. It is now the largest collection of English watercolors still in private ownership.As an accompaniment to a London exhibit The Golden Age Of Watercolours presents the best of this collection - works by artists who painted during the mid nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. We find J. M. W. Turner, premier watercolorist, who, it is said, painted with his doors locked so as not to risk anyone discovering the secrets of how he obtained the effects of depth and breadth in his paintings. Thomas Girtin, a rambunctious artist who was imprisoned for defaulting on his apprenticeship, was also favored by Bacon. While incarcerated Girtin amused himself by covering the walls of his cell with landscapes. A guard was astonished to see this artwork, and played a part in Girtin's eventual release. The inventiveness of John Sell Cotman was recognized by Bacon long before Cotman won popular approval, as was the work of Richard Parks Bonington. Art historian Eric Shanes has penned an essay recounting the making of this collection which accompanies the glorious illustrations. - Gail Cooke
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