LPAINTINO; VAN EYCK, in 11100. DIV.] Water-colour painting, as the term is now understood—that is, painting on paper with colours diluted with water—is a process of comparatively recent introduction. It is true that the Italian, Dutch and Flemish painters of the best period often executed their cartoons and finished sketches with water-colours, as may be seen in the car toons of Raffaelle and of Mantegna at Hampton Court, which are raiuted on paper with opaque water-colours (or tempera), and in some of the sketches and drawings executed in transparent water-colours by leading Dutch and Flemish painters, of which examples are exhibited in the King's. Library at the British Museum : these, however, were not completed pictures, but only the drawings from which fresco or oil paintings, or tapestry hangings, were to be executed. The art of water-colour painting, in which the completed work is itself executed, with all the skill and care of the artist, in water-colours on paper, is a product of this country. It appears to have gradually grown out of the methods employed by miniature painters, and the earlier examples were rather a kind of tempera than what would now be called water colour painting, the colours being all rendered opaque by the admix ture of white. Many of the early works of Paul Sandby [SANDBY, Pars, in BIOG. Div.], who perhaps has the fairest claim to be regarded as the founder of the English school of water-colour painting, are wholly executed in solid opaque colour. The new method, from which was directly derived the present process of water-colours, grew into vogue in the latter part of the last century, and was at first known as "stained drawing," a term by which pictures of this kind are described in the catalogues of the early exhibitions of the Royal Academy. The entire drawing was first carefully made out in light and shadow by means of washes of Indian ink, or of a gray or what was termed a neutral tint, and over this the respective local colours were passed in thin washes of transparent colours—much of the effect being due to the neutral tint appearing through and modifying the harshness of- the superposed colours. The sharp-markings, m inu ter details, &c., were put in with a reed-pen either immediately before or subsequently to the laying on of the local colours. The older works in this manner have generally a cold, gray, feeble appearance, but sometimes very pleasing atmospheric effects were obtained ; and in the hands of Cozens, and still more of Turner, Girtin, and Prout, whose earlier drawings were all commenced with a monotint, pictures of great power and even grandeur were produced.
The improved method, and that which, in principle at least, is still practised, consisted in abandoning the preparatory neutral ground tint, and painting-in every object in the first instance in its proper local colour, leaving it to subsequent shades and tints, either laid in thin washes of transparent colour, or with a kind of hatching stroke (the distinctive " touch " of the artist), to modify the crudity of the first painting, and to impart the character and aspect which every part should assume from its place in the picture and the atmospheric influences under which it is seen. This method originated, there can be little doubt, in the adoption by the younger Landscape painters, Turner, Girtin, and their compeers, of the practice of making out-of-doors sketches and studies of scenery in colours, for which purpose the old method of employing a preparatory monotint would be found too tedious, and for representing evanescent atmospheric phenomena impracticable; while the striking effects that were produced in sketching by painting-in the local colours at once would soon lead to the adoption of a like method for more finished works. Yet even Turner and Prout continued to lay-in the Larger masses of shadow with a monotint, long after they employed local colour in the first instance in the lights and middle-tints. When
once the new method came to be generally adopted, the progress of the art was very rapid ; water-colour painting acquired a remarkable degree of popularity, and its professors became very numerous. In 1805 the most distinguished practitioners of this branch of art formed them selves into a " Society of Painters in Water-Colours," which has ever since continued to hold an annual exhibition of the works of its members at their rooms in Pall Mall East. In 1832 the younger practitioners, feeling that they were unable to bring their works fairly before the public, established another society under the title of " The New Society of Painters in Water Colours,' and they have in like manner their annual exhibition. But both exhibitions are exclusively confined to the productions of the members. At the Manchester Art-Treasures Exhibition of 1857, a very instructive collection of paintings in water-colours was brought together with a view to illus trate the growth of the art, and it may be anticipated that a much more complete collection of a similar kind will be shown at the Inter national Exhibition of 1862. The want of a permanent collection of paintings in this essentially British branch of art has however long been felt, and though it has not yet been supplied, the nucleus of such a collection has, mainly by the spirit and munificence of private individuals, been at length formed. [SOUTH KENSINGTON 31U8E03.1.] The practice of water-colour painting as at present pursued in this country differs so much according to the habits of individual artists, and so little guidance could be given in a brief description of any particular method, that it will bo best to confine ourselves to a few general remarks. The paper employed is usually of a hard substance, and more or less granulated according to the size and character of the picture, and still more the manner of the artist : some using paper with only a fine and others with an exceedingly coarse grain or tooth. Some again prefer an absorbent paper, or paper of a peculiar tint, and others produce a peculiar texture by rubbing, sponging, or other manipulative process : some of the most remarkable effects in their pictures (as in the case of Turner and Copley Fielding for instance) being to a great extent due to some such procedure. The pigments employed are of the ordinary kind, prepared in cakes by the admixture of a little gum, or " moist ' by the addition of honey or some other saccharine material. The colours, as we have said, are painted-in of their proper local hue, and subsequently modified till the objects acquire the intended appearance. This was by the older painters usually effected with transparent colours only ; but Turner, Harding, and others began, at first cautiously, and then with more freedom, to mix white with their colours, and this has been carried so far that now opaque (or body) colours often form, as of old, the substance of the water-colour paintings of some of our most admired artists. Another innovation is that of using gum, or some other vehicle of a like quality (water-glass has been tried), to give depth to the shadows. These are however objected to by many as not legitimate materials for the water-colour painter ; but the majority of painters consider that it is lawful to use any means by which they can best convey the impression they desire to produce; and, supposing that equal truth and permanency as well as brilliancy can be so obtained, there can be little doubt that they are right. It must, however, be admitted that in many of the more elaborate recent pictures, something of the exquisite freshness and transparency of the earlier water-colour paintings has been lost in the attempt to reach the force and depth of oil.