Watercolours

A painting method that employs pigment suspended in a water-based solution, usually applied onto paper.

Though its earliest origins are thought to be prehistoric, its history is usually dated from the Renaissance, when it was used by artists such as Albrecht Durer.

While it may be used as for the creation of preparatory studies, it is also an art form in its own right, and is a technique used for botanical illustration, wildlife illustration and topographical painting as well as traditional genres, particularly landscape.


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Works on paper loaned to Ashmolean museum sold at Oxford auction – 5 highlights from the sale

05 March 2018

A group of Old Master and traditional British etchings, drawings and watercolours, previously on loan to the Ashmolean museum, drew keen interest at Mallams in Oxford this week.

John Martin

Government issues export bar for John Martin watercolour in hope of finding UK buyer

22 February 2018

A £1.5m watercolour by British artist John Martin has been barred from export in the hope a buyer in the UK can be found.

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Still-lifes and heroes: the Works on Paper Fair has third edition at Royal Geographical Society

07 February 2018

The Works on Paper Fair ended its third run at the Royal Geographical Society on Sunday.

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David Tunick at Master Drawings New York 2018

22 January 2018

Among the works that David Tunick, a longstanding MDNY exhibitor, will be showing this year at his gallery on East 69th Street is this large 18 x 14in (45.5 x 35.5 cm) watercolour over pencil by John Robert Cozens.

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Storm lifts on the fashion world

15 January 2018

Used as the catalogue cover design for an Illustration Art sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of New York was the George Lepape watercolour, ‘Après la Tempeste’ shown below.

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Previews: £30,000 plus

11 December 2017

Sporting and ornithological art collected over half a century by the Astor family will be offered in a single-owner sale during Christie’s ‘Classic Week’.

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Pick of the Week: William Bone miniature of Holbein’s Henry VIII sells at Warwick auction

04 December 2017

This enamel copy of Hans Holbein’s Whitehall mural portrait is by William Bone Senior (1792-1846) – second-generation member of the Bone dynasty of miniaturists and enamellists.

JMW Turner sketch

JMW Turner sketch makes £22,000 at Cirencester auction

24 November 2017

An original sketch by JMW Turner (1775-1851) has sold for £22,000 (plus buyer’s premium) at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester.

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John Mitchell Fine Art celebrates the life of Julius Caesar Ibbetson

13 November 2017

Leeds-born artist Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) was a self-taught artist who worked during the ‘golden age’ of British watercolour painting. And while, perhaps, his prowess did not always rival that of his leading contemporaries, James Mitchell reflects that at his best, the Yorkshireman’s work is “very pleasing”.

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An ice price in Yorkshire auction

13 November 2017

British and Irish watercolours piqued the interest of bidders at Tennants’ (18.5% buyer’s premium) Country House sale in Leyburn on October 14.

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Exotic Oz musician is in tune at Canterbury sale

30 October 2017

A near-monochrome watercolour by the Australian artist and stage designer Loudon Sainthill (1918-69) sold for five times its top estimate at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium) on October 3-4.

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The career of an artistic Playboy

16 October 2017

As part of a fifth anniversary auction at Farleigh Court Golf Club on November 1, Catherine Southon is offering the first part of an archive consigned by the family of the commercial artist and cartoonist Francis Wilford-Smith (1927-2009).

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Batemans heads for the border with Berwick views

09 October 2017

A pair of watercolours depicting Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northern-most town in England, turned up at Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) on September 2.

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A Birmingham stalwart in Oxford

02 October 2017

Mural painter, stained glass artist and landscapist, Henry Arthur Payne (1868-1940) had many talents.

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Watercolours by William and Thomas Daniell at Grosvenor Gallery

27 September 2017

Arriving in Madras in the second week of November 1792, William Daniell (1769-1837) and his uncle Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) – creators of a successful series of aquatints depicting the subcontinent – sought out fellow artist Robert Home (1752-1834).

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Smiles for Mabel Lucy Atwell’s 16 children

25 September 2017

Mabel Lucy Atwell (1879-1964) began her formal artistic training at St Martin’s School of Art in London, but abandoned her courses to pursue a career that saw her produce those sentimentalised depictions of chubby, mostly cheery, rosy cheeked children.

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Halls to offer miniatures from Richard Allen collection

25 September 2017

Richard Allen is a name few in the portrait miniatures market would fail to know.

Purple irises

Three centuries of English works on paper to draw bidders at Freeman’s latest auction

06 September 2017

A sale packed with English works on paper spanning the early 19th to early 21st centuries takes place at Freeman’s in Philadelphia on September 18.

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Watercolour master Cotman displays his drawing talents

28 August 2017

Fine examples of John Sell Cotman’s (1782-1842) draftsmanship appeared at separate auctions in the south of England.

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Newly discovered Venetian painting by Edward Lear languished in storage unit

14 August 2017

Found among the contents of a storage unit, a watercolour of Venice by Edward Lear (1812-88) starred in Brighton General Auctions’ (15% buyer’s premium) sale on July 28.

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