The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) is a Scottish art society established in 1876. The current patron is Charles III. It is a registered charity based in Glasgow and holds an annual exhibition.
The first preliminary meeting of the society took place in Glasgow on 21 December 1877 as a reaction to a lack of interest in watercolour art by existing exhibitors. The society was inaugurated on 4 March 1878 with the election of its first president, Sir Francis Powell and vice president, Sam Bough. Its first exhibition of 172 pictures took place in November. [1]
It was founded to "promote, through exhibition, the medium of watercolour and encourage the bold, free and colourful qualities of Scottish Painting." [2]
The society received permission from Queen Victoria to use the prefix "Royal" in February 1888. [1] In around 1894 the society changed its rules to allow female artists to be admitted with the same privileges as male artists. [3]
Throughout its history many renowned artists have been members, including David McClure, William McTaggart, Adam Bruce Thomson, Claire Harrigan, George Paul Chalmers, Alison Dunlop, William Somerville Shanks, Elizabeth Blackadder and Barbara Rae.
Past presidents include William J L Baillie (1975–1988), Ian McKenzie Smith (1988–1998), Philip T L Reeves (1998–2005), John Inglis (2005–2016); the current president is Jim Dunbar.
Past vice presidents include Alison Dunlop, Helga Chart, Gregor Smith and Iona Montgomery.
John Wright Oakes was an English landscape painter.
Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, Mrs Houston, was a Scottish painter and printmaker. She was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Horatio McCulloch, sometimes written MacCulloch or M'Culloch, was a Scottish landscape painter.
The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of watercolour. Its members, or associates, use the post-nominal initials RWS and ARWS. They are elected by the membership, with typically half a dozen new associates joining the Society each year.
William Leighton Leitch was a master Scottish landscape watercolour painter and illustrator. He was Drawing Master to Queen Victoria for 22 years. He was Vice President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, on Pall Mall in London, for twenty years.
The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, founded in 1925, is considered to be Canada's official national watercolour Society. Since the 1980s the Society has enjoyed Vice-regal Patronage from the incumbent Governor General of Canada. Recognized by a long list of international exhibitions it is the Canadian equivalent of such other national societies as the American Watercolor Society of the United States, the Royal Watercolour Society of the United Kingdom, etc.
William Hastie Geissler was a Scottish artist known for his watercolours of the natural world. He was one of The Edinburgh School, and much of his earlier work came from sketching trips undertaken with other members of this group, though he himself is sometimes described as a "neglected" member. Although his natural preference lay with watercolour, often with gouache and pen and ink, several works in oil survive.
Norman Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolours and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur. Wilkinson invented dazzle painting to protect merchant shipping during the First World War.
William Ayerst Ingram or W. Ayerst Ingram RBA was a painter and member of the Newlyn School. He did notable Landscape art and Marine art. In 1906 he joined the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and in 1907 he joined the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours.
Edward Arthur Walton was a Scottish painter of landscapes and portraits, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
James Paterson PRSW RSA RWS, was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter associated with The Glasgow Boys movement of artists. He is best known for his landscape paintings of Dumfriesshire, where he lived, at Moniaive from 1885 to 1905.
Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) is an exhibiting art organisation based in Edinburgh, Scotland representing fine and applied visual artists throughout the country. The society was founded in 1924 as the Scottish Society of Women Artists.
Joseph Morris Henderson RSA (1863–1936) was a Scottish Glaswegian landscape, portrait, genre and coastal scenery oil and watercolour painter. He was born and died in Glasgow.
John Smart RSA RSW was a Scottish landscape painter, painting in both oils and watercolour. He was a keen golfer and is perhaps best known for his early paintings of golf courses in Scotland such as "The Golf Greens of Scotland".
Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PRSW or ‘Adam B’ as he was often called at Edinburgh College of Art, was a Scottish painter perhaps best known for his oil and water colour landscape paintings, particularly of the Highlands and Edinburgh. He is regarded as one of the Edinburgh School of artists.
Madeline Francis Jane Marrable, née Cockburn was a prolific London based watercolourist and oil painter specialising in landscapes with a preference for mountains and snowscapes. She traveled widely to places including Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and Venice. Noted works include: Ancient Cedars at Ankerwycke, Staines, Moonlight at Chiavenna and The Diligence Halting. She exhibited both in Britain and abroad, including at the Royal Academy between 1864 and 1903. She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Her painting Isola Bella Lago Maggiore was included in the 1905 book Women Painters of the World. In 1886, Marrable was elected as the first President of the Society of Lady Artists (SLA), formerly the Society of Female Artists (SFA) and since 1899 is now known as the Society of Women Artists (SWA), she retired from the presidency in 1912.
Alexander Kellock Brown was a Scottish painter of landscapes and brother of the sculptor William Kellock Brown. He painted in oils and water-colors and exhibited frequently at the Royal Scottish Academy exhibits between 1871 and 1922.
Jane Younger (1863–1955) was a Scottish artist known for her watercolour paintings and embroidery work.
Robert Weir Allan (1851–1942) was a Scottish-born painter known mainly for his depiction of landscape and marine subjects. He was born in Glasgow into a family that encouraged and valued his natural artistic ability. He exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts when aged 22, and two years later he had a painting selected for the Royal Academy, in London. In 1875–80 he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, and he was influenced by the French school of rustic naturalism and also by French Impressionism. Working plein-air, he developed a loose, painterly approach to landscape subjects. He was a prolific artist who travelled widely in Europe, India, Japan, the Middle East and America; however, he drew particular inspiration from the north-east coast of Scotland – a subject to which he returned throughout his life. He exhibited extensively in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and became vice-president of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. He was equally at home with oil painting, and during his lifetime he had 84 paintings selected for exhibition at the Royal Academy. For the last 60 years of his life his home was in London, and he died there at the age of 90 in 1942.
John James Bannatyne RSW was a late 19th and early 20th century Scottish painter and watercolourist specialising in Highland landscapes and seascapes.