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 (associate member). They are elected by the membership, with typically half a dozen new associates joining the Society each year.
The society was founded as the Society of Painters in Water Colours [1] in 1804 by William Frederick Wells. Its original membership was William Sawrey Gilpin, Robert Hills, John Claude Nattes, John Varley, Cornelius Varley, Francis Nicholson, Samuel Shelley, William Henry Pyne and Nicholas Pocock. The members seceded from the Royal Academy where they felt that their work commanded insufficient respect and attention.
In 1812, the Society reformed as the Society of Painters in Oil and Watercolours, reverting to its original name in 1820.
In 1831 a schism created another group, the New Society for Painters in Water Colours, and so the 1804 group became known as the Old Water Colour Society, and just the Old Society. The New Society subsequently became the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, which still exists today.
The Old Society obtained its Royal charter 1881 under the presidency of Sir John Gilbert as the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. In 1988, it changed its name again to the Royal Watercolour Society, by which it had always previously been generally known.
The Royal Watercolour Society was founded to promote watercolour as a medium in all its applications. The Society defines a 'watercolour' as a work made in any water-based paint on paper. The RWS holds regular exhibitions presenting the finest in British contemporary works on paper. Exhibitions are held at Bankside Gallery and also tour outside London. The new RWS Gallery at Whitcomb Street opened its doors for a 'soft launch' in May 2022 with an exhibition of watercolours by RWS Member David Remfry. [2] [3] The RWS now holds exhibitions at both Bankside Gallery and the Whitcomb Street Gallery.
The 75 Members choose new Associates each year in a rigorous election procedure. Associates are entitled to use the initials ARWS after their names. Full membership is granted following a show of hands at an AGM. [4] The Society's education programme includes practical courses tutored by members and drop-in family event days as well as talks and discussions. The archive and diploma collection is available for research.
Current members include Sonia Lawson, Elizabeth Blackadder, Richard Bawden, Robin Richmond, and David Remfry.
The current president Charles Williams was elected in 2023.
Watercolor or watercolour, also aquarelle, is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork. Aquarelles painted with water-soluble colored ink instead of modern water colors are called aquarellum atramento by experts. However, this term has now tended to pass out of use.
William Henry Hunt, was an English watercolourist. Hunt was "one of the key figures in nineteenth-century English watercolour painting. His work was extensively collected in his lifetime, particularly his genre pictures of children, often in humorous situations, and his detailed, naturalistic still lifes of fruit, flowers, and birds' nests that earned him the nickname ‘Bird’s Nest’ Hunt."
William Sawrey Gilpin was an English artist and drawing master, and in later life a landscape designer.
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.
Edward Robert Hughes was a British painter, who primarily worked in watercolours, but also produced a number of oil paintings. He was influenced by his uncle and artist, Arthur Hughes who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and worked closely with one of the Brotherhood's founders, William Holman Hunt.
John Henry Henshall, usually known as Henry Henshall was a British watercolourist and etcher.
William Turner was a British painter who specialised in watercolour landscapes. He is often known as William Turner of Oxford or just Turner of Oxford to distinguish him from his contemporary, J. M. W. Turner. Many of Turner's paintings depicted the countryside around Oxford. One of his best known pictures is a view of the city of Oxford from Hinksey Hill.
The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), known until 1991 as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, is a leading art institution based in London, England. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as it was originally styled, was a society of etchers established in London in 1880 and given a Royal Charter in 1888. Engraving was included within the scope of the Society from 1897, wood-engraving from 1920, coloured original prints from 1957, lithography from 1987 and all forms of creative forward-thinking original printmaking from 1990.
Mildred Anne Butler was an Irish artist, who worked in watercolour and oil of landscape, genre and animal subjects. Butler was born and spent most of her life in Kilmurry, Thomastown, County Kilkenny and was associated with the Newlyn School of painters.
William Collingwood Smith, was a British watercolourist.
David Remfry is a British painter and curator. He served as the Eranda Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools from 2016 to 2018 and as a competition judge for the Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award in 2021. In 2023 he coordinated the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. A retrospective of Remfry’s work, curated by Dr Gerardine Mulcahy-Parker, is planned for 2025 at Beverley Art Gallery, East Riding.
John Augustus Atkinson (c.1775–1830) was an English artist, engraver and watercolourist.
John "Warwick" Smith was a British watercolour landscape painter and illustrator.
George Garrard was an English animal, landscape and portrait painter, modeller, sculptor, engraver and printmaker. He played a major role in lobbying Parliament to introduce legislation to protect the copyright of works by modellers of animal and human figures.
Rose Mary Barton was an Anglo-Irish artist; a watercolourist who painted landscape, street scenes, gardens, child portraiture and illustrations of the townscape of Britain and Ireland. Barton exhibited with a number of different painting societies, most notably the Watercolour Society of Ireland (WCSI), the Royal Academy (RA), the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS). She became a full member of the RWS in 1911. Her paintings are in public collections of Irish painting in both Ireland and Britain, including the National Gallery of Ireland and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane in Dublin, and the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
Edward Duncan was a British watercolourist known for his depictions of coastal views and shipping. He was a member of the Royal Watercolour Society and received Royal patronage from Queen Victoria.
Frederick Mackenzie (1787–1854) was a British watercolourist and architectural draughtsman.
Edward Killingworth Johnson was a British wood-engraver, illustrator, and watercolour painter. He is known for creating the first illustrations of Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She.
Robin Richmond RWS is a London-based British-American painter, writer, critic, teacher and illustrator, regularly exhibiting her art in the UK and France. She is the author of five books on art and has illustrated three children's books. She is a leading colourist and painter of abstract landscapes. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Watercolour Society in 2022. She is the author of an art blog.
Richard Peter Cook is an English portrait and landscape artist working predominantly in oils and watercolour. Graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 1975, he was elected an associate of the Royal Society of British Artists the same year, becoming a full member in 1976.
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