The Emergence of the Professional Watercolourist : Contentions and Alliances in the Artistic Domain, 1760–1824

"This title was first published in 2002: Draw ing on extensive primary research, Greg Smith describes the shifting cultural identities of the English watercolour, and the English watercolourist, at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. His convincing narrative of the conflicts and alliances that marked the history of the medium and its practitioners during this period includes careful detail about the broader artistic context within which watercolours were produced, acquired and discussed. Smith calls into question many of the received assumptions about the history of watercolour painting. His account exposes the unsatisfactory nature of the traditional narrative of watercolour painting's development into a 'high' art form, which has tended to offer a celebratory focus on the innovations and genius of individual practitioners such as Turner and Girtin, rather than detailing the anxieties and aspirations that characterized the ambivalent status of the watercolourist. The Emergence of the Professional Watercolourist is published with the assistance of the Paul Mellon Foundation."--Provided by publisher Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Dedication -- Introduction: 'Profession' and the social history of watercolours -- I Contentions -- 1 The development and maintenance of the media hierarchy: watercolours, oils and the Royal Academy -- Problems of identity and definition: watercolour enters the public domain, 1760-1768 -- Watercolourists and their work at the Royal Academy, 1768- C.1812 -- Watercolour versus oil, c.1800- 1824 -- 2 Dangerous associations 1: watercolour and artisanal practices -- Replication, mass production, mechanisation, and the division of labour: the status of watercolour practice compromised -- Watercolourists and artisans: defending borders and transcending boundaries -- 3 Dangerous associations 2: professionals and amateurs -- A troubling presence: the am ateur in the public domain -- Charlatans, masters, and drudges: the watercolourist as a teacher -- Encouraging emulation and m aintaining distinctions -- II Alliances -- 4 Creating new markets for watercolours -- The 'painting in water colours': the emergence of a fashionable and modern commodity, c.1790-1805 -- Diversification and specialisation: new subject types, c.1805-1824 -- Embracing commerce: the exhibitions of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1805-1824 -- A middle-class market emerges? -- 5 Establishing professional status and identity, c.1795-1824 -- Two contrasting alliances: the watercolour societies and the professional ideal -- The 'progress of water colours': a triumph for the English School, 1805-1824 -- The watercolourist as genius -- Conclusion: Watercolourists and their art in 1824 -- Select bibliography -- Index