#watercoulor

One Thousand and One Wonders

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), American painter who lived mainly in Europe.

Affiliated with the Impressionist movement, he will be particularly renowned for his portraits, combining the sophistication of his style and the colours and light studies of the Impressionists. He will be particularly prolific, and will paint nearly 900 canvases and 2000 watercolors throughout his career.

(The pictures show, in order: Mrs. Fiske Warren - Gretchen Osgood - and Her Daughter Rachel, 1903 ; Hercules, 1921 ; Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, detail, 1885-1886 ; Portrait of Mrs A Lawrence Rotch, 1903 ; An Artist in His Studio, 1904 ; Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888 ; Portrait of Mrs. Elliott Fitch Shepard, 1888 ; Simplon Pass: The Tease, 1911 ; Orestes Pursued by the Furies, 1921 ; and finally, Miss Beatrice Townsend, 1882)

“The Fool who persists in his folly will become Wise”

William Blake (1757-1827), British painter, printmaker and poet.

Recognized as a Romantic painter, preferring watercolour and lithography upon oil painting, he will provide an important work of poetry. His subjects, however very classic and religious, are transcended by his style, hallucinated and tinted of a striking modernity.

Beyond his avant-garde ideas, he was long believed mad by his contemporaries, because he was persuaded to receive messages via visions, since his earliest childhood.

(Details. The pictures show, in order : Jerusalem, Plate 1, Frontispiece, between 1804 and 1820 ; Frontispiece illustration from Milton: a Poem, To Justify the Ways of God to Men, between 1804 and 1811 ; Cain Fleeing from the Wrath of God, between 1805 and 1809 ; Europe a Prophecy, 1794 ; The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea, 1805 ; Newton, 1795, printed in 1805 ; Pity, idem ; Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve, 1808 ; Hecate, The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy, 1805 ; and finally, Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing, around 1786)

Remarkable Ruins

Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), English watercolourist and etcher.

This artist allowed the recognition of watercolour as an art, while he is also the initiator of romantic watercolours.

Specialist in landscapes and architectural representations, friend of the painter J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851), he died prematurely of tuberculosis, in his studio.

(Details. The pictures show, in order: Denbigh Castle, circa 1793 ; Saint Cuthbert’s Holy Island, 1797 ; St. Alban’s Cathedral, Hertfordshire, circa 1797 ; Tolleshunt-Beckingham, Essex, circa 1795 ; Jedburgh Abbey, Roxburghshire, circa 1793 ; Durham Cathedral and Castle, circa 1800 ; Tempio d’ Antonio e Faustina, between 1798 and 1799 ; Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, 1794 ; Tynemouth Priory, Northumberland, 1793 ; Kirkstall Abbey from the N.W., circa 1792)