The dramatic marine skies, light falling on the landscape, the changing intensity of light reacting to the air’s moisture content, and the emotional stir in Turner’s landscapes showed the brilliance of art through the simple yet complex medium of watercolors. But it was not the first time an artist had used watercolor as a medium. Though practised by even Dürer, watercolor paintings became prevalent in the eighteenth century for their expressive coloration and emotional impact. Following the romantic painters of the time, some of the most famous watercolor paintings were created by significant artists, such as Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Girtin, Turner, Cotman, and even John Constable. However, when I look at different watercolor paintings from all time, I find the American artist Homer mastering the techniques of the medium to such an extent that every stroke of his brushwork fits into an accumulation that follows the movements underlying his compositions. Today, in this article, we are looking at some of the most impressive and famous watercolor paintings of all time. However, before we begin, here’s a word from the sponsor of this article, followed by today’s book recommendation.
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Today’s Book Recommendation.
Maitreyi by Mircea Eliade.
A semi-autobiographical book that depicts blatant colonial-era prejudice alongside a beautiful, failed love story between a student of Maitreyi’s father of French nationality and Maitreyi when he came to Calcutta. This book was an immediate success back in the 1900s as the author further explained the erotic relationship between the couple. In response, Maitreyi wrote a book four decades later to give a response to the book as if she was confronting the author.
10 Famous Watercolor Paintings to Understand the Medium and Its Use by Different Artists.
1. The White House at Chelsea by Thomas Girtin.
Signed and dated in the 1800s, The White House at Chelsea showed a new style, which even Turner declared to be unequal. Showcasing the remarkable sunset scene of the River Thames, this painting unites the panoramic grandeur and objectivity with subjectivity by emphasising the vertical line in it. With calm and clear washes of the river, most of the foreground consists of the river view. When a spectator looks at this composition, he takes an unconscious leap into the middle-ground irrespective of the foreground. Though this middle-ground is smaller, it instantly becomes pseudo-foreground, imparting a feeling that the subjective immediacy remains with the objective grandeur of the distant view. Several diagonals meet first at the white house, then at the windmill and the bridge, giving more emphasis to the small island. The waterscape draws an unusual calm in the spectator’s mind. Though it is bare and lonely, the water still feels inviting. Furthermore, there is a presence of small elements like an isolated building and a windmill, making it a place of loneliness; a sense of life in this composition can still be felt.
| Artist | Thomas Girtin |
| Date | 1800 |
| Medium | Watercolor on paper |
| Dimensions | 298 x 514 mm |
| Period | Romanticism |
| Museum | Tate Museum |
2. The Blue Rigi, Sunrise by J.M.W. Turner.
The intention of J.M.W. Turner in a landscape painting was to elevate the genre to an unprecedented level of seriousness and universality. He absolutely did that by incorporating his contemplation of the human condition into his landscape paintings. None of his paintings portrayed a sense of danger or torture; they showed utmost sublimity. Turner made a long series of views of Lake Lucerne and Lake Geneva as he focused on the infinite calmness of the waters at dawn and sunset. In the painting, The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, the silence of the surroundings is broken by a small dog barking as it jumps off the boat into the water. The composition further portrays a small ferry carrying passengers from one end to the other.
The mood in these late Swiss lakes, including this painting, is to portray the tranquility and sanctified calm of John Robert Cozens. The crisp landscape details convey a natural upheaval and sublimity of one’s soul with harmony. The symbolism of the sunrise and sunset paintings further has a relevance to personal life, which this composition portrays.
| Artist | J.M.W. Turner |
| Date | 1842 |
| Medium | Watercolor on paper |
| Dimensions | 297 x 450 mm |
| Period | Romanticism and Impressionism |
| Museum | Tate Museum |
3. Greta Bridge by John Sell Cotman.
The painting is a significant work from the artist’s gallery as most of the his nature studies were during his time on the Greta bridge. The painting, Greta Bridge, is an elaborate chalk drawing, with a view looking south towards the single-arch Palladian Bridge centred in the middle of the scene. The purity of this scene lies in Morritt’s Inn on the left, with the geometry of the bridge’s reflection counterposed against nature’s random patterns of river banks. The trees beyond the bridge and inn in the landscape further complete the painting, making it the most perfect watercolor painting ever composed.
The Greta Bridge painting has an English essence with the discipline of neo-classical sensibility. It shows pictorial sensitivity alongside a radical questioning of nature’s movement. Having harmony in this watercolor painting, Cotman shows a quiet mood through broad areas of color instead of any heavy coloring or shades.
| Artist | John Sell Cotman |
| Date | 1805 |
| Medium | Watercolor over graphite sketch |
| Dimensions | 227 mm x 329 mm |
| Period | Romanticism |
| Museum | The British Museum in London (a larger 1810 version is housed in the Norwich Castle Museum) |
4. Old Sarum by John Constable.
John Constable was extremely ill days before he painted the composition, The Old Sarum. Rheumatic fever left him unable to paint. Nearly three months later, in January, when he was recovering from the fever, he chose a less taxing medium of watercolors to paint Old Sarum. It is important to note that Constable chose this subject in his illness, as the artist often chose his subjects to communicate his distress or despair. Sarum was an old city in Roman times, which once was a fine city, but later turned into a deserted and isolated one. Portraying a stormy island with romantic expressiveness, Constable portrayed the English landscape with a historically significant subject and personal significance. The artist used chiaroscuro techniques to contrast the light and shadows.
| Artist | John Constable |
| Date | 1829 |
| Medium | Watercolor, black chalk, white chalk, pen, and ink on paper |
| Dimensions | 555 mm × 438 mm |
| Period | Romanticism |
| Museum | Victoria and Albert Museum in London |
5. The Virgin With Multitude of Animals by Albrecht Dürer.
The Virgin With Multitude of Animals is an exceptional 1503 watercolor painting. Having a comprehensive scene consisting of the Virgin with child and several animals in a landscape, color is an essential component to give meaning to this painting. The geographical components in the composition are clearly visible, including plants and animals. The sky is exceptionally full with several descriptive clouds, one of them encircling a star. Showcasing the Nativity theme combined with the Annunciation, this painting is more than a depiction of Madonna and the Child. There is a profound connection between the divine and humanity through nature and animals. In the centre of the composition, the Virgin Mary sits in a naturalistic pose with a serene expression as she holds her infant son Jesus. The genius of this composition lies in the layering of several animals and plants in a chaotic and detailed manner, thereby depicting abundance in the composition.
The watercolor studies of Dürer were mostly executed during his journey to Venice. Laid on with astonishing freedom, these watercolor studies helped the artist in his future paintings.
| Artist | Albrecht Dürer |
| Date | 1503 |
| Medium | Pen, blackish-brown ink, and watercolor on paper |
| Dimensions | 321 x 243 mm (12.6 x 9.5 inches) |
| Period | German Renaissance |
| Museum | Albertina Museum, Vienna |
6. The Three Skulls by Paul Cézanne.
The Three Skulls are grouped together on an Oriental carpet draped over a table. Cézanne had a practice of turning the subject of his paintings into strange, glowing color patterns with uncanny overtones. In the Three Skulls, the artist added a powerful sense of volume with a curling rhythm of line and color, portraying freedom of expression. This type of composition with prevalent hues was part of Cezanne’s Lauves studio, as it is close to the landscape watercolors, which he made between 1902 and his death.
In the execution of the painting, the artist used several successive layers of thin, transparent watercolor with cumulative effect, stressing shapes and patterns. In the heavy lower part, the background lightens up toward the top. As the spectator glances at the skulls, it is truly visible that the broken S lines are repeated in the rich textile in a typically Cezanne fashion. The colors in the textile include red-orange, rose, clear green, and radiant blue.
| Artist | Paul Cézanne |
| Date | 1902–1906 (some versions or related oil studies date c. 1898) |
| Medium | Watercolor with graphite on ivory wove paper |
| Dimensions | 48 × 62.8 cm (18 15/16 × 24 3/4 inches) |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Museum | The Art Institute of Chicago |
7. Box Factory, Gloucester, by Edward Hopper.
Hopper painted several landscape watercolor paintings in Gloucester, but most of them were abandoned and left incomplete by him. He experimented with several uncharacteristic subjects, including a circus ground with soft colored tents, a red wagon, and a box factory with machinery in a low-high contrast setting. The painting, Box Factory, Gloucester by Hopper, shows a modern element as the primary subject in harmony with nature. There is a presence of greenery in the left middle ground as a hint of nature. Hopper portrayed the Gloucester factory in the suburban area, with views of New York. The liquid shadows and high-dark contrasts in the picture add an unusual isolation in the viewer’s mind.
The painting was composed in 1928 alongside other watercolor paintings like Prospect Street, Gloucester, and Circus Wagon.
| Artist | Edward Hopper |
| Date | 1928 |
| Medium | Watercolor and pencil on paper |
| Dimensions | 13 7/8 x 19 7/8 inches (35.2 x 50.5 cm) |
| Period | American Realism |
| Museum | Museum of Modern Art |
8. Landscape With Wheelbarrow by Vincent van Gogh.
In September 1883, Vincent moved to the open countryside of Drenthe in search of a peaceful place that was virtually untouched by the Industrial Revolution. He began to live at Hoogeveen in western Drenthe, which had long rows of houses along the harbor. Finding tranquility and expanse in nature, he composed Landscape With Wheelbarrow. However, he was short on supplies, making him paint this composition in a minimalist manner with unvarying scenery. The image features a reductive palette of steely greens and blues warmed and combined with the hues of pink and red. The ground plane has horizontal bands narrowing the horizon with loose texture in the foreground. These loopy textures of grey hues provide illusory figures to the spectator’s mind. These figures further add human presence in this unoccupied landscape. These figures were inspired by the laborers that the artist observed in Drenthe.
| Artist | Vincent Van Gogh |
| Date | 1883 |
| Medium | Watercolor and gouache over traces of graphite on paper |
| Dimensions | 24.3 x 34.9 cm |
| Period | Post-Impressionism |
| Museum | Cleveland Museum of Art |
9. Leaping Trout by Winslow Homer.
Homer painted a series of leaping fish. By their opulent color and exquisite design, the artist composed the leaping fish finely out of the water in pursuit of the bait on the cruel hook. With a bold, strong, and aggressive look, the fish showcases the central principles of Darwinian evolution. In this composition, there are varied conditions of the trout as per age and the character of the water. If you look closely, there are two trout side by side, leaping high in the air. One trout jumps to take the bait, which is visible as it is the primary subject of the painting. Another one is drawn into the light by red ibis exhibiting purplish tones.
The artist used French Impressionist brushwork to paint this still-life subject. As the transparent color of blue and grey watercolor suggests the fish’s skin, opaque pricks of red color on its body shows the Japanese prints. The composition is mysterious, as the background of the painting has several faces of the aggravated trout.
| Artist | Winslow Homer |
| Date | 1889 |
| Medium | Watercolor and gouache over traces of graphite on paper |
| Dimensions | 35 x 50.6 cm |
| Period | American Realism |
| Museum | Cleveland Museum of Art |
10. Simplon Pass: Reading by John Singer Sargent.
The Simplon Pass: Reading is one of a group of watercolor paintings of the artist’s nieces and their friends, painted between Italy and Switzerland in August 1911. The artist composed a theme of young girls resting languorously in the meadows, echoing his Siesta pictures painted around 1907-8. Showing a pair of women in flowing white dresses, the subjects here are Dorothy Barnard (the model for Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose) and the artist’s niece Rose-Marie Ormond. Sitting upright, Dorothy calmly reads her book while her young companion stretches in a sleepy posture with smiling eyes towards the viewer. The lower part of the composition is filled with Dorothy’s balloon dress, and within the curves of this dress, the artist manages to impose dramatic lighting.
| Artist | John Singer Sargent |
| Date | 1911 |
| Medium | Translucent and opaque watercolor, with wax resist, over graphite on paper |
| Dimensions | 51 x 35.7 cm |
| Period | Impressionism |
| Museum | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Final Words.
The watercolors have always been a subject of interest because this was the first medium known to prehistoric man. However, when it comes to handling, it becomes tougher to implement with accuracy. Famous for experimentation even in the Renaissance, the trend of watercolors was popular in the 18th century when the idea was to reject the academic qualities of art to portray the emotional sensitivity of humans. In India, watercolors were more popular in the 20th century as a rejection of colonialism while popularising nationalist sentiments. At the same time, watercolor paintings became prevalent among British artists like Constable and Turner as landscape paintings became popular. Hence, watercolors show relevance in the history, culture, and movement of a particular place. Note that this list is still in continuation as I am writing about 13 of the more watercolor paintings by different artists to share a much deeper insight on it and in the meantime, if you are someone who is hoping to learn to practice this medium, our friends from Tubio have curated some of the most helpful step-by-step watercolor lessons that are free of cost, so give them a try.
Resources.
- Featured Image: Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda by Winslow Homer; Public Domain, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- The Art of Thomas Girtin by David Loshak.
- Turner and the Sublime by Andrew Wilton.
- John Sell Cotman by Adele M Holcomb.
- Basil Taylor’s Constable: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours.
- Dürer by Allan Braham.
- Paul Cézanne: The Watercolors: A Catalogue Raisonne by John Rewald.
- Van Gogh: Fields by Toledo Museum of Art.
- John Singer Sargent by Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond.
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