Category: Watercolor and Gouache
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USDA Pomological Watercolors Digital Collection
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has placed online and extensive digital collection of late 19th and early 20th century watercolors of fruit varieties that were commissioned both as a botanical resource and as illustrations for the department’s publications. “Pomology” the study of fruit breeding and production. There are over 7,000 images of watercolors by two…
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Hans Heysen
Hans Heysen is another of those wonderful turn of the 20th century Australian artists that we just don’t hear enough about here in the U.S. Born in Germany, Heysen came to Australia with his parents at the age of 7. He studied in Australia and for four year, in Europe. He worked in oil, charcoal…
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Chien Chung-Wei
Chien Chung-Wei is a Taiwanese watercolorist who early in his career emulated the painstakingly detailed methods of 19th century European watercolor painters like William Henry Hunt and Myles Birket Foster, but as his career progressed moved to a looser, more open style emphasizing the gesture and light of his subjects. He most often paints urban…
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Gherardo Cibo’s 16th century watercolor illustrations of medicinal herbs
De Materia Medica is a Greek manual on herbal medicine written by Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century. It was re-issued in the 16th century in an expanded version with annotations by Italian physician Pietro Andrea Mattioli. This version featured illustrations by the artist Gherardo Cibo, who was noted for his interest in botany and…
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Eye Candy for Today: Samuel Palmer’s waterfalls
Pistil Mawddach, North Wales; watercolor and gouache, Yale Center for British Art; The Waterfalls, Pistil Mawddach, North Wales, oil, Tate, Britain; Samuel Palmer Though both are striking, I find 19th century artist Samuel Palmer’s watercolor and gouache study of this dramatic landscape even more compelling than his finished oil. The watercolor is 17×21 inches (44x53cm),…
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William Henry Hunt
Though he also painted landscapes, portraits and figures, and worked at times in oil, 19th century English artist William Henry Hunt was known primarily for his striking watercolor still life paintings. His subjects were often fruits like grapes, apples and peaches, which he rendered with extraordinary finesse using a technique known as “wet white” —…