Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · CC BY 2.0 · source
Name	Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Established	1831
Location	London
Type	Art society

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours is a British art society founded in 1831 to promote watercolour painting among professional artists. It has been associated with exhibitions in London and with prominent figures from the Victorian era through the modern period, maintaining links with institutions and personalities across the United Kingdom and internationally. The institute has influenced collectors, critics, and institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Britain, British Museum, Guildhall Art Gallery, and National Portrait Gallery.

History

The institute was founded amid debates involving artists who split from the Royal Academy of Arts, reacting to exhibition policies and membership disputes that also engaged figures linked to the New Society of Painters in Water Colours and the earlier Society of Painters in Water-Colours. Early patrons and exhibitors included individuals associated with King William IV, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and politicians who supported arts patronage such as members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The institute exhibited works that addressed subjects embraced by painters connected to John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Girtin, Samuel Palmer, and John Sell Cotman. Over the nineteenth century it intersected with movements and events involving Pre-Raphaelitism, Academic art, the Great Exhibition, and international salons in Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, and New York City.

Institutional developments linked the institute to municipal and national collections administered by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake and later directors like Sir George Scharf. During the twentieth century exhibitions and membership reflected responses to the First World War, Second World War, the rise of Modernism, and interactions with contemporary artists associated with Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and curators at institutions such as Courtauld Institute of Art and Royal College of Art.

Organization and Membership

Membership structures evolved from founding members to elected associates, full members, and honorary fellows, with procedures comparable to those used by the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and the Royal Watercolour Society. The institute has historically attracted artists who also exhibited at venues like the Royal Society of British Artists, New English Art Club, Royal Scottish Academy, Glasgow School of Art, and international venues including the Salon de Paris and the Armory Show. Notable administrative figures included secretaries and treasurers who liaised with collectors and institutions such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, and municipal galleries in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, and Leeds. Honorary memberships and collaborations have linked the institute to figures from the British Council, the Arts Council England, and museum directors from the National Gallery, Scottish National Gallery, and Ulster Museum.

Exhibitions and Collections

Annual exhibitions historically took place in London venues like galleries in Soho, Bloomsbury, Mayfair, and exhibition spaces adjacent to the Royal Academy of Arts summer shows. Works shown have entered public collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Britain, British Museum, National Gallery of Scotland, Ashmolean Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, Walker Art Gallery, York Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Guildhall Art Gallery, and regional museums across Cornwall, Devon, Sussex, and Kent. Catalogue contributors and critics have included writers associated with periodicals such as the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Art Journal. International loans and retrospectives have connected the institute to exhibitions at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, and the National Gallery of Art (Washington).

Artistic Style and Techniques

Artists associated with the institute employed techniques related to transparent washes, glazing, drybrush, wet-on-wet, and layering practices shared with practitioners influenced by J. M. W. Turner and John Constable. The range of subjects includes landscapes resonant with locations like Lake District, Cotswolds, Scottish Highlands, Cornwall, Norfolk Broads, and urban scenes of London, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Manchester. Portraits and figurative work draw comparisons to portraitists linked with the National Portrait Gallery and to contemporaries practicing gouache and tempera such as those in the circles of Gavin Hamilton and Joshua Reynolds in historical studies. Experimentation in the twentieth century reflected dialogues with Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism through artists who engaged with studios in Chelsea, St. Ives, Camberwell, Slade School of Fine Art, and residencies at places like Dulwich Picture Gallery and Tate Modern.

Notable Members and Presidents

Prominent members and presidents have included painters, illustrators, and teacher-figures who also had associations with the Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Many exhibited alongside figures such as William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Walter Sickert, John William Waterhouse, George Romney, Thomas Lawrence, Frederic Leighton, Augustus John, John Singer Sargent, Gainsborough, George Stubbs, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, L. S. Lowry, Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood, E. H. Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Peter Lanyon, Roger Fry, and Clive Bell through shared exhibitions or institutional overlap.

Awards and Recognition

The institute has conferred medals, prizes, and exhibition awards similar in prestige to honors from Royal Academy of Arts exhibitions, the Turner Prize context, and awards administered by the Arts Council England, Royal Society of British Artists, and the British Council. Recipients have enjoyed purchases by the Victoria and Albert Museum and acquisitions facilitated by trusts and foundations including the Pilgrim Trust, the Foyle Foundation, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and municipal art funds in London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. Cross-institutional recognition has led to fellowship invitations at places such as the Royal Academy of Arts, appointments at the Royal College of Art, and teaching posts at universities including University of the Arts London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and University of Edinburgh.

Category:Art societies in the United Kingdom