RA Collection: People and Organisations
Established 30 November 1804 in the Stafford Coffee House, Oxford Street as the Society of Painters in Water Colours. Founder members included William Sawrey Gilpin, Robert Hills, John Claude Nattes, John Varley, Cornelius Varley, Francis Nicholson, Samuel Shelley, William Henry Pyne and Nicholas Pocock
The first professional exhibiting body formed specifically to advance the interests of painters in watercolour. The Society enjoyed a high level of early success before falling victim to the whims of fashion, at which point oil paintings were admitted to their annual exhibition. This situation also proved temporary and the Society's fortunes revived by the 1820's. In 1881 it received a Royal Charter and it is now known as the Royal Watercolour Society.
John Ruskin
Notes on some of the principal pictures exhibited in the rooms of the Royal Academy, the Old and New Societies of Painters in Water Colours, The Society of British Artists, and the French Exhibition, [i.e. Academy Notes], No. V. 1859 / by John Ruskin, M.A., author of "Modern Painters", "Stones of Venice", "Seven Lamps of Architecture", "Elements of Drawing", etc., etc. - London: 1859
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John Ruskin
Notes on some of the principal pictures exhibited in the room of the Royal Academy, the Old and New Societies of Painters in Water Colours, the Society of British Artists, and the French exhibition, [i.e. Academy Notes] No. IV. 1858 / by John Ruskin, M.A., author of "Modern Painters", "Stones of Venice", "Seven Lamps of Architecture", "Elements of Drawing", etc., etc. - London: 1858
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John Ruskin
Notes on some of the principal pictures exhibited in the rooms of the Royal Academy, and the Society of Painters in Water Colours [i.e. Academy Notes], No. II. 1856 / by John Ruskin, M.A., author of "Modern Painters", "Stones of Venice", "Seven Lamps of Architecture", etc., etc. - London: 1856
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John Ruskin,
Notes on some of the principal pictures exhibited in the rooms of the Royal Academy, and the Society of Painters in Water Colours, [i.e. Academy Notes], No. II. 1856 / by John Ruskin, M.A., author of "Modern Painters," "Stones of Venice," "Seven Lamps of Architecture, etc., etc. - London: 1856
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