DOI article:
Holmes, Charles: The History of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27085#0027
OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS
Colours it will be as well to make a digression for the sake of
explaining the position of a rival Association which has frequently
been confused with it. This rival Association was started by a group
of artists in June 1807 ; it bore at first the same title as the older
Society, but changed this first to “The New Society of Painters in
Miniature and Water-Colours,” and finally, in 1808, to “The
Associated Artists in Water-Colours.” It opened its first exhibition
on April 25, 1808, at the same rooms in Brook Street which had
seen the inauguration of the activity of its predecessor, and it moved
afterwards to 16 Old Bond Street, so that there is some excuse for
the failure of historians to distinguish between the two Associations.
Moreover, many men who afterwards became members of the old
Society were first on the roll of the Associated Artists. It lived,
however, only till 1812, when the contents of the gallery in which
its last exhibition was held were seized by the landlord and sold to
pay the rent.
Meanwhile, however, it had done by its competition an appreciable
amount of harm to the original Society, which had in 1809 taken a
lease of the well-known galleries in Spring Gardens. The first
exhibition in these new rooms was attended by nearly twenty-three
thousand visitors, and produced a surplus of £626 ; but in 1810 the
attendance was only just over twenty thousand, in 1811 a little over
nineteen thousand, and in 1812 it did not reach ten thousand seven
hundred, with, of course, a corresponding diminution in the surplus
available for distribution. During these years several changes were
made in the list of contributors. In 1809 Thomas Uwins, William
Payne, Edmund Dorrell, and Charles Wild were elected Associates;
in 1810 Frederick Nash, Peter De Wint, Anthony Vandyke Copley
Fielding, William Westall, and William Scott ; and in 1812 David
Cox, Luke Clennell, and C. Barber. The promotions to full
membership were Stevens and Dorrell in 1809, Uwins and Nash
in 1810, De Wint and Westall in 1811, and Wild and Pugin in
1812.
In this last year the affairs of the Society had, as the members
recognised, come to a crisis which called for immediate action. So
a meeting was called to discuss what was to be its future policy.
Two suggestions were made, one that the scope of the Association
should be extended in such a manner as to ensure its receiving the
support of the whole body of water-colour painters ; the other, that
the members and Associates should be allowed to contribute to its
exhibitions oil pictures as well as drawings. The second of these
suggestions was adopted, and was confirmed at a subsequent meeting ;
h xv
Colours it will be as well to make a digression for the sake of
explaining the position of a rival Association which has frequently
been confused with it. This rival Association was started by a group
of artists in June 1807 ; it bore at first the same title as the older
Society, but changed this first to “The New Society of Painters in
Miniature and Water-Colours,” and finally, in 1808, to “The
Associated Artists in Water-Colours.” It opened its first exhibition
on April 25, 1808, at the same rooms in Brook Street which had
seen the inauguration of the activity of its predecessor, and it moved
afterwards to 16 Old Bond Street, so that there is some excuse for
the failure of historians to distinguish between the two Associations.
Moreover, many men who afterwards became members of the old
Society were first on the roll of the Associated Artists. It lived,
however, only till 1812, when the contents of the gallery in which
its last exhibition was held were seized by the landlord and sold to
pay the rent.
Meanwhile, however, it had done by its competition an appreciable
amount of harm to the original Society, which had in 1809 taken a
lease of the well-known galleries in Spring Gardens. The first
exhibition in these new rooms was attended by nearly twenty-three
thousand visitors, and produced a surplus of £626 ; but in 1810 the
attendance was only just over twenty thousand, in 1811 a little over
nineteen thousand, and in 1812 it did not reach ten thousand seven
hundred, with, of course, a corresponding diminution in the surplus
available for distribution. During these years several changes were
made in the list of contributors. In 1809 Thomas Uwins, William
Payne, Edmund Dorrell, and Charles Wild were elected Associates;
in 1810 Frederick Nash, Peter De Wint, Anthony Vandyke Copley
Fielding, William Westall, and William Scott ; and in 1812 David
Cox, Luke Clennell, and C. Barber. The promotions to full
membership were Stevens and Dorrell in 1809, Uwins and Nash
in 1810, De Wint and Westall in 1811, and Wild and Pugin in
1812.
In this last year the affairs of the Society had, as the members
recognised, come to a crisis which called for immediate action. So
a meeting was called to discuss what was to be its future policy.
Two suggestions were made, one that the scope of the Association
should be extended in such a manner as to ensure its receiving the
support of the whole body of water-colour painters ; the other, that
the members and Associates should be allowed to contribute to its
exhibitions oil pictures as well as drawings. The second of these
suggestions was adopted, and was confirmed at a subsequent meeting ;
h xv