"English Watercolours of the 18th - 19th Centuries" is an impressive and gorgeus exhibition which marks the 100th anniversary of Paul Mellon, an important US collector and aficionado of English art. Mellon was also a generous sponsor of Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, Connecticut) and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond), two institutions which have organised the show, presented now at the State Hermitage, in St Petersburg, Russia.
In whole, the exhibition presents 88 works signed by 45 artists, and it is simply a comprehensive and interesting history of British art, starting with the middle of the 19th century (a time when watercolour became more and more popular) and ending with the 19th century (when is was considered by all to be a national form of British art).
2007-10-22
