Love this peekshure! Reminds me of the ongoing debate among art historians and collectors as to whether a watercolour is a drawing or a painting. Watercolours were used to make topographical "drawings" from at least the 1500s onwards. Long before Google Earth made bird's eye views hip to the jive, watercolours made entire geographies float on paper right before one's eyes. And so a whole history of European art and imperialism came to rest upon the shoulders of companies like Reeves, established by William Reeves in 1776, and Windsor and Newton who by the middle of the 19th century, had patented the little handy dandy tube of paint as we know it today. The first true-blue portable medium, the soluble cake or tube of watercolour were among the most cutting-edge inventions of their time. All European military academies included watercolour drawing in their curricula. So the next time you squeeze some cadmium yellow or prussian blue out of a tube,know that that's exactly what you'd be doing if you were a mapmaker, topographer or spy in the 18th century!
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Love this peekshure! Reminds me of the ongoing debate among art historians and collectors as to whether a watercolour is a drawing or a painting. Watercolours were used to make topographical "drawings" from at least the 1500s onwards. Long before Google Earth made bird's eye views hip to the jive, watercolours made entire geographies float on paper right before one's eyes. And so a whole history of European art and imperialism came to rest upon the shoulders of companies like Reeves, established by William Reeves in 1776, and Windsor and Newton who by the middle of the 19th century, had patented the little handy dandy tube of paint as we know it today. The first true-blue portable medium, the soluble cake or tube of watercolour were among the most cutting-edge inventions of their time. All European military academies included watercolour drawing in their curricula. So the next time you squeeze some cadmium yellow or prussian blue out of a tube,know that that's exactly what you'd be doing if you were a mapmaker, topographer or spy in the 18th century!
8:02 AM
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