During the Middle Ages (476-1500), artists in Europe used watercolor to decorate Bibles and prayer books. These illuminated manuscripts were an important stepping-stone in the development of painting in Europe before the introduction of oil paint.
Most artists during the Renaissance (1300-1600) and baroque (1600-1750) periods used watercolor washes to add color to their drawings. One Renaissance artist, Albrecht Dürer of Germany, used watercolor in a different way. With the point of the brush, he defined shapes with color rather than with lines. He produced highly finished studies of animals, plants, and landscapes.
Beginning in the 1500's, watercolor artists accompanied explorers on expeditions to the New World. These artists recorded the scenes, people, plants, and animals of the newly discovered lands. They served a role similar to that of today's news photographers.
The flowering of watercolor in the West began in England in the 1700's. At that time, views of cities and the countryside in England and continental Europe were popular subjects. Artists made line drawings of these views and tinted them with watercolor washes. Gradually artists developed a bolder style. They relied less on line and more on color to portray a scene.
The 1800's. Two English artists of the 1800's, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, were masters of watercolor. Turner's dramatic landscapes show his ability to portray light and water. Constable's studies of clouds are fresh and full of movement.
The work of the English watercolorists inspired French artists of the 1800's, such as Eugène Delacroix. In 1832, Delacroix made a series of watercolor studies during a trip to Tunisia and Morocco. His use of flowing lines and brilliant colors look forward to the impressionists.
The impressionist movement occurred in France in the late 1800's. Its followers studied the effects of changing light on color and form. Shapes were no longer painted in clear outlines, but as masses of vibrating color. Although they worked mainly in oils, many impressionists and postimpressionists, including Paul Signac, Édouard Manet, and Paul Cézanne, produced fine watercolor paintings that capture the light and color of a scene with amazing freshness. In contrast, watercolors by German expressionist artists working at the turn of the century "express" a feeling or mood, rather than record what the eye sees.
In the United States, watercolor began to develop as an art form in the early 1800's. The tradition of painting plant and animal life begun by the explorer artists reached its peak at this time with the work of John James Audubon. He made detailed watercolors of the birds of America.
At first, American painters followed the example of English artists. But after 1850 a new generation of American watercolorists emerged. One of the best and most influential was Winslow Homer. Like the impressionists, he was highly skilled at capturing the effects of light. The watercolors of John Singer Sargent and Maurice Prendergast also recall the impressionists in their use of bright, transparent color to convey light.
The 20th Century. In the 20th century the watercolor medium remained popular among artists working in a wide variety of styles. In the first part of the century, the Swiss artist Paul Klee often combined watercolor with pen and ink to create pictures of fantastic or imaginary subjects.
About the same time, John Marin, an American, was painting outdoor scenes. In one series of watercolors, Marin painted the rugged landscape of Maine in an expressionist style. Other artists, such as the American painter Andrew Wyeth, developed their art along traditional lines, producing very realistic watercolor paintings. Still another group of modern artists did not attempt to paint objects realistically. These abstract painters used watercolor to achieve bold new effects. They included Jackson Pollock, Sam Francis, and Mark Tobey,