Early English Water-Colour Drawings of the Great Masters

EARLY ENGLISH WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS BY THE GREAT MASTERS


WITH ARTICLES BY A. J. FINBERG
1919
EDITED BY GEOFFREY HOLME “THE STUDIO,” Lᵀᴰ ., LONDON PARIS, NEW YORK

THE EDITOR DESIRES TO ACKNOW- LEDGE THE VALUABLE ASSISTANCE RENDERED HIM IN THE PREPARA- TION OF THIS VOLUME BY MESSRS. THOMAS AGNEW & SONS; AND TO THANK MR. C. MORLAND AGNEW, MR. W. J. H. JONES, AND MR. R. W. LLOYD FOR KINDLY ALLOWING THEIR DRAWINGS TO BE REPRODUCED

Turner was one of the greatest artists this country has produced, and much of his best work—and nearly all the work by which he has endeared himself to his fellow-countrymen, was done in water-colour; yet water-colour painting, though it has played almost as important a part as oil painting in the history of British art, is not yet recognized by our authorities as an independent branch of art. That Turner the water-colour painter is represented at all in our National Gallery is purely an accident. The bulk of his water-colours are in private collections, and it is only on rare occasions that the public can get an opportunity of seeing them.