Aquarelle — Wikipédia

L’ watercolor is a water paint on paper. The same word is used for matter and for the painted work.

In French, we distinguish watercolor, transparent, gouache, identical, but opaque composition. The binder which fixes the pigments to the fibers of the support is almost always based on gum arabic.

We rarely talk about table for a work painted in watercolor ^{[ first ]} . When watercolor brings color to an image produced according to other techniques, it is called as the case may be drawing, engraving, lithography watercolor or with watercolor enhancements ^{[ 2 ]} . The appreciation of a work as watercolor drawing , watercolor or gouache may vary from one person to another.

The low size of the equipment and the possibility of a rapid technical execution often uses it for pochades, studies, projects, and outdoors. For the same reasons the watercolor is used for teaching and the amateur practice of the plastic arts.

Composition [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The colors of watercolor or gouache consist of pigments, a soluble binder in water and additives intended to facilitate application and conservation.

Pigments

The pigments are generally the same as those used for other pictorial techniques, although the refractive index of certain pigments as the Smalt make them unfit for dispersion in oil, while they can without inconvenience are used in Water processes ^{[ 3 ]} . On the contrary, the acidity of the binder excludes certain pigments, which could turn or become soluble in water (prv _first ). Watercolor is distinguished from gouache by its transparency. This property is related to the size of the pigment particles and their refraction index (MCEVOY). White is by definition opaque and can opacify any color. But even very opaque pigments such as English red (color index PR101), chrome yellow (Py34), Cæruleum blue (PB35), smoke black (PBK6) become transparent when they are very dispersed.

Binder

The binders are most of the time mixtures, mainly including polysaccharides, formerly the gum adragan, for a long time rather gum arabic (prv _first ). Candi sugar or honey is added to improve the fluidity of wet material, especially in tubes (mountain bike) watercolor, glycerin to give a mat (Béguin 1990). The binder remains soluble in water after drying, unlike the protein binder of China ink and similar used as Washer Watercolor.

Additives

The beef gall, a wetting agent, facilitates the dispersion of pigment particles in the binder and adhesion of colors on the support; Starch or dextrin make the dough more handy; Conservative and fungicide agents avoid mold.

Conservation [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Watercolor is by nature fragile. The pigments, only glued to the support, are in contact with the air. Their fine granulometry harms their light solidity; The soluble binder makes cleaning impossible; Paper yellows and suffers from insect attacks and mushrooms (PRV _first ).

Watercolors can only be exposed under suitable conditions, low light and protection by windows.

Conditioning [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The watercolor colors are presented in two packaging: dry -colored buckets, pastry tubes.

The composition of watercolor in bucket and tube is almost the same. The tube watercolor can have more honey so that the product remains plastic longer (mountain bike). It is possible to fill the cups emptied with tubes, less expensive; The dough will harden while drying. It is however recommended to proceed in several layers ^{[ Ref. desired]} . If the painting of a tube has dried, you can cut the envelope and use the contents like watercolor in buckets ^{[ 4 ]} .

The tubes contain from 5 to 40 cm ³ . The buckets measure approximately 19 × 30 × 10 mm and contain about 5 g paint ; The half-goats are half lower with 19 × 15 × 10 mm . This uniform size makes it possible to place the products of all manufacturers in the alveoli.

Colors are often sold in several qualities, “study”, “fine”, “extra-fine”; They differ mainly by the quantity of pigment per unit of volume (MCEVOY).

Watercolor ink and “watercollables” [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

We often add, in the trade, the word watercolor to products intended for drawing and painting, leaving an soluble trace in water even if their composition differs from that described previously. The artists who use them, especially in comics or illustration, naturally talk about watercolor for their technique ^{[ 5 ]} .

Aquarel inks are water-soluble dyes, generally not very solid to light and whose rendering depends, even more than that of watercolor, paper used ^{[ 6 ]} . Unlike watercolor, water inks extend without forming halos ^{[ 7 ]} .

The watercolor pencil (or watercolor pencil) is a color pencil, it allows you to draw details precisely ^{[ 8 ]} . The pencils, chalks, pastels and “watercolor” felts most often have a different composition from that of watercolor colors.

Coloring [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The “watercolor” has served historically and still serves a lot for monochrome impressive coloring work. The term watercolor Here means “transparent water painting”, without necessarily composition of the watercolor of painters. The ink of monochrome, fatty printing, rejects water, which facilitates compliance with contours and ensures that black lines will remain visible. The dry work relatively quickly, especially since it is painted with little water to avoid deformations of the paper. But the optimal qualities of painting are not the same as for painters. In this serial work, a dissolved dye, rather than a pigment, facilitates the regularity of the shades in the flats and between the copies, and avoids halos. An indelible color is preferable for the conservation of the structure; It is obtained with a protein binder, rather than glucidic like gum arabic. Solidity in light is less important when the applied paint remains sheltered in closed books.

At XIX ^{It is} A century, publishers offered color editions of lithographs, made by brush colors on a half-tone impression little contrasting. The same process was used in cartography and for the coloring of photographs.

At XX ^{It is} century, comics colorists have used similar methods ^{[ Ref. desired]} . The outline was then previously traced in indelible ink with a pen or with a brush. For these applications where we want to obtain very homogeneous flattens, we prepare dilutions in advance, to use them as inks ^{[ 9 ]} .

The “watercolor” has served and still serves a lot for colorful notations in the drawing in particular of fashion, botany, zoology, architecture ^{[ ten ]} And, like gouache, for coloring books. Before reprography techniques favor black ink and hatching, technical drawing used conventional colors, placed in watercolor
(Béguin 1995).

According to André Béguin, in this work, watercolor is distinguished from the wash in that it does not use only flat shades ^{[ 11 ]} .

Paint [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In painting, we generally consider today that “The term actually defines a technique, the wash, more than a material ^{[ twelfth ]} » . Watercolor work is done on blank paper, with at most a slightly drawn place in pencil. This does not exclude that artists can lift sketches colored on the pattern, before executing the watercolor proper on virgin paper.

Part of the artists and amateurs considers that the qualification of “watercolor” only deserves that a work carried out exclusively with transparent mate colors, without impastors, without trace of pencil, black or opaque colors, nor other paintings which no longer dilute once dry. Any transgression of this principle makes them classify the work as technique Mixte , while the expression “pure watercolor” indicates its respect ^{[ 13 ]} .

When with a line of brush, the watercolor is placed on the support, the pigments are first in suspension in the aqueous medium. They then gradually deposit in the hollow of the roughness of paper as well as sediments driven by a flood river. As long as the paper remains damp, pigments still float in the liquid. It is always possible to intervene if we do not disturb the layer of pigments already deposited ^{[ 14 ]} .

When the paper is dry, the transparency of the watercolor is essential. It results from the thickness of the pigment strata on paper. Few pigments on ridges and more in the hollows. It is this gradient that creates this special “vibration”.

Its simplicity is only apparent. The difficulties, real, should not, however, discourage the novice which, if it has assimilated these technical specificities, will take advantage of it to produce quality work.

The maximum of light intensity corresponds to the white of the paper. The most skillful technicians know how to spare in their painting these natural light bursts in the most opportune places. Artifices also make it possible to preserve the bottom of the support: paraffin (candle), which definitively prevents colored water from wet the paper, or gum to hide ( (in) drawing gum ), which temporarily protects it.

We usually describe two techniques that can be associated in the same job.

• The dry technique is the oldest. Its principle is to gently spread the very diluted paint on the support so as to reveal the color of the bottom. Once the first tones have been installed and after full drying we are interested in the increasingly precise details elements using less diluted colors and taking care to go from the clearest tones to the darkest. The work progresses with successive layers and ends with some darker enhancements which give the work of presence and character. A deep color is obtained using erased water to give the pigment layer a certain thickness.

• The technique in the wet requires the prior humidification of the support. It allows the artist to obtain surfaces with very intense colors, to merge colors and to make paint withdrawn without damaging the support. There are many effects: melted, degraded, shades, etc. His learning is long because it requires good control of the water cycle on paper. It is indeed the degree of humidity of the paper which dictates to the painter the most appropriate moment to intervene ^{[ 15 ]} .

In any case, the color of the watercolor tarnishes quite significantly in drying ^{[ 16 ]} . The disappearance of the water changes the journey of the light rays, and the colors lose their radiance. The artist takes it into account. A phenomenon of the same order can occur if, finished work, a fixative or protective varnish is applied (PRV _first ).

Paper [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Although watercolor canvases have been sold for a few years ^{[ 17 ]} , paper is the usual support for watercolor. He must be able to withstand strong humidity ^{[ 18 ]} . It is little glued, especially on the surface. It must be permeable, in order to withstand washing and removal ^{[ 19 ]} . If it is not glued, you have to pass the colors quickly, and each touch is final.

Any paper can be used, depending on the artist’s project. Wet techniques require certain qualities of the paper. Depending on that we want to be able to lighten colors, or that on the contrary they superimpose without mixing, we ask for different qualities to the support.

Watercolor paper is generally:

• White, cream or ivory that is reflected under color;
• Thick (200 g/m ² minimum) to avoid swarming;
• Granulous (satin, thin or rough): the grain, visible under color, influences the deposit of the pigments and therefore the rendering of the pattern.

The papers differ in their grain and their ability to retain pigments. The more paper fixes the pigments, the more successive layers can be applied without disturbing those already placed; But you can less remove the color by wet, then pumping with a wrung brush ^{[ 20 ]} .

Moidified paper tends to lie down. In contact with the water which carries the pigments of the watercolor, the paper can hide, forming hollow in which the color accumulates. To limit this drawback, the manufacturers of paint equipment offer blocks of paper where the leaves are glued to each other on their four edges, allowing to keep a certain planeïtite. The artist detaches the block of the block once the work is finished.

In the technique on damp paper, the tension of the paper is essential. It does not harm the technique on dry paper, and avoids hassle. We used to use a sirator , device intended to maintain paper in a state of humidity and tension ^{[ 21 ]} .

To stretch the paper, it is moistened on both sides using a sponge or a moor brush, then fixes it on a rigid board using gums of gummé. Once dry, the paper can be (re) wet without risking gondolating. The board must be very rigid, because the paper exerts great strength by drying. You can also soak the paper in the water or wet it deeply with a shower, before stirring the damp paper on a chassis. Some painters, like Oga Kazuo ^{[ 22 ]} , decorator of cartoons from the Ghibli studio, extend their leaf abundantly wet on varnished wood, while others use a plexiglass plate. If the water does not evaporate through the underside, it retains residual humidity for longer, which has repercussions on the dynamics of water and colors ^{[ 23 ]} .

Paint brushes [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Watercolor is usually practiced using a brush with good water retention power (soaking).

The hair of Petit-Gris (from the squirrel of the same name), whose capillarity remains insurted, is the most suitable. The shape of the wetting brush is perfect for wash and bottoms, because its belly (or tank) makes it possible to contain a large amount of liquid ^{[ 24 ]} .

The marten’s hair, flexible and nervous, is appreciated for its caliber and the finesse of its tip. The best quality is the variety of Marte Kolinsky, in reality Vishm of Siberia.

The brushes in flexible synthetic fibers, less absorbent but of good elasticity, are useful for placing the bottom and opening the whites.

Flat brushes are used to wet or paint large areas.

Chinese or Japanese brushes, which can combine two kinds of hairs, are suitable for watercolor. They stand in a vertical position for calligraphy, but Chinese paint uses all possibilities ^{[ 25 ]} .

The water reserve brushes can be used alone for quick colored sketches, or in addition to conventional brushes and buckets. Unlike traditional brush, which releases the water still pigmented as long as there are, the water flow from the reserve dilutes watercolor caught in the bucket as we pass the brush on paper . Only a dry brush can remove, by pumping it, an excess of damp paint, a water brush can only wash the pigment, pushing it a little further.

Other tools [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Other tools are essential, such as water buckets and rags to clean the brushes; Others can be useful for watercolor such as bucket pallets to prepare mixtures, sponges, cotton balls, toothbrush for colored projections, blade or feather for scrapers, eraser to protect reserves ^{[ 26 ]} .

Watercolor stands out from other water paint techniques in XVIII ^{It is} century. The term, of Italian origin (Béguin 1990) is attested in the middle of the century ^{[ 27 ]} and Watelet gives the first definition in French in 1791. It is a “Wan drawing (…) a kind of illumination. Colors must have transparency ^{[ 28 ]} » . As Diderot indicates in the Encyclopedia , it is then a drawing process that uses transparent washs, as opposed to gouache paintings ^{[ 29 ]} .

Water paint before watercolor [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Since the III ^{It is} A century, the Chinese painted on silk with China ink, based on crushed pigments in an animal glue soluble in water. The painting of Chinese scholars and the Japanese Sumi-e paint are made in techniques related to the wash on a dry background. By the transparency of colors and the role of light funds, a good part of Chinese and Far East painting can be assimilated to watercolor (Béguin 1990).

Water techniques dominated painting in Europe to the invention of oil painting and its diffusion) from the XIV ^{It is} century. Middle Ages illuminated manuscripts include “colored drawings” with pigments obtained by grinding vegetable and mineral materials. These washs adorning the pages of medieval texts present themselves as the ancestors of modern watercolor ^{[ thirty first ]} .

At the same time, paper spread; It allows drawing and wash, giving quickly transportable works. The artists add colors to their drawings gradually from the XV ^{It is} century. Chiro-electrical books ^{[ 33 ]} broadcast the colored print in water paint ^{[ thirty first ]} . We can already talk about watercolor about certain studies by Dürer or Raphaël (Béguin 1990).

At XVII ^{It is} century, water painting, especially adapted to small formats, is designated under the name of miniature : “She is more delicate. She wants to be looked at closely. It can only be easily done in small. We only work on vellum, or tablets. And the colors are only soggy with erased water ^{[ 34 ]} » . This painting is gouache or watercolor, depending on how the artist was preparing his colors (Béguin 1990).

Particularly adapted to precise ratings, Holbein uses it in XVI ^{It is} A century to make portraits in miniatures, and Gaston of Orleans joined it with its naturalistic boards.

Oil painting, larger and more durable, keeps the preference of paint sponsors. The painters reserve water painting for preparatory studies and certain personal work. Flemish flowers and landscapers (Hendrick Angercamp, Albert Cuyp, Jan Van Goyen, Adriaen Van Ostade) sometimes thus reflect their careful observation of nature. Rubens and Jordaens sometimes punctuate their drawings. Jean Honoré Fragonard, Hubert Robert or Louis Durameau use it for studies, especially during travel to Italy. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, use it in their genre scenes). Louis-Gabriel Moreau, uses it in its outdoor landscapes, stressing them with a feather.

In England, Anton Van Dyck painted at the start of XVII ^{It is} century of pure watercolor landscapes; But he will not be emulated before the middle of the following century ^{[ 35 ]} .

Water paint is mainly used for the coloring of botany and zoology plates like those of Buffon works.

English invention of watercolor [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

Watercolor, as we understand this term today, is born at the end of XVIII ^{It is} century in England and developed at XIX ^{It is} century ^{[ 36 ]} .

In 1766, William Reeves launched the first commercial watercolor manufacturing in England ^{[ 37 ]} . Both the production of colors with water and their artistic use develops in England. It was at this time that manufacturers began to select transparent pigments that characterize watercolor, opaque pigments, which are distinguished by a refraction index and a high diffusion rate intended for gouache (prv _first ).

In the last quarter of XVIII ^{It is} century a movement of interest in landscape painting developed in England. In 1777, Richard Earlom serious at the aquatint Free Truth by Claude Le Lorrain. In 1785 Alexander Cozens published a New method to assist invention in drawing original compositions of landscapes ^{[ 38 ]} , built on the observation of spots on paper, and which constitutes a theory of wash, whether it is ink or watercolor ^{[ 39 ]} . Wealthy amateurs who go around Italy then use paint with water on drawing with lead and pen. John Robert Cozens, son of Alexander, develops a style of watercolor in which the drawing, a preliminary step of the composition, does not appear in the work. Thomas Girtin defines the first watercolor by the transparency of the painting on the support, magnified by the use of a grain paper whose white, reserved, gives alone the high lights, and the rival laying of the painting to oil, while abandoning conventional subjects drawn from antiquity to take an interest in the effects of the landscape of your country ^{[ 40 ]} .

Landscape painting feeds on the practice of watercolor, “[…] Their work [of Turner and of Constable] could not have flourished as she did without the very diverse research of the watercolors who influenced them, such as J.R. Cozens, T. Girtin, J.S. Cotman and many others ^{[ 41 ]} . »

The Royal Watercolour Society , founded in 1804 in London, brings together the artists supported by this new aesthetic: refusal of any feather or pencil line, all white and all opacity, interest in the rendering of light. Watercolor, tolerant badly retouching and repentant, is thus a demonstration of virtuosity, at a time when the Royal Academy does not recognize landscape painting or watercolors as real works. The institutionalization of watercolor promotes the spirit of system, and the war in Europe interrupts travel and contact with the continent for twenty years.

Samuel Palmer, Bonington, Turner are the most influential watercolors. Their production, however, is freed from the principles of “pure watercolor”. They do not disdain an accent of gouache, scratches, the masking of wax reserves. Cotman makes trivial landscapes monumental by choosing the point of view with a watercolor without gouache or technical artifices; Copley Fielding, prolific watercolorist, becomes president of the Royal Watercolour Society and will form a watercolor John Ruskin whose influence will transform the retrospective look at British art ^{[ 42 ]} . Ruskin promotes pre -raphaélism whose use of color is a return to illumination, he discredits John Constable, aquarelist late, and criticism with virulence the American Whistler, who both practice a careful painting to light effects, like the first English watercolors.

1815-1914 [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The end of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars will provoke a revival of travel, an interest in the landscapes of distant or neighboring countries, and allow contact between English and French artists. THE Picturesque trips Multiply, works illustrated by lithography, which is then a new printing technique. Originals are often wash or watercolors, inspired by the English example and the theory of the picturesque, also British, by William Gilpin; Bonington works at the first volume of Picturesque and romantic trips to ancient France From Taylor, like Géricault and Eugène Isabey who also practice watercolor. Many artists use watercolor traveling for their landscape sketches and for projects, such as Eugène Delacroix, or for work intended for reproduction, which do not need to be sustainable. English watercolor, drawn with a brush and reserving whites on paper, remains rare ^{[ 43 ]} .

In 1830, Roret published the first Watercolor manual ^{[ 44 ]} , which the glossary defines as “Improved wash, modern word ^{[ 45 ]} » : Plot in pencil, always light on the light side, then work of the color with a brush.

A section of English watercolors at the 1855 universal exhibition in Paris was a considerable success ^{[ forty six ]} . The following year, an author claims that watercolor “Has reached such a willingness of perfection (…) as understood by English artists and ours” what “Now she has become the rival of oil painting ^{[ 47 ]} » . A good number of watercolor treaties are published. They recognize English superiority in watercolor, and offer it as an amateur activity, ladies in particular ^{[ 48 ]} . In 1863, Charles Baudelaire published in the pages of Figaro his praise of the Aquarelist Constantin Guys, described as ” Modern life painter ».

Landscape watercolor, painted quickly on the motive, however, does not hunt older uses. The watercolor sometimes proves the virtuosity of the artist, in very elaborate and detailed workshop works, often based on linear drawing. It continues to be used for study and projects, to put in colors engravings, drawings and lithographs, scientists or decorative ^{[ 49 ]} . Watercolor was, at that time, an art of pleasure, a bourgeois hobby. Impressionists use little, preferring to transpose the aesthetics of English watercolor, which influenced Boudin or Jongkind, in oil paint ^{[ 50 ]} .

In April 1879, held the Durand-Ruel (Paris) gallery, the first exhibition of the French watercolor company ^{[ 51 ]} . As in Great Britain, the definition Watercolor is subject to discussion. “According to some, watercolor has only very limited resources, and it lives only from subterfuges and compromises. According to others, on the contrary, it makes it possible to carry out certain impossible work with other processes. Following others, finally watercolor is an autonomous art, which has its own rules and which lives on special resources ” , writes Jules Adeline ^{[ 52 ]} . His practice surrounds himself with controversies, between those who only admit watercolor pure , transparent colors posed directly “A bold and without touch -up brush” , and those who make up paintings with watercolor with watercolor “Patient fonduses ^{[ 53 ]} » . “Some only admit first jet watercolor, others only admit extremely worked watercolor ^{[ 54 ]} » .

Species modern ( XX ^{It is} century) [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

While in the United Kingdom, watercolor societies, agitated by the same divisions, maintain the heritage of the great founders against the criticisms of symbolists and modern, in France Paul Signac applies the principles of divisionism in watercolor. In Austria Rudolf von alt opens the way to the expressionist current with water painting ^{[ 55 ]} .

The studies of dancers by Auguste Rodin and the nudes of Georges Rouault show the freedom that can be achieved with watercolor. This is also evidenced by the works of Emil Nolde, August Macke, Paul Klee. Vassily Kandinsky’s first abstract work is, according to a disputed anecdote, an watercolor ^{[ 56 ]} . Egon Schiele made himself famous by the expressionism of his water watercolors ^{[ 57 ]} .

Contemporary art [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

In the 1960s, Raoul Dufy, Jean Bazaine, Maurice Estève, Zao Wou-Ki renewed the technique. Ten years later Pierre Risch developed a watercolor technique on very large format paper, completely wet in sponge and preserve the white of the paper with an adhesive gum intended for screen printing, the drawing gum , in order to avoid raises with white gouache.

Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

: document used as a source for writing this article.

• André Béguin , “Watercolor” , In Technical Dictionary of Painting , 1990 , p. 54-59.
• André Béguin , Technical Dictionary of Drawing , 2, 1995.
• Ségolène Bergeon-Langle and stone Curie , Painting and drawing, typological and technical vocabulary , Paris, Editions du Patrimoine, 2009 , p. 786-787
• Armand Cassagne, Watercolor treaty , Paris, Ch Fouraut et fils, 1875 (BNF  30202877 , read online )
• Jacques Edge « Color and landscape in English romantic painting », Romanticism , vol. 15, n ^O 49, 1985 , p. 95–107 (ISSN  0048-8593 , DOI  10.3406/roman.1985.4734 , read online , consulted the April 15, 2022 )
• Michael Clarke ( trad. of English by Patrice Bachelard and Pascal Bonafoux), Watercolor: color and transparency [« Waterclor »], Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Passion of arts”, 1994 , 63 p. (ISBN  978-2-07-058131-3 , BNF  35700718 )
• Jean Leymarie , Watercolor , Genève skir, 1995 ( first ^re ed. 1984)
• José de The plains , Watercolor. From Dürer to Kandinsky , Paris, Hazan, 2004 .
• Jean Louis Morelle , Watercolor: creative water , Fleurus, two thousand and thirteen ( first ^re ed. 1999) .
• Jean Little , Jacques ROIRE and Henri Lights , “Watercolor” , In Painting encyclopedia: formulate, manufacture, apply , t. 1, puteaux, erec, 1999 , p. 248-251
• Marie-Pierre Dirty , Watercolor , Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2020 , 415 p. (ISBN  2850888311 )

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