The colors of the past

March 21, 2019 7:30 AM

Before the camera, we recorded the world in watercolors. These paintings are too fragile to exhibit, not prestigious enough to be remarked upon. Some were painted by famous artists -- most by military draftsmen, scientists on expeditions, women all over the world. They provide an astonishing visual link to our past. Watercolour World is digitizing the world's documentary watercolors.

In color:

The Temple of Bacchus, Baalbec, Lebanon, 1839
A bullring in Spain, 1891
A street in Sacramento, 1851
Yokohama, 1870
Fort Laramie, 19th century
Fatehpur Sikri, 1837
The Bolshoi Theatre, 1873
Mount Erebus, Antarctica, 1841

posted by Hypatia (9 comments total)

I love the idea of digitizing stuff that isn't necessarily great art, simply because it is a record of the day.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:28 AM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

I love these. It's so interesting to see the past as closely as possible to how someone actually saw it, subjectively, through their own eyes, rather than mediated by the "objective" filter of a camera lens.

Also, these are genuinely good paintings on their own merits. I guess I was expecting something more naive, but these painters are clearly trained and skilled.
posted by rue72 at 8:43 AM on March 21, 2019

Also, hot damn, I just realized that I could search for pictures of things in the times in which I set my stories and get so much period detail.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:53 AM on March 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

I guess I was expecting something more naive, but these painters are clearly trained and skilled.

But drawing training used to be a part of so many curricula. Cadets at West Point and VMI were taught to draw -- here is a structural engineering assignment. Medical students were expected to draw during dissections, to show they had seen the anatomy, understood it, fixed it in their minds. Women were taught to draw as an "accomplishment" but really, the "family snapshots" of the day were often recorded by an aunt or sister.
posted by Hypatia at 8:55 AM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

What a grand realization! Mt. Erebus, Antarctica well done.
posted by Oyéah at 9:38 AM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite 20th century American artists was primarily a watercolorist: John Marin
posted by jim in austin at 1:13 PM on March 21, 2019

Fantastic. Thank you Hypatia.
posted by unliteral at 6:34 PM on March 21, 2019

Several years ago, while traveling in Vietnam I was able to take a special tour that included a trip to their National Museum of Art in Ho Chi Minh City. And they have a small collection of ink and watercolors depicting North Vietnamese soldiers.

We think of that war so much in terms of the TV images and photos, so I found incredible to see this other side of the war and this other form of representation.
posted by brookeb at 1:56 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is so great, thank you for posting it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:44 PM on March 26, 2019