Vernet, eulogized by Diderot for being so “conversant ... with natural phenomena” was reported to have a
“fruitful imagination, aided by close study of nature,” which helped the viewer to “see nature better.” The
idea of imaginative transformation was considered central to this process, Vernet being considered to
have “better things to do than rigorously transcribe...” (Diderot, 1995b, 88–89).
Marine paintings featured heavily in the 1784 exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. These
paintings, some of which featured naval battles, helped to establish a new sense of British national
identity in a context of international wars and rapidly expanding colonialism (Hughes, 2007). Marine
paintings conflated the traditions of landscape and (depending on the type of actions depicted) history or
genre scenes. Geoff Quilley has explored in depth the ways in which maritime paintings constructed a
national British identity through frequent reference to the imperialism that, from the second half of the
eighteenth century, increasingly defined it (Quilley, 2011). The iconography of sea voyages reinforced
ideas of a national community of loyalty and entrepreneurism.
The medium in which landscapes were painted could affect their status. Watercolor painting was
associated in the early part of the century with a genteel refinement typical of the amateur (often female)
artist or with the artisanal practice of “coloring in” maps, drawings, prints, topographical or architectural
sketches, or book illustrations (Smith, 2001, 190). From the 1760s onwards, the medium acquired greater
public exposure through exhibitions. Watercolor artists such as John Robert Cozens (1752–1797) aimed
to create some of the aesthetic effects of high art and influenced latecentury works by Thomas Girtin
(1775–1802), whose progress in the medium was taken further at the beginning of the nineteenth century
by Turner. Turner’s largerscale watercolors emulated the drama of grand landscape or history paintings
in oils. In the later eighteenth century, however, the status of watercolor still lay in the balance. In the
1770s, watercolor paintings were still regarded principally as colored drawings, and the Royal Academy
in London declared in 1772 that those who produced only drawings could not be accepted as Associates
of the Academy, although this prohibition did not extend to miniatures or works in pastel or gouache, the
latter being a heavier, more opaque medium than watercolor and therefore closer to oils. Largescale
works in gouache or body color, in which Chinese white was added to watercolor in order to make it
opaque rather than transparent, were completed by artists such as Paul Sandby and were parallel in status
to oils, although the fashion toward the end of the century swung toward more transparent watercolor
effects. It was in the following century that the formation of specialist watercolor societies and the impact
of Turner helped to secure greater public knowledge and critical acclaim for the medium. In the eighteenth
century, watercolor painting enjoyed popularity mainly in the private domain, particularly in the vogue for
sketching and painting landscapes as a tourist activity.
Imaginative representations of landscape achieved primary importance in the vogue for the picturesque
and the sublime evident in Britain in the 1780s and 1790s. This arose as part of the growing attraction for
viewing, sketching and painting (often in watercolor) native landscapes, including those that had
previously been considered too wild and barbarous for genteel travelers (Walsh and Wilkinson, 2004,
12). Highquality views were often bound as albums of prints, or guides. At this time Revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars made travel further afield too risky for many, but domestic landscapes featured
increasingly on tour itineraries. “Picturesque” (from the French pittoresque derived from the Italian
pittoresco) meant “like a picture” (Andrews, 1989, vii). The term had been in regular use from the
seventeenth century and applied to a range of artistic genres. In the eighteenth century it acquired a
particular significance in the domains of landscape art, poetics and aesthetic theory. Originally applied to
scenes viewed in nature, use of the term “picturesque” became extended to pictorial representations of
these and suggested use of a very specific visual vocabulary that (in the manner of Claude) transformed an
observed view into a carefully framed and organized composition. As an aesthetic, the picturesque was
explored and explained (with varying degrees of success) by writers such as Thomas West (1720–1779)