238 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



Water-colour painting, in the sense of the 

 use of pigments mixed, not with oil, but with 

 water strengthened with some glutinous sub- 

 stance, is, of course, older than oil-painting. 

 But in the eighteenth century certain English 

 artists began to mix their pigments with water 

 only, and this, not for sketches and studies 

 only, but for finished pictures. This new form 

 of art began with such men as Thomas Sandby, 

 who was born in 1721, and Paul Sandby, his 

 brother, born in 1725. John Robert Cozens, 

 born in 1752, showed great skill in the render- 

 ing of atmosphere, and his work was greatly 

 admired by Constable, who declared him to be 

 the greatest genius who had ever touched 

 landscape. In the early stages of the art, colour 

 was obtained by slightly tinting drawings already 

 carried towards completion in pen-outline and 

 washes in neutral tint. Thomas Girtin and 

 Turner, who were born in the same year, carried 

 the art further by painting at once in full, true 

 colour. 



The importance of this art for our immediate 

 purpose is that much of Turner's most im- 

 portant work was done in water-colour ; in 

 which medium also, so easily employable in 



