Watercolour and landscape in early Canada.

This thesis in the form of an exhibition catalogue is an examination of the style and technique of watercolour artists working in Canada in the period from 1750 to 1850, a time when the land was being extensively explored and recorded by the British. The Introduction to the catalogue presents the wider context of the history and development of both watercolour technique and landscape painting in Britain. It describes the phenomenon of the artistic "amateur" and the philosophical and aesthetic theories that shaped his perceptions of the landscape. The catalogue features forty-four works in watercolour by seven different amateur artists. There is a brief biography of each artist with a focus on his stay in Canada. The catalogue entries give detailed analyses of the paintings, with particular emphasis on the artists' style, painting techniques, and the influences on them. These specific analyses show an evolution from the tinted drawing technique to a more painterly use of the medium, and from the rococo and neoclassical visions of the eighteenth century to the more direct, Romantic approach to painting the landscape that was characteristic of the nineteenth century. Attention is also paid to those occasions when the painters departed from the conventions of the period and responded visually in unique, personal ways to the Canadian landscape.