Such was the British mania for painting in watercolor in the early nineteenth century that everyone, it seems, was trying a hand at it. Shoals of drawing masters taught the rudiments to anyone who could hold a pencil or brush. The famous watercolorist John Varley once arrived late for the lesson of a noble pupil, having been waylaid by her footman for a little advice on "how to do skies." In 1805, more than 12,000 people attended the first exhibition of the Society of Painters in Watercolors, founded by a group of enterprising artists as an alternative to the Royal Academy, where their work always had been slighted.

The development of landscape painting in watercolor perhaps constitutes Britain's most influential contribution to Western art. Because its great flowering came during a period of social isolation caused by the Napoleonic wars, artists were relatively free from outside influences, relying instead on direct observation of nature to produce images of great subtlety and originality.

Yet from a collecting standpoint, British watercolors and drawings, until the last decade or so, have proved resistant to export; and despite their historical importance, many American art historians know little or nothing about them. Major public American collections devoted to them are few. The following, I hope, will prove a painless -- if scant -- introduction to a broad and fascinating subject.