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DIPLOMA COLLECTIONS
Both the RWS and the RE possess collections of works by their own Members known as Diploma Collections: a watercolour drawing or a print is given by newly elected Members to the respective Societies in exchange for his or her diploma, and hence an individual picture is known as a Diploma work. Both Collections continue to grow. Individual items are regularly exhibited either by the Societies themselves or in loan exhibitions in the UK and abroad.
1.THE ROYAL WATERCOLOUR SOCIETY
(a) The RWS ARCHIVE has an almost complete sequence of documents relating to its organisation from its beginnings in 1804 and its first exhibition the following year to the present day including minute books correspondence, catalogues and sale registers. Of particular importance are the Jenkins Papers, a collection of letters and papers brought together by Joseph Jenkins, the Secretary to the Society from 1854 to 1864, with files on more than one hundred 19th century artists with significant material relating to Members such as Samuel Palmer, William Henry Hunt and David Cox. The SocietyÃ's photographic collection dates back to the 1850s and there are also press cuttings relating to artists and exhibitions from 1880 onwards. Other items include exhibition medals awarded to Sir John Gilbert (President 1871 - 1897), a sketchbook of botanical drawings by Alfred Parsons (President 1913 - 1920), illustrated correspondence of Muriel Eldridge, and an extensive collection of the papers, photographs and sketches of Elizabeth Scott-Moore.
(b) THE RWS DIPLOMA COLLECTION began following a suggestion in 1860 by its then Treasurer, William Collingwood Smith, that Members should present a drawing to the Society within six months of election. This has grown into a major collection of watercolours reflecting a particular RWS tradition within this British art form. The Collection has been further enhanced over the years by gifts and bequests which now amount to about a third of its 630 works. Although the earliest picture in the Collection is a drawing by George Romney which pre-dates the foundation of the Society, the history and development of the RWS are richly represented. There are 19th century drawings by John Varley, David Cox, Peter De Wint, Samuel Palmer, Sir Edward Burne Jones and Sir Laurence Alma Tadema. The twentieth century is reflected in works by artists as diverse as John Singer Sargent, Henry Scott Tuke, Dame Laura Knight, Sir William Russell Flint, Edward Bawden, Edward Ardizzone and Stanley Roy Badmin as well as living artists like Leslie Worth and Ken Howard. Most of the Royal Watercolour SocietyÃ's works are held in the British Museum. Pictures can be seen on application either to the RWS or directly to the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. Photographs of RWS works are kept at Bankside Gallery and at the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute in London.
2. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTER PRINTMAKERS
(a) The earliest papers in the RE ARCHIVE are a correspondence of Seymour Haden starting in 1877 which explains much of the impetus behind the foundation of the Society in 1880. Series of minute books, catalogues and exhibition sale records are more or less complete from then onwards up to the present day. The SocietyÃ's archives also includes portfolios of work by three past Presidents, Seymour Haden, Frank Short and Robert Austin, a pen and ink drawing by James Tissot, letters to the engraver Thomas Lupton (1791 - 1873), letters and photographs of Malcolm Osborne PRE in service in Egypt and Palestine 1917 - 1918, and the the scientific papers of Sir Frank Short PRE amongst which is an account book of JMW TurnerÃ's engraver, WB Cooke.
(b) The RE DIPLOMA COLLECTION
The Collection began with the foundation of the Society in 1880 when it was known as the Society of Painter-Etchers. It now contains more than 800 works. Although devoted exclusively to works by the SocietyÃ's Members, the collection reflects the continuing international nature of its membership. It also reflects the development of the art of print-making with examples of Diploma works created using many different techniques: drypoint, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, intaglio, woodcut and screen print. Among many others, the Collection possesses significant examples of prints by Seymour Haden, Auguste Rodin, Walter Sickert, Dame Laura Knight, Graham Sutherland, Agnes Miller Parker, Stanley William Hayter and Anthony Gross. Living artists who are represented include Norman Ackroyd, Elizabeth Blackadder and Monica Poole.
The Royal Society of Painter-PrintmakerÃ's Diploma Collection is held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and prints can be inspected on application to the Department of Western Art. Some slides are available of works from the Collection at Bankside Gallery. | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | 48 Hopton Street London Great Britain (UK),
SE1 9JH | FAX: | 020 7928 2820 | Telephone: | 020 7928 7521 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:6023 | Go to resource |
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