History

One early form of watercolor painting, that is not normally included in the category, is buon fresco painting — wall-painting using pigments in a water medium on wet plaster, which goes back to Egyptian and Roman antiquity. One well-known example of buon fresco is the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, begun in 1508 and completed in 1514.
Watercolor painting, usually referred to as brush painting in East Asian contexts, has a long history in many parts of the world. In Chinese and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or brown, when it tends to be called ink. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions.
Watercolor has also been used for manuscript illumination since at least Egyptian times, and was a major part of European manuscript painting on vellum (often mixed with tempera). Paper spread from the Islamic world, via Islamic Spain, to Europe, where it was being manufactured in Germany and Italy before 1400. From the introduction of the old master print around 1400, most prints were colored after printing until at least the latter part of the century, although the practice continued in some cases, such as English satirical prints, until the nineteenth century (JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin were both employed at this as teenagers).
Watercolor painting was also used in cartoons and large paintings. In Germany, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) painted watercolors, including the earliest pure landscape studies. An important school of watercolor painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol (1534-1593) as part of the Dürer Renaissance.
JMW Turner, Alpine Scene, 1802, Tate Britain.Other famous artists have used watercolor painting, including Van Dyck, Claude, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and many Dutch and Flemish artists, including several who worked in Britain, and originated the British school.
From the seventeenth century to the present, the British school of watercolor, which especially features landscape subjects, has been perhaps the most continuous and widely followed tradition in Europe. Among the most famous of the artists are: Alexander Cozens, William Gilpin, Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Towne, Paul Sandby, Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, Samuel Palmer, William Blake, John Constable, JMW Turner, and Richard Parkes Bonnington.School BrushArtist BrushFine Art Supplies
The beginnings of the "California Style" of watercolor painting began in the 1920s and is described in California Watercolors 1850-1970. Milford Zornes is recognized as a leader in the California Style watercolor movement. His style differed from the traditional use of watercolors in which color was added to detailed pencil drawings. His work is characterized by the application of transparent washes of color to large sheets of paper, allowing the white to show through and define shapes.