This catalogue accompanies the first major exhibition of the distinguished collection of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British watercolours assembled by William and Mercie Spooner. Bequeathed to the Courtauld Institute in 1967, the collection includes outstanding works by John Constable, John Sell Cotman, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Girtin, Samuel Palmer, Thomas Rowlandson, Paul Sandby, Francis Towne, J. M. W. Turner and Peter De Wint, as well as numerous watercolours by lesser-known artists. Essays on William Spooner, the connoisseurship of watercolours and their production and literary associations serve to introduce this fully-illustrated catalogue.
