The Artists

Over 60 artists produced work for carriage prints and many were members of institutes and societies such as the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (R.I.), the Royal Watercolour Society (R.W.S.), the Royal Academy (R.A.), Royal Institute of Oil Painters (R.O.I.), Royal Society of British Artists (R.B.A.), Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (R.S.W.) and so forth.

After many years of research, short biographies of most of the artists are available below.

Britain has been pre-eminent in its contribution of watercolour to the world's art and the list of the artists producing carriage print work for the railways appears a little like a Who's Who of prominent watercolour artists for the period, although a sprinkling of artwork in oils appeared too.

The R.W.S. was founded in 1804 as the Old Watercolour Society, with 10 members and the word Royal was added in 1881. Carriage panel artists William Lee-Hankey and Charles Knight both became vice presidents. The R.I. was established in 1831 as a breakaway group called the New Watercolour Society which became the Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1863, achieving Royal status in 1883. Rowland Hilder was a past president of the R.I. and has since achieved a world-wide reputation for his superb paintings. The late Ronald Maddox also held this position and Jack Merriott was a former R.I. vice president, and many of the artists were members.