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| Lucas Cranach the Elder Two Dead Bohemian Waxwings ca. 1530 watercolor Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden |
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| Isaac Oliver Party in the open air - Allegory on conjugal love ca. 1590-95 miniature watercolor and gouache on vellum Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
Those winds which rend the oaks and plough the seas,
Great Jove can, if he please,
With one commanding nod appease.
Seek not to know to morrow's doom;
That is not ours, which is to come:
The present moment's all our store;
The next should Heaven allow,
Then this will be no more:
So all our life is but one instant now.
Look on each day you've past
To be a mighty treasure won;
And lay each moment out in haste;
We're sure to live too fast,
And cannot live too soon.
Youth doth a thousand pleasures bring,
Which from decrepit age will fly;
The flowers that flourish in the spring,
In winter's cold embraces die.
– from an Ode of Horace, translated by William Congreve (1670-1729)
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| Pietro de' Pietri St Clement giving the veil to St Flavia Domitilla ca. 1710-16 watercolor Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Anonymous Spanish Fan-maker Fan with painted theatrical scenes and mask 1740s watercolor on paper, ivory sticks Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Asmus Jakob Carstens Philoctetes aiming the bow of Hercules at Odysseus 1790 watercolor Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
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| Eduard Bendemann Gymnastic Games ca. 1838 watercolor Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Andrew Plimer Miniature portrait of a woman ca. 1785 watercolor on ivory Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Édouard Manet Boy carrying a tray 1860-61 watercolor and gouache Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Eugène Delacroix Royal Tiger before 1863 watercolor Morgan Library, New York |
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| Honoré Daumier The Amateurs ca. 1865-68 watercolor Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Eugène Boudin Beach Scene 1865 watercolor Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre |
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| Gustave Moreau Song of Songs 1893 watercolor Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan |
What then in life, which soon must end,
Can all our vain designs intend?
From shore to shore why should we run,
When none his tiresome self can shun?
– from an Ode of Horace, translated by Thomas Otway (1652-1685)
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| Egon Schiele Self-portrait with eyelid pulled down 1910 watercolor Albertina, Vienna |
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| Egon Schiele Nude self-portrait grimacing before 1918 watercolor Albertina, Vienna |