The Oppe collection is a group of watercolours, drawings, oil sketches and prints which were acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1996. The collection of around 3000 works dating from 1600 to the 1850s was assembled by the scholar and collector Paul Oppe during the first half of this century and was one of the most significant collections of British art to have remained in private hands. Amongst the finest works in the collection are a group of late 18th-century landscape views of Italy and Switzerland produced in the era of Grand Tour by Richard Wilson, Francis Towne, J.R. Cozens and William Pars - leading artists of the "Golden Age" of British watercolours from 1750 to 1850. This text accompanies an exhibition of 100 of the finest works from the collection which will open in August 1997 at the Tate Gallery, London and will then tour four centres in the UK. With each work catalogued and illustrated, this title acts both as a brief survey of the period as well as a celebration of the breadth of Paul Oppe's achievement.
