In the 19th century, the influence of English examples helped popularize transparent watercolor in France, and it became an important medium for Eugène Delacroix, François Marius Granet, Henri-Joseph Harpignies and the satirist Honoré Daumier.
Med pomembnimi zgodnjimi slikarji akvarelov so bili Van Dyck (med njegovim bivanjem v Angliji), Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione in veliko nizozemskih in flamskih umetnikov.