Paul Oppé (1878-1957) started collecting English watercolours in 1904. At the time of his death his collection had expanded to include drawings, oil sketches and prints by many major and lesser known British artists. Consisting of more than three thousand works covering the period from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth, it was one of the most significant collections of British art in private hands and it formed the basis of much of Oppé's pioneering scholarship into the subject. The Collection was acquired by Tate in 1996 with the assistance of the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. The National Art Collections Fund also contributed to the acquisition by purchasing two works for Tate. The greatest strength of the Collection lies in the eighteenth century and it includes watercolours by Alexander and John Robert Cozens, John Downman and Francis Towne and oils by Thomas Jones. From the nineteenth century there are works by John Constable, J S Cotman, George Richmond, J M W Turner and J W Inchbold.