Prince Charles backs plan to preserve paintings that show the world before photography by putting watercolours online A charity is aiming to scan and digitise tens of thousands of 'unique' paintings Watercolours are vulnerable to fading in daylight and can be easily damaged Prince Charles been made a patron of the new The Watercolour World charity By Mary O'connor For The Daily Mail Published: 23:23 GMT, 31 January 2019 | Updated: 02:06 GMT, 1 February 2019 6 Viewcomments The Prince of Wales has backed plans to preserve rarely-seen watercolours that show the world before photography. A charity aims to scan and digitise tens of thousands of ‘unique and utterly irreplaceable’ paintings from a 150-year period and present them in a free online database. Unlike oil paintings, watercolours are vulnerable to fading in daylight and can also be damaged by changes in temperature and humidity, so many have to be kept locked away from public view. The Prince of Wales (pictured) has backed plans to preserve rarely-seen watercolours that show the world before photography Fred Hohler, chairman of new charity The Watercolour World, said the project will focus on paintings from 1750 to 1900. ‘If we lose these collections of watercolours we lose our vision of the whole period,’ he told The Daily Telegraph. The charity, launched yesterday, has keen watercolour artist Prince Charles and his wife Camilla as patrons. Museums, galleries and the public will be asked to suggest ‘inaccessible’ paintings to go into the database. Many of the works are expected to be from women artists who embraced the medium but got little recognition at the time. Mr Hohler said the project would provide ‘an extraordinary journey into the world in earlier times’ to observe how our predecessors ‘lived, loved and played’. Members of the public are being urged to count stars to help map England’s winter skies. The Campaign to Protect Rural England wants volunteers to record the number they can see with the naked eye in the constellation of Orion, which is visible only in the winter months. Prince Charles (pictured) is a patron of the new The Watercolour World charity Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility