It was all started by a man named John Sell Cotman.  Growing up in England Cotman was known as a watercolor painter as well as an etcher.  He started his own art school in Norwich in 1806.  Later on, in 1810 he began to expand upon etching and produced many famous works of both English and French antiquities.  For the last nine years of his life Cotman was known as the drawing master at King's College in London.  Although his work did not get much appraisal or credit at its time, it is now highly prized for its fine color, decorative and structural qualities and sustained poetic mood.  His most famous watercolors, such as the Greta Bridge can be found in the British Museum along with many well known drawings.