The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), initially called the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, (and not to be confused with the Royal Watercolour Society), is one of the societies in the Federation of British Artists, based in the Mall Galleries in London.
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In 1831 the society was founded as the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, competing with the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS), which had been founded in 1804. The founding members were W. Cowen, James Fudge, Thomas Maisey (treasurer), O. F. Phillips, J. Powell (president), W. B. S. Taylor, and Thomas Charles Wageman. The New Society differed from the RWS in policy, by exhibiting non-members' work also. Both societies challenged the Royal Academy's refusal to accept the medium of watercolours as appropriate for serious art.
In 1863 there was a name change to the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. In 1883 it acquired its own premises at Piccadilly. In 1885 it added "Royal" to its title by command of Queen Victoria. When the lease to the Piccadilly premises ran out in 1970, it moved to the Mall Galleries, near to Trafalgar Square.
The current officers (2010) are:
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