Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

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Figure 4. Il1frared reftectogram from Lady jane Grey's skirt in The Execution of Lady Jane Grey.

block, but the scale of these various grids suggests that there is no single

system of squaring across the entire picture surface. The infrared images show

many changes in the underdrawing; lines drawn across Lady Jane's wrists

suggest that her dress was to be long-sleeved, as in the watercolor sketch (Fig.

4). At the drawing stage, Delaroche also indicated such fe atures as shadows

in drapery fo lds, as seen in the standing woman's dress.

In many unfinished French paintings of this period it can be seen that the

underdrawing has been strengthened with a translucent brownish wash, some­

times known as "sauce" (32, 33). In this case, no such material could be

detected with certainty in any of the cross sections examined, and only the

charcoal drawing was fo und; possibly a grayish wash, fo r example, was applied

in the shadows of fo lds.

Subsequently the figures and background were laid in using brownish or

grayish shades of paint, composed of lead white combined with a variety of

tinting pigments (Cassel earth, ochres, and other natural earth pigments, as

well as small quantities of cobalt blue, a red lake pigment and black). The

tonality of this underpaint bears some relation to the color of the paint that

was to be applied on top, thus the background and black garments are un­

derpainted in shades of gray, while the underpaint of the flesh varies from a

warm beige fo r the executioner to a grayish white fo r Lady Jane. The un­

derpaint also indicates light and shade, by varying the proportion of ochres,

black, and cobalt blue in the mixture, the color of the underpaint of Lady

Jane's dress is changed from a pale beige in areas of highlight to a dark brown

in the deepest shadow. Occasionally, the underpaint is similar in color to the

intended local color; fo r the cushion it is a translucent green consisting of

black, verdigris, Pruss ian blue, yellow ochre, and perhaps a yellow lake.

At this point the painting would have had an appearance not unlike a grisaille

version of the final composition, an element of Delaroche's practice men­

tioned by Delaborde (34). Infr ared reflectography has revealed many penti­

menti, however, bearing out comm.ents by students that Delaroche frequently

reworked passages during painting (35). The executioner appears originally

to have had a sash around his waist, fo r example, and the position of the pike

behind the balustrade and the angle of the banisters have been altered. The

underpaint fo r the executioner's tights is mauve-gray (composed of lead

Historical Painting Tech niques, Materials, and Studio Practice