Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

TabLe 1. Dates of manufacture of inorganic pigments introduced 17 75- 187 5, with the earliest
instance of their use found to date in oil paintings at the Tate Gallery.

Pigment Firat manufacture Earlieat dete Artlat Source

Prussian blue early18th c. by mid-18th c. varioos

Marred mid or later 18th c.? 1755 1760 Reynolds a

Mars yellow mid or later 16th c.? 1781 Reynolds a

Mars brown mid or later 18th c.? 1781 Reynolds

patent yellow published ca.1 ns 17811 Reynolds a

Scheele's green used published 1775 1778 ca. 16 06-1807 Turner a b

cobalt green made pub (^17) mid-19th (^80) c.? or 1825 not found yet a C
barium sulphate used 1782 1840s Turner d
Indian yellow mentioned 1766 1781 Reynolds a
Brunswick green "nawn in 1795 not found yet e
opaque oxide of chromium scld by Reid^1815 not found yet a
cobalt blue 1802 in France ca.1801>-1807 Turner f
chrome yellow 1814 1815 exh. 1814 Turner a
pale lemon chrome posl 1814 -1815? ca.1822 1823 Turner
chrome orange post 1814-18151 ca.1822 1823 Turner
emerald green disc. 1814 ca.1828 Turner I
synthetic ultramarine 1826-1827 c8.1851 Turner a
1857 Campbell j
ultramarine green prepared 1828, made 1854-6 not found yet 9
Chinese white^1834 in England^181852 35-1840 Turner Hunt a
viridian 1 830s in France exh.^1842 Turner f
cobalt yellow 1831 in Germany 18731 Whistler a
made 1851. 1860 Eng d
barium chromate French pat 18 40s exh. 1843 Turner h
strontium chromate sold by Reid 1835? Mulready 8
1857 Campbell j
orange vermilion ''new� in 1835 exh. 1843 Turner i
chrome scarlet 1840 W&N ca.1851 Turner e
cadmium yellow 1843 1855 Millais j,i
antimony orange patented in England in^1847 not found yet c
zinc chromate 1850 not found yet 9
cobalt violet dark mentioned 1859 not found yet e
cadmium orange^1860 Rowney^1872 Whistler e
unramarine red dev 1870 1880 not found yet 9
Sources: (a) Harley, R. D. 1982. Artists' Pigments c1�1835. A Study of English Documentary Sources.
London: Heinemann-Butterworth; (b) Reid, G. 1835. Chromatography. London: Tilt; (e) Friedstein, H. 1981.
Journal of Chemical Education (58):291-95; (d) Artists' Pigments. A Handlx>ok of their History and Characteristics.

1986. Ed., A. L Feller. Washington: National Gallery of Art; (8) l. Carlyle, personal communication; (1) Bomford, D.,
      J. Kirby, J. Leighton, and A. Roy. 1990. Art in the Making: Impressionism. London: National Gallery; (g) Gattens, R.
      J., and G. l. Stout. 1966. Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopedia. New York: Dover Publications; (h) D.
      Saunders and J. Kirby, personal communication; (i) Harley, A. D. 1987. Some new watercolours in the nineteenth
      century. The Conservator (11):46-50; m E. Sheldon, personal communication. Paintings are privately owned.

Figure 6 shows a detail of this painting, which was lined early in its history.

Turner's techniques were similar, in that he would apparently apply any paint

medium over any other to gain a beautiful but short-lived visual effect.

Some of Tu rner's imitators achieved effects that today appear similar to his,

but without the shrinkage and disruption of the paint. Turner's paintings may

have changed greatly with time, as the critic John Ruskin thought. Several

of Callcott's paintings have numerous thin glaze layers and less wet working

than Turner used. Callcott, Etty, and other contemporaries of Turner did not

have the patience to wait until previous paint had dried before they added

another layer, but they did use varnish interlayers so that later paint could be

applied safely. The Pre-Raphaelites favored a disciplined approach, too, as is

well known. Hunt's Strayed Sheep (Our English Coasts) has very detailed, lo­

calized layers applied to already dried paint throughout the fo reground, and,

like works by Mulready and Collins, has a very well-preserved surface today

(Plate 36).

The other durable method is to use such slow-drying oil paint that wet

working is possible, or to thin the paint so it fo rms a single layer. This was

Whistler's method in the early 1870s, when he was producing nocturnes and

harmonies (13). Instead of allowing the paint layer to grow thick, he scraped

it back vigorously and began again, sometimes using paint so wet that the

canvas had to be laid flat until it dried.

British artists' adoption of new pigments, 1775 -1875

Table 1 summarizes dates of invention, first publication, and so on, of pig­

ments that became available between the eighteenth century and 1875, and

notes the earliest occurrence yet fo und in oil paintings at the Tate Gallery.

Townsend 183