From "Bouguereau at Work" by Mark Walker;
Bouguereau never mentions a specific palette, but Charles Moreau-Vauthier is again helpful in this regard; he gives it as:
• Naples Yellow (lead antimoniate)
• Yellow-Ochre
• Chrome Yellow, dark
• Viridian
• Cobalt Blue
• White Lead
• Light Vermilion
• Chinese Vermilion
• Mars Brown (iron oxide); this available from Lefranc & Bourgeois
• Van Dyck Brown
• Burnt Sienna
• Ivory Black
• Bitumen
• Genuine Rose Madder, dark.
All of Bouguereau's colors are still available today as prepared artist's paints, but not from any single manufacturer.
In one of his sketchbooks, Bouguereau lists so many pigments that no palette could possibly contain them, but it is interesting to note all the possibilities he had to choose from;
- White lead (Silver White) Lead carbonate
- Ivory Black Charred Ivory
- Minium Lead
- Vermilion Mercuric sulphide
- Brown Madder Iron (charred)
- Cassius Red Tin bioxide and gold protoxide
- Iodine Scarlet (English) Mercuric iodine
- Purple Red Mercuric chromate
- Madder Lake [preparatation from madder root]
- Mineral Yellow (Paris) Oxi-chloride of lead
- Charred Massicot Lead bioxide and protoxide
- Minium, orange Charred ceruse (lead)
- Chrome Lead Chromate
- Orpiment (King's Yellow) Arsenic sulphide or yellow sulphide of arsenic
- Naples Yellow Lead oxide and antimony
- Ochre Hydrated ferric oxide
- Indian Yellow [precipitated urine of caged cows]
- Prussian Blue Iron protoxide sulphate and prussiate solution
- Mineral Blue Iron and [?]
- Ultramarine Blue Lapis Lazuli
- Cobalt Cobalt
- Smalt Powdered cobalt glass
- Ash Blue Copper
- Indigo Vegetable
- Violet Charred iron peroxide Cassius purple and alumina
- Verdigris Copper acetate
- Scheele Green Copper arsenate
- Mountain Green Copper carbonate
- Chrome Blue Chromium protoxide
- Cobalt Blue (mineral) Cobalt and zinc
- Viridian Sulfate of lime and copper aceto-arsenite
- Green Earth silica, iron oxide
- Sap Green Unripe buckthom berries (lake)
- Cassel Earth [coal byproduct]
- Cologne Earth Natural earth darkened mostly with bitumen
- Umber Natural earth colored with ferric oxide, manganese dioxide plus a little bitumen
- Sienna Ochreous natural earth and manganese (bioxide?) hydrate
- Prussian Brown Charred Prussian Blue
- Asphaltum
- Bitumen
- Mummy Asphaltum and bone ash
- Yellow Lake Albumen colored with Avignon yellow grains
- Cadmium Cadmium sulfide
- Azure or smalt Powdered cobalt glass
It seems that Bouguereau purchased prepared colors in tubes, but on occasion he also ground certain colors himself. It is not known precisely which brand(s) of prepared colors Bouguereau used, but he did write an endorsement for the colors of Lefranc:
"I am pleased to have only good to say about the colors made by Messieurs Lefranc et Cie."
No comments:
Post a Comment