Category: Color

“At one time in history, the English word pink referred to a yellow color.

Interesting side note: There is speculation, owing to its greenish yellow tone, that it is derived from the German word pinkeln translated in a dictionary of 1798 as ‘to piss, to make water.’

The color most often known as Dutch pink was ‘a yellow lake prepared from Persian berries or from quercitron and used chiefly as an artist’s pigment,’ according to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, under the definition of Dutch pink. This color was ‘a light yellow that is greener and slightly darker than jasmine and greener and stronger than average maize or popcorn—called also English pink, Italian pink, madder yellow, stil de grain, yellow madder.’

When we review the literature on Dutch pink, we find that it is a lake pigment made from various organic sources, the most often mentioned is Rhamnus or buckthorn berries. These pigments also contained other yellow dyes, such as fustic, turmeric, weld, dyers’ broom and dyer’s oak. Chemically, the colorants of all these yellow dyes are types of aromatic molecules known as flavonoids. The various yellow dyes all have a very similar appearance and were probably used indiscriminately by color makers and artists.

Note what Robert Dossie in Handmaid to the Arts wrote about Dutch pink:

Of Dutch pink.
Dutch pink is a pigment formed of chalk, coloured with the tinging particles of French berries or other vegetables. It is principally used for coarser purposes in water ; not bearing well to be worked in oil : nor can it be depended upon with regard to its standing so as to be fit for paintings of any consequence.”

This excerpt was posted by Linda N. and can be found in its entirety at: http://www.naturalpigments.com/art-supply-education/pink-was-yellow-paint/

My opinion: I absolutely love Dutch Pink. My favorite use of Dutch Pink is adding it into a variety of sky colors. the color has more depth than Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna, yet is richer that yellow madder or stil de grain.

Below are examples of Persian Berries, Common Buckthorn Berries, Quercitron nuts, and the powdered extracts that each produce. I have also included a “stil de grain” powder pigment image for contrast and comparison.

Persian Berries (Buckthorn Berries – not the common type that are deep blue as below)

Chene Quercitron nuts

Persian Berry Powder/Dutch Pink Pigment Source

Quercitron Powder/Dutch Pink Pigment Source

Stil de grain pigment/yellow madder color

Brazil wood chips

Brazil wood Extract

Eastern Brazil Wood Extract and products dyed with it (A little to bright for Indigo?)

Continued excerpt from “Il Libro dell’Arte” or “The Craftsman’s Handbook” (Translation by D. V. Thompson,. Pages 36-37). 15^th Century handbook for artists.

“It is true that the fine kind is more useful in illuminators, and for making draperies with lights on them. When you have this powder all ready, get six ounces of pine rosin from the druggists, three ounces of gum mastic, and three ounces of ne wax, for each pound of lapis lazuli; put all these things into a new pipkin, and melt them up together. Then take a white linen cloth and strain these things into a gazed washbasin. Then take a pound of this lapis lazuli powder, and mix it all up thoroughly, and make a plastic of it, all incorporated together. And have some linseed oil, and always keep your hands well greased with this oil, so as to be able to handle the plastic. You must keep this plastic for at least three days and three nights, working it over a little bit every day; and bear in mind that you may keep it in plastic for two weeks or a month, or as long as you like. When you want to extract the blue from it, adopt this method. Make two sticks out of a stout rod, neither too thick nor too thin; and let them each be a foot long; and have them well rounded at the top and the bottom, and nicely smoothed. And then have your plastic in the gazed washbasin where you have been keeping it; and put into it about a porringful of lye, fairly warm; and with these two sticks, one in each hand, turn over and squeeze and knead the plastic, this way and that, just as you work over bread dough with your hand, in just the same way, . When you have done this until you see your lye is saturated with blue, draw it off into a glazed porringer. Then take as much lye again, and put it back in on to the plastic and work it over as these sticks as before.  When the lye has turned quite blue, put it into another porringer…and go on doing this for several days in the same way until the plastic will not longer color the lye; and then throw it away, for it is no longer any good. Then arrange all these porringers in front of you on a table, in series; that is, the yields, first, second, third, fourth, arranged in succession; and with your hand stir up in each the lye with the blue which, on account of the heaviness of the blue, will have gone to the bottom; and then your will learn the yields of blue. Weight the question of how many grades of blue you want; whether three, four or six, or however many you want; bearing in mind the first yields are the best, just as the first porringer is better than the second. And so if you have eighteen porringers of the yields and you wish to make three grades of blue, you take six porringers and mix them together, and reduce it to one porringer; and that will be one grade…but bear in mind that if you have good lapis lazuli, the blue from the first two yields will be worth eight ducats an ounce.* The last two yields are worse than ashes: therefore be prudent in your observation, so as not to spoil the fine blues for the poor ones.” To be continued tomorrow…

* My research on the value of a 15^th century ducat (as I am a nerd for context): A ducat was the internationally accepted gold currency produced in Venice (it had about 3.5 grams of gold in each coin). Some websites post 1 ducat as the equivalent to $150 USD. Today’s monetary equivalent for a 15^th century ducat is greatly contested and some believe it could be worth $250. Leonardo made about 50-100 ducats a year, and at the end of life had some years that he made approximately 400 ducats. In 1453 Medici had a wealth of 200,000 ducats.

The pictures included in the post below illustrate Cennini’s process!  They are from Randy Asplund’s webpage concerning book illumination techniques.  Here is the link:

http://www.randyasplund.com/pages/article/schiff1.html

Asplund describes Making the 15^th century style Schiff Book, including great process pictures and materials.  It is a great website!

Materials needed for creating blue paint to illuminate books

Grinding blue and turning it into a fine powdered pigment

A 15th century porringer

“Il Libro dell’Arte” or “The Craftsman’s Handbook” (Translation by D. V. Thompson,. Pages 36-37). 15^th Century handbook for artists.

Ultramarine blue is a color illustrious, beautiful, and most perfect beyond all other colors; one could not say anything about it, or do anything with it, that its quality would not still surpass. And, because of its excellence, I want to discuss it at length, and to show you in detail how it is made. And pay close attention to this, for you will gain great honor and service from it. And let some of that color, combined with gold, which adorns all the works of our profession, whether on wall or on panel, shine forth in every object.

To begin with, get some lapis lazuli. And if you want to recognize the good stone, chose that which you see is the richest in blue color, because it is all mixed like ashes. That which contains the least of this ash is the best. But see that it is not azurite stone, which looks lovely to the eye, and resembles an enamel. Pound it into a bronze mortar, covered up, so that it may not go off in dust; then put it on your porphyry slab, and work it up without water. Then take a covered sieve such as druggists use for sifting drugs; and sift it and sift it, and pound it again as you find necessary. And bear in mind that the more finely you work it up, the finer the blue will come out, but not so beautifully violet in color (Non si bello violante. The translation as “violet”, or better, “inclining toward violet”). To be continued tomorrow…

On a personal note, I love this color!  It is a breathtaking color with an incredible amount of depth.  Ultramarine is one of those colors that beckons to be touched.

A friend recently shared a photo from an art supply store in Bonn, Germany. He noted that the shop’s most expense pigment was a ground blue, costing 100 Euros per gram.

Below are examples of lapis lazuli and the grey ash veins that run through many stones.

An example of ground lapis lazuli, creating Ultramarine Blue pigment

The use of Ultramarine Blue in a Hell Scene for the Scottish Rite in Pasadena, California.

The use of Ultramarine Blue in a Constellation Drop (Faith, Hope, and Charity) for the Scottish Rite in Danville, Virginia.

“The scene painter’s colours are known technically as ‘distemper colours.’ They are bought in the form of powder, and the only preparation they require is the admixture of water.  The usual proportion is one pound of colour to a pint of water, but some colours will ‘take’ more water than others; thus ivory black powder requires more water than vermillion.  The powder is merely stirred up until it dissolves, but each pot of paint will require an occasional stirring while it is being used.  The painter will also require a small pail for ‘letting down’ his colour and a half pail of dissolved size for mixing in before applying the paint to canvas, otherwise the paint on drying would fly off in a powder.”

Excerpt from “Secrets of Scene Painting and Stage Effects” by Van Dyke Browne (1900, page 14)

Whiting was a white powder used in both priming and painting. Studios purchased this product in 300 lbs. wooden barrels.  Inside this thin wooden container was an inner wrapping on paper to prevent this fine white silica powder from leaking through the seems.  The pictures depict a barrel of whiting found on site at the Fort Scott Scottish Rite temple during November 2016.  It was ordered by Thomas Moses to create the scenery collection on site and was never opened.  We discovered and opened the barrel to find a perfect product, well-encapsulated for 90 years!  I emptied the barrel to transport the product for future restoration purposes.  The whiting is now the property of the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.

“And it must be born in mind that distemper colors change greatly in value as they dry out, especially those carrying white in the admixture, which dry lighter or higher in value.  ..the student must not let a few failures discourage him. True “color deductions” will come with experience, and unless trials are conscientiously persisted in, and in connection with the study procedure set forth in this manual, your progress cannot be other than slow.”

Excerpt from Frank Atkinson’s “Scene Painting and Bulletin Art” (1916, page 167)

For me, dry pigment is never an exact science – every step is based on intuition and experience.  I have always had a good eye for color, but all of the standard color mixing rules are thrown out of the window when mixing dry pigment colors.  The color, the manufacturer, and the age of the color all determine the final result.  Swatches of every colors is imperative to commence the overall restoration process.  Each step of color mixing is carefully analyzed before an application occurs.

Starting a  new composition from scratch is one thing, but matching colors on historic drops is something else. When amateurs have attempted minor repairs and painting on old backdrops the result is often disastrous – to the extent that a wrong color will continually to reappear after multiple layers are applied to the top.  In this case, the only option is to seal the entire surface and start from scratch.

SOME AMATEUR RESTORATIONS ARE IRREPARABLE AND IRREVERSIBLE.

I have encountered this unfortunate occurrence in all areas of the country where “cheap and inexperienced” artists caused the final repair to be four times the anticipated amount – far exceeding the expense of hiring a “professional” to start with.  There is a reason that conservation and restoration requires a great deal of training, understanding of historical scenic art techniques, and experience.

Below is a picture at the Danville, Virginia, Scottish Rite six years ago – I was color matching a damaged section on a drop.  Their collection suffered form severe water damage and was extremely tricky to touch up. Dye rings necessitate a series of steps to conceal them.  Add the challenge of a roll drop and the work becomes even more of a challenge.  It was my 20+ years of working with dry pigment at that time that greatly contributed to the overall success.

Unless you have studied dry pigment extensively, please leave it for those who have studied it.

The Presidential debates in the United States of America brought the color of French Mineral Orange to mind!  Here are details from Hades at the Pasadena Scottish Rite, ca. 1902 – Sosman and Landis (refurbished and installed in 1925).