8.04.2010

Historical Palettes Part I

I'm currently reading a book on painting alla prima and it has, in one chapter, a rather extensive list of the palettes used by some of history's greatest artists. I find it endlessly fascinating to see what pigments these masters used: some very few and some (with the advent of so many new and exciting colors at certain points in time, as well as the convenience of pre-mixed tubes) a great many.

Titian (Italian, c. 1488-1576)
lead white
ultramarine blue
red madder
burnt sienna
malachite green
red ochre
yellow ochre
orpiment (a yellow)
ivory black

Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906)
white
brilliant yellow
naples yellow
chrome yellow
yellow ochre
raw sienna
vermilion
burnt sienna
red madder
crimson lake
burnt lake
veronese green
emerald green
verona earth
cobalt blue
ultramarine blue
prussian blue
peach black

John Constable (English, 1776-1837)
lead white
yellow ochre
umber
red earth
emerald green
ultramarine blue
prussian blue
black

John Constable, Seascape Study with Rain Cloud, 1824 (which, by the way, I find endlessly mesmerizing as one seldom sees his studies and is instead fed a steady diet of his finished works, complete with the most amazing skies).

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