Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS:
Erma Hermens, Art History Institute of the University of Leiden
Marja Peek, Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science,
Amsterdam
ISBN 0-89236-322-3
COVER ILLUSTRATION
Gherardo Cibo, "Colchico," folio 17r of Herbarium, ca. 1570. Courtesy
of the British Library.
FRONTISPIECE
Detail from Jan Baptiste Collaert, Color Olivi, 1566-1628. After
Johannes Stradanus. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum-Stichting,
Amsterdam.
iv
Contents
vii Foreword
viii Preface
v
135 Molly Faries, Christa Steinbuchel, and J. R. J. van Asperen de
Boer,Maarten van Heemskerck and Jan van Scorel's Haarlem
Workshop
186 Stephen Hackney, Art for Art's Sake: The Materials and
Techniques of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
i
Abstract William Holman Hunt and the
The shift in the nineteenth century "Pre-Raphaelite Technique"
from a tradition of artist-prepared
materials to an industry of mass-pro Melissa R. Katz
duced commercial products greatly Davis Museum and Cultural Center
endangered the artistic community Wellesley ColJege
through the widespread distribution Wellesley, Massachusetts 02 1 8 1
of products of inferior quality and USA
unstable properties. For over fifty
years, the British Pre-Raphaelite
painter William Holman Hunt
waged a campaign for the reform of Introduction
the manufacture of artists' materials
and the rights of the artist as a con The late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in British painting con
sumer to expect materials of consis stitute a period noted for the rise of a major school of national painting,
tent quality and uniformity. The re dominated by masters such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough,
evaluation of the Pre-Raphaelite and J. M. W. Turner, who engaged in technical experiments of dubious value.
technique, in conjunction with an Their reliance on gelled mediums, bituminous paints, and fugitive pigments,
exploration of Hunt's advocacy on
respectively, has left a body of work disigured by sunken patches, wide cra
behalf of artist-consumers, places in
perspective his focus on artistic
quelure, and faded color. In search of shortcuts to achieve the luminous glow
traditions at a crucial transition time of the old masters, they produced, instead, paintings whose technical inade
in the history of materials and tech quacies were known and seen by the generation that followed.
TUques.
This next generation of painters included the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,
formed in 1 848 in radical opposition to the training and taste imposed on
British art by the Royal Academy. Hunt was a founding brother, and the only
one of the group to maintain a lifelong adherence to their principles of
idelity to nature minutely observed, boldness in color and lighting, emulation
of early Italian painting, and depiction of contemporary or literary subject
matter. Yet the rebellion was short-lived, and the Pre-Raphaelites rapidly
became the leading painters of their day, with Hunt as one of the most
popular.
By the 1 870s Hunt's position was assured as the celebrated painter of such
Victorian icons as The Light oj the World, The Awakening Conscience, and The
Finding f the Saviour in the Temple (Figs. 1 , 2, 3) . Periods spent in the Middle
East seeking Biblical authenticity alternated with spells in pleasant, well
equipped London studios where, liberated from hand-to-mouth struggle, he
was free to contemplate other aspects of art as a career (Figs. 4, 5) . The stability
and longevity of his paintings were of primary concern to Hunt, who ob
served not only the technical inadequacies of the preceding generation, but
also the poor aging qualities of the artworks of his contemporaries.
Katz 1 59
with colormen and hired scientists to analyze paint samples from various
suppliers. He badgered the Royal Academy into appointing their first pro
fessor of chemistry to research and teach materials science. He formed an
artists' cooperative to secure hand-ground pigments and pure materials. He
monitored the condition of his own paintings, attentive to the conditions of
their display and handling. He made test panels and stored them in his studio
ten, fifteen, and twenty years to observe the effects of aging. With ever in
creasing obsession, he investigated material permanence, compatibility, and
composition. Like a true conservator, he forsook the artwork for the artmak
ing, producing fewer paintings over longer intervals in a painstakingly slow
technique.
Hunt's passions flared in the mid- 1 870s with the realization that Roberson's
orange vermilion, a favorite commercial tube paint, was being adulterated
with red lead, and thus blackening on the canvas. In frustration, Hunt wrote
to his friend and fellow artist, John Lucas Tupper (5) :
It seems as tho [sic] I were strugling against Fate. Every day sometimes
including Sundays I have been toiling evey hour, and just as I have got
my task nearly completed the whole thing has fallen into disorder again for
Figure 5. William Holman Hunt, Self-Por
trait, 1 8 75. Courtesy of the Uizi Gallery, at least five or six times and I have had to begin again. At last I have
Florence, Italy. Note the length of the brushes found out what has been the cause j this: Roberson 's tube oj Orange
on the table. The tunic is the same striped Vermilion, which I used without suspicion because 25 years ago they sold
garment used in The Finding of the Sav this color absolutely pure, is adulterated with 1 0 percent oj villainy, the
iour in the Temple.
greater part lead, which has blackened so rapidly that when it had got dry
enough for the final glazings the flesh had got to such a color [sic] that I
nearly went crazy . . . I have had the color analysed and at the same time
have taken the opportunity to have others investigated and find that the
fraudulent habit is exercised in many other cases. What is to me more
discouraging than this is that many artists I have spoken to about [it] are
quite satiied to go on dealing in these spurious colors saying "Oh, they
will last my time, " and "I never found my pictures change" and with
base humility "they, " the colors, "are good enough for my work. " Leigh
ton, when I proposed a little co-operative society for importing and grinding
pure colors said, "And what's poor Roberson to do? "
Figure 6. Nineteenth-century containers for
The culmination came o n Friday, 23 April 1 880, when Hunt addressed the
oil paints (animal bladder with ivory tacks,
piston tuhe, and collapsible metal tube) . members of the Royal Society of Arts on the subject, "The Present System
Courtesy of the Forbes Collection, Harvard of Obtaining Materials in Use by Artist Painters, as Compared with that of
University Art Museums. the Old Masters." At a conservative estimate, the talk lasted at least two-and
a-half hours. Concerned as much with the decline in knowledge of artists'
techniques as well as materials, Hunt observed, "In the old days the secrets
were the artist's; now he is the first to be kept in ignorance of what he IS
using" (6) . Eloquently he informed his audience (7) :
I feel called upon to avow that I regard the artists ' colourmen j London
as gentlemen of intelligence, of character, and great enterprise, to which
qualities we are much indebtedfor the comparatively safe positions we enjoy;
for indeed, at the worst, it must be recognised that we might have gone
further astray. It is needful, however, that we should be not only in good
hands, but we should give strong prooJ that we can distinguish between
that which is faulty and that which is pefect; and it is the want of dis
criminating power in the painter which produces all the indfference on the
part j the preparer to the permanent character of the materials he supplies.
The painter has really not the power to trace the causes of dfects. The
colourman naturally judges of the character of the materials he vends by the
condition they are in while under his own eye. To him, the evils revealing
themselves in the work which has passed through his shop do not exist f
he never sees them; and if he hears of them only, as evils untraceable in
their cause which have occurred to one of his customers (who may, some
times, have obtained materials elsewhere), his sense j responsibility is qui
eted, when he has received the assurance of his men in the workshop that
the usual rules, which have hitherto resulted in work of a kind not eliciting
Katz 161
Pre-Raphaelite painters and never to any great extent. The myth of the Pre
Raphaelite technique arose from a single paragraph in Hunt's 1 ,000-page,
two-volume autobiography. Citing as an example the painting Valentine Res
cuing Sylvia from Proteus (Fig. 7) , Hunt stated that he would ( 1 3) :
Select a prepared ground, originally Jor its brightness, and renovate it, if
necessary, with Jresh white when first it comes into the studio, white to be
mixed with a vey little amber or copal vanish. Let this last coat become
oj a thoroughly stone-like hardness. Upon this suface complete with ex
actness the outline oj the part in hand. On the morning Jor the painting,
Figure 7. William Holman Hunt, Valen with Jresh white (from which all supeluous oil has been extracted by means
tine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (Two oj absorbent paper, and to which a small drop oj varnish has been added)
Gentlemen of Verona), 1 85 1 . Courtesy f spread a Jurther coat very evenly with a palette knife over the part Jor the
the Birmingham Museums and Art Callery,
Birmingham, England. This is the painting day's work, oj such consistency that the drawing should Jaintly show
Hunt was working on when he described the through. In some cases the thickened white may be applied to the Jorms
wet-ground technique ill his autobiography (I, needing brilliancy with a brush, by the aid oj rectied spirits. Over this
2 76): "The heads of Valentine alld if Prote wet ground, the colour (transparent and semi-transparent) should be laid
us, the hands f these figures, and the bright with light sable brushes, and the touches must be made so tenderly that
er costumes in the same painting had been
executed in this way. . . . In the country we the ground below shall not be worked up, yet so Jar enticed to blend with
had used it, so far, mainly for blossoms of the superimposed tints as to correct the qualities j thinness and staininess
lowers, for which it was singularly valuable. " [sic] , which over a dry ground transparent colours used would inevitably
Paint daubs if van'ous mixtures of red are exhibit. Painting j this kind cannot be retouched except with an entire
visible on the spandrels. loss oj luminosity.
The sudden prominence accorded t o the technique i n 1 905, may be due not
to Hunt himself, but to his wife, Edith, seeking to enhance his reputation
through the implication of technical innovation. Suffering from glaucoma,
Hunt dictated much of his memoir to Edith who, according to their grand
daughter, among others, took liberties with the text, "deleting passages . . .
she considered unsuitable for posterity" (author's emphasis) ( 1 7) . Edith's urge
to improve went so far as taking advantage of her husband's blindness to have
a studio assistant repaint Hunt's portrait of her, secretly slimming her waist
and reddening her lips ( 1 8) . It may well have been at her suggestion that the
wet-ground technique, after fifty years of oblivion, abruptly became of im
portance in her husband's career, serving as one more opportunity to assert
his innovation, skill, and pivotal role in the movement he had helped to shape.
I am obliged to wait long Jor the drying oj the paint I put on to Jorm a
Jresh ground, and while patience is being exercised as a necessity it seems
but a little virtuous to summon hope to help me over the completing oj the
parts where the ground has finally become workably [sic] even and dry.
Indeed, Hunt complains here that the underpaint layer is wet, rather than
seeking to exploit its freshness as part of his technique.
Katz 1 63
paintings techniques of the past masters, rather than the faddish disregard for
tradition prevalent among his contemporaries.
Conclusion
In seeking reform, Hunt sought not to stop the wheels of progress but to
channel them. His advocacy for the rights of the consumers in a time of
rampant laissez-faire capitalism had ramifications throughout his century and
our own, contributing directly to the enactment of regulations governing the
safety of commercial goods and legislation regarding truth in advertising. His
sophisticated understanding of the science of painting, in spite of limited
formal schooling, and the impact of environment in the preservation of art
place him as a key figure in the development in the professions of art con
servation and museology. His understanding of historic painting techniques,
well advanced for his day as well as our own, generated a revival of the craft
of painting after a generation notorious for technical inadequacies. Too often
he has been dismissed by art historians as a minor painter of deeply tasteless
religious scenes. His contribution to nineteenth-century British painting and
to the current stability of commercial artists' materials must not be underes
timated.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Kate Olivier (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University)
for having encouraged the undertaking of this research; Jacqueline Ridge (National
Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Liverpool) , Zahira Veliz (private practice, Lon
don), and David Bomford (National Gallery, London) for facilitating research in Brit
ain; Judith Bronkhurst (Witt Library, Courtauld Institute, London) and Leslie Carlyle
(Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa) for their valuable insights into nineteenth
century British art and techniques; and the staff of the following institutions for
generous access to curatorial and conservation files pertaining to William Holman
Hunt: Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hart
ford, Connecticut; Tate Gallery, London; Courtauld I nstitute of Art, London; Guild
hall Art Gallery, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port
Sunlight; Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester; Birmingham Museums and Art
Gallery, Birmingham; and the Roberson Archives, Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cam
bridge University, Cambridge.
Notes
1 . Harley, R. D. 1 970. Artists' Pigments c. 1 600- 1 835: A Study in English Documentay
Sources. London: Butterworth Scientific. Also, Gettens, R., and G. Stout, 1 966.
Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopaedia. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
2. Bomford, D. , et al. 1 990. Art in the Making: Impressionism. London: The National
Gallery.
3 . Standage, H . C. , 1 886. The Artists ' Manual of Pigments showing their Composition:
Conditions of Permanency, Non-Permanency, and Adulterations; Effects in Combination
with Each Other and with Vehicles; and the Most Reliable Tests of Purity . . . . Lon
don: Crosby, Lockwood & Co.
4. Standage, op. cit. , 53-54.
5. A Pre-Raphaelite Friendship: The Correspondence of William Holman Hunt and John
Lucas Tupper, no. 1 1 4 ( 1 1 August 1 875). 1 986. Eds. J. H . Coombs, et al. Ann
Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 20l .
6. Hunt, W H. 1 880. The Present System of Obtaining Materials In Use By Artist
Painters, As Compared With That of the Old Masters. Jounal of the Society of
Arts 28 (23 April 1 880) , 492.
7. Hunt, op. cit, 492.
8 . Ibid., 493.
9. Ibid.
1 0. Hamerton, . G. 1 875. Technical Notes-W Holman Hunt, an interview with
the artist. The Porfolio: An A rtistic Periodical VI ( 1 ) :45.
1 1 . Original paint extends over onto the tacking margins of the lining canvas and
the gummed tape edging the lining of the Birmingham Finding of the Saviour in
the Temple. Conservation files, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.
1 2. Hamerton, op. cit., 45.
Katz 1 65