Watercolor pigments by color group:
Reds
Reds were a mix of organic compounds (rose madder and madder lake) and on the redder side, Vermillion and Orange cadmium.
- Rose madder NR9 is made up of crushed roses! It smells really nice opening the tube, and makes a nice pink color too. It's still sold today by Winsor & Newton.
- While the synthetic Madder, Alizerin crimson was invented by this period, I can't find a mention of it in the catalogs, so I'm going with the natural variant. NR8
- Vermillion on this palette is duped, or maybe even replaced on this palette by A redder variant of PO20. From the swatches I came across, it seemed quite orange, and cadmium orange itself was available at the time anyways.
- The same Cadmium Orange PO20 we have today was available back then too-- Looking at the swatches of the George Rowney line, it looks closer to the paler, more yellowy end of PO20 to me.
Yellows
- Gamboge was just short of being included in the medieval palette-- It was introduced to the west around 1603. It's a gorgeous yellow, frequently mentioned in books, which leads me to think it was one of the more common yellows used, despite being fugitive.
- Stil de grain was sold under the name "Brown Pink" as this was a time before pink nessicarily meant pale red like it does today.
- Luteolin is a flavinoid that produces a yellow found in a lot of different plants, which produces the organic yellow colorant sold as "yellow Lake".
As mentioned in the medieval palette, yellow Lake's commonly attributed to (and made with) weld, there's a good chance it was not solely weld that was used to produce it.
I've included both Weld (which is rather greenish, probably due to accidental iron contamination as I was making it, oops) and homemade gorse yellow paint.
- Cobalt yellow, known under the name "Aureolin" in Winsor & Newton's line-- still sold today, though it can brown if exposed to too much sun.
- Cadmium yellow is the single yellow pigment on this palette up to modern lightfasteness standards-- opaque and a bright color, if an artist could afford it, it'd be the best option for their palette.
Greens
For greens, Sap green Genuine NG2, chromium oxide pg17, one of the only hues in this palette in the form of "emerald green" imitating the toxic pigment of that same name, viridian PG18 and terre verte, PG23.
- NG2 Might have been the original sap green, but according to a Winsor & Newton catalogue of 1896, they state that Sap green "in oil the colour is a combination of Quercitron Lake,
Ultramarine & Bone Brown", so while a little later and not in that medium, it also may have been sold as that same mix in 1875 in watercolor. Regardless, my homemade NG2 is fine for this slot on the palette, and the mix is roughly able to be made by other colors on the palette.
- PG17 Oxide of Chromium, as it was called back then, is an opaque lightfast green widely available by the middle of the 19th century.
- Viridian PG18, sometimes referred to as "transparent oxide of chromium, is a fairly new pigment, only being introduced in the 1860s. A good stable color for the cool end of the greens"
- Emerald green PG21, though I'm using a hue as the genuine pigment is extremely toxic. Quite minty when it's first put down, it seems to darken to a more middle of the road green over time.
- Green Earth PG23 -- Genuine on this palette, Though Schminke's terre verte's the exact same hue without any of the streakiness. I'd recommend that over the genuine PG23 in most cases.
Blues
For Blues, you had most of the same options as today. the only real difference being Genuine indigo was still used. cobalt blues, prussian blue and "new blue" synthetic ultramarine PB29. Paynes grey is also in this palette as a hue ( though it's pigment mix is far too modern).
- Cerulean Blue PB35 is an interesting one-- Available from Rowney & Co since 1860, but if someone hypothetically only had access to Winsor & Newton, they'd have to wait until the following year in 1876 when it was introduced as a pigment to their catalogs.
- From my understanding, Cobalt Blue PB28 was quite a popular color, Aaron Penley calling it "In more request than any other colour". A lovely blue, still a color sold today.
- Prussian Blue PB27 a well loved color, often referred to as "smooth", though there were concerns over it's lightfastness even back then.
- New blue (or as we call it today, Ultramarine blue) PB29 is the synthetic version of Lapis lazuli. Lapis at the time was being referred to as "Ultramarine" and was the most expensive paint offered by
- As mentioned in my medieval palette page, I have genuine Smalt PB32 in 2 beautiful versions from Prodigal Sons Pigments,
But for this, based on the rowney swatches, the finer 400s version seems to be closer. For this paint, I'd recommend a granulating cobalt PB74 as it's a little easier to get ahold of.
- Lapis ash was another option for the palette and despite it's name, was still quite blue (Though lacking a lot of the depth contained in higher grades).
- Indigo, the genuine plant matter, was still sold as a pigment at this time. I personally think the organic stuff is a gorgeous color, but due to the fermentation required in processing it can smell a little unpleasant.
- A very common convenance mixture today, Payne's grey was originally a mix of prussian blue, yellow ochre and crimson lake. Still available today, but often differing from the original recipe.
Earth
Earth pigments are often called the workhorse of an artist's palette. Coming in a range of shades from rusty reds to muted yellows, (as well as greens, but terre verte PG23 I have in the "greens" section) Iron oxides were used by nearly every artist in some form or another.
By this time the artist had access to both natural and synthetic (Mars) pigments, and so I have a range here-- English light red, mars yellow, mars orange, raw sienna, burnt umber-- all terms and pigments used by an artist today.
the only exception might be van dyke brown NBr8, which due to lightfastness issues isn't commonly used today.
- Light red was Red Iron oxide, and on this palette I'm using English Venetian Red.
- My stand-in for Roman Ochre on this palette is Della magna Orange Ochre Sardinia PBr7-- still a bit far away from Rome, but it's the closest I've got.
- Raw Sienna is a (often transparent) yellow iron oxide, based on the pricing of the chart, probably the non-synthetic variant at this time. My stand-in for a Mars Yellow, as this particular raw Sienna is using synthetic materials.
- Genuine Yellow Ochre PY43, I made this variant myself! Though store-bought is also fine (and probably better haha).
- Mars Orange was a synthetic red iron oxide PR101, far more transparent than it's natural counterpart.
- Burnt Umber is a very common dark brown color, and as the name suggests, is made by roasting raw umber until it darkens. Still available today! I like it a lot.
- Van Dyke Brown, named after the flemish artist, also known as Cassel earth or Cologne earth, was a dark brown often made of peat or soil. A nice textural option, though the genuine stuff has lightfastness issues. Usually a hue of some kind in modern times.
- Sepia at the time would have been the genuine squid ink, but these days is a convince mixture usually of some brown and black. I'm using Winsor & Newton's Sepia for this, hopefully a similair hue to what they once sold.
Black and white
Keeping it simple with one black and one white-- made easier by some of the modern pigments not being available. Black had a few options, but for white, Titanium white PW6 (the most popular white pigment today) wasn't yet discovered.
There was flake (lead) white, which was not an option in moist watercolor (which is more of the focus of this palette, though it was available as a cake.) and could turn black in watercolors, and then Zinc/Chinese White, PW4.
- Just like the medieval palette, this is a category that could have had multiple paints included in it.
My pick goes to Ivory black PBk9 this time around, just for the contrast-- this black is made from bones, and is a little warmer than lamp black.
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Zinc white was a very important discovery-- Although some painters still today do not like the inclusion of white in watercolor, many painters such as Turner made great use of it.
It allowed for "Bodycolor" an opaque goauche-like paintover technique, or as a base for cloudy wash techniques. Another option in the palette all the same.
