Hand Grinding and the Purchase of Materials

Origin, History, and Characteristics

(Caledonite, Glauconite, Terra Verde of Verona, Ciprus Green)

The production of paint is a simple but demanding chore. The knowledge necessary. to grind paint was once acquired through the traditional apprentice-master relationship. Grinding paint was one of the principal daily chores of the apprentice. This allowed the master more time and energy to spend on the creative act of painting. Raw materials could be acquired from a number of sources. In the studio, these raw materials had to be cleansed and properly prepared for making paint. The absence of historical evidence indicating that Vermeer had an apprentice suggests that the artist produced his own paint.

Although the principle of hand grinding paint is fairly simple, the actual practice presents many subtleties which can only be mastered through experience.

First, some dry pigment must be put in the center of the grinding slab with the addition of the binder. If the pigment does not bind easily, it may be wetted with a small quantity of water. The two base components must be mixed with a spatula until a very stiff paste is formed. A small amount (about a tablespoon) of color paste is scooped up with the palette knife and placed on the center of the slab. Using a muller, the paste must be ground with light pressure and a circular motion, gradually widening the circle until most of the slab is covered with the color. This paste must be continuously ground until it is very smooth and no grittiness can be heard as the muller goes over it. Once the color is sufficiently ground, it can be called paint. If the paint becomes too liquid when it is ground with the muller, more dry pigment can be mixed into it before proceeding further. Little by little, small batches of the paste are ground with the muller until each has the same consistency. The final paint, depending on the base ingredients, must have a smooth, buttery consistency that will stand up in peaks like commercially produced tube paints. When all the paste has been thus ground into paint, it must be mixed well with the spatula in the center of the slab ground quickly one more time to ensure a homogeneous quality through the whole batch.

Each pigment absorbs different quantities of binder and in order to produce the most permanent and brilliant paint. The artist must also know how long he must grind each of them. Some pigments must be ground for extended lengths of time to create a suitable paste. Others quickly lose their brilliance if ground too much. For example, if the brilliant natural ultramarine is over ground, it will produce a dull gray. In general, however, hand ground paint used in Vermeer's times was not as homogeneous as today's commercially sold paints which are passed through rollers in order to bring them all to the same degree of coarseness. The difference in color between the dry and wet pigment in some cases may be dramatic (fig. 1).

fig. 1 Synthetic ultramarine blue in powdered form and mixed with drying oil to form paint (below).

Ernst van de Watering (Rembrandt: The Painter at Work; 2009 )^{Van der Wetering, Ernst. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009).} provides convincing evidence that apprentices prepared a limited amount of paints depending on the what the master intended to paint that day (fig. 2) rather than the whole range of available colors. This practice finds its roots in the logic of contemporary painting methods. After having first blocked in the general forms, composition and lighting scheme in a monochrome grayish underpainting, the artist then proceeded to complete separate areas of the painting one at a time usually in a single sitting.

Did Vermeer Hand Grind His Own Paints?

Historical evidence demonstrates that paint was already being commercially produced in the mid-seventeenth century in major artistic centers in the Netherlands. Gerard ter Brugghen's handbook on watercolor technique, written at the beginning of the seventeenth century, records that there were many locations in several Dutch cities where certain types of pigments could be purchased. He recommends that painters not waste their time in mixing their own colors, because the colors that could be bought were far superior and widely available.^{Gerard ter Brugghen, Verlichtery Kunst-Boeck (Amsterdam, 1616)} However, the extent to which painters used pre-prepared paint remains uncertain due to unknown production methods. Thus, the presence of commercially prepared pigment cannot be determined by laboratory analysis. However, in light of Vermeer's perfectionist approach to the thematic, compositional and stylistic components of his art, it might be safely assumed that he was more apt to have made his own paint in order to ensure the exact qualities he desired. This attitude is confirmed by his rather uncommon use of the finest grade of the costly natural ultramarine (crushed natural lapis lazuli) instead of the cheaper azurite.

Conservation of Paint

Metal tubes^{François Delamare and Bernard Guineau, Colors, The Story of Dyes and Pigments (Abrams, 2000), 115.} became widely used only in the mid-1800s. Before that, unused excess paint was typically stored in pig's bladders or immersed in water overnight to prevent drying from oxygen exposure. Moreover, each artist could impart to his paint the particular qualities he may have desired.

The Purchase of Artists' Materials

Painters could acquire their materials from specialty art supply shops, apothecaries, overseas sailors, and even quack doctors. It should be noted that "it was quite common for painters to buy equipment outside the cities where they worked. If we examine the accounts of Crijn Hendrikszoon Volmarijn, the major dealer in painters' materials known from Dutch sources of this period, who was active in Rotterdam in the first half of the seventeenth-century, we find that he had a large number of clients from Delft."^{Koos Levy-van Halm, "Where did Vermeer Buy His Painting Materials? Theory and Practice," in Vermeer Studies, eds. Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), 139.} Materials were also readily available in Utrecht and Amsterdam, where a significant number of artists resided. However, "in the city of Delft there seems to heve been an accumulation of specialized knowledge of the nature, composition and application of pigments and other substances used in painting. In addition to the painters themselves, there was also a group of apothecaries and artisans (largely involved in producing Delftware) who were experienced in the production of pigments."^{Koos Levy-van Halm, "Where did Vermeer Buy His Painting Materials? Theory and Practice," in Vermeer Studies, eds. Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998).}

It is documented that Vermeer had accrued a debt with an apothecary in Delft, Dirck Cluyt, believed to be where he purchased some of his art materials. A documented inventory from this apothecary includes items that served both medicinal and artistic needs. Among these items are natural lead white, "massicot" (a pale yellow pigment), small booklets of gold leaf, Venetian turpentine, and linseed oil. One might speculate that Vermeer sourced the lead-tin yellow, which he used to paint the yellow jackets in his artworks, from this apothecary located in "Paepenhoeck" (also known as the Papist's Corner in Delft, where Vermeer resided).^{Koos Levy-van Halm, "Where did Vermeer Buy His Painting Materials? Theory and Practice," in Vermeer Studies, eds. Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), 140.} However, it's crucial to note that the debt Vermeer owed was for medicines, not for pigments.^{"In 1580, Matthias Lobelius, a botanist and the court physician to stadtholder William of Orange, visited the Delft apothecary Dirck Cluyt. During this visit, he observed and documented for the first time the process of creating a red lake for artists. This was achieved by mixing two red dyes extracted from woolen fabric.} Lead-tin yellow, the characteristic lemon yellow tone in Vermeer's paintings, was listed among the materials in the apothecary's ledgers. In the nearby city of Leiden "a Danish student attending the Leiden University described the situation there by remarking that Leiden held public sales of cartloads of books on topics such as pharmacopoeia, pigments, drugs, and herbs. The only color not listed in any of the existing shop inventories is ultramarine; this must have been obtained through other channels."^{Koos Levy-van Halm, "Where did Vermeer Buy His Painting Materials? Theory and Practice," in Vermeer Studies, eds. Ivan Gaskell and Michiel Jonker (Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998).}

Unlike his contemporaries, Vermeer extensively used lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone integral to producing the expensive natural ultramarine. In any case, Vermeer had no lack of either the materials or the knowledge necessary to produce the highest quality paints.