Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Figure 2. James Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Cremorne Lights, 1872. Oil on canvas.
The Tate Gallery, Londol1.
to drape over an easel behind the sitter. Dark grounds were first successfully
exploited by Whistler to produce his nocturnes of the 1870s. Similarly, fo r
his watercolors, designs, and etchings, Whistler also sought old mid-toned or
dark papers to form the basis of his images.
To make dark grounds, he mixed ivory black and lead white, frequently modified
with other pigments. In his Chelsea studio, the Greaves brothers helped
him prepare his materials. Walter Greaves describes his ground as a very absorbent
distemper, indicating that at this stage Whistler was not only modifYing
commercial grounds but also preparing his own (4). The production of
nocturnes was a period of experimentation. Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Cremarne
Lights (1872) (Fig. 2) is on a partially scraped down, reused canvas from
an earlier series with an unmodified, lighter commercial ground, whereas
Nocturne in Blue Green: Chelsea (1871) has a dark ground applied over a white
commercial priming on a mahogany panel. Nocturne in Black and Gold: The
Fire Wheel (1875) has no commercial ground, only an artist's priming over
the sized canvas. This ground consists of ivory black, chrome or cadmium
yellow, and small amounts of lead white.
Palette
Figure 3. Brushes, paints, palettes, and other
painting materials. Courtesy of the Hunterian
Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Birnie
Philip Bequest.
Several of Whistler's palettes survive, along with his brushes, charcoal, engraving
tools and tube paints, presumably dating from the last period ofWhistler's
life before they were donated to the Hunterian Art Gallery (Fig. 3).
These have been examined and analyzed during the present study (5). For a
short time (1898-1901), Whistler taught at the Academie Carmen. Reports
by students of his methods demonstrate Whistler's concern fo r the preparation
and layout of his palette. Colors were laid out in a specific order across the
top of the palette from left to right: Prussian blue, cobalt blue, raw umber,
burnt sienna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, a large blob of lead white, vermilion,
Venetian red, Indian red, and black. Flesh tones were mixed just below the
white, using the appropriate surrounding colors, and in turn these tones were
modified by the black which was spread in a broad band curving downward.
A preparation for the background color was mixed at the left. He then
worked out all the colors and tones for his composition on his palette before
placing any paint on his canvases. So obsessed was he with this "scientific"
method that he would frequently examine his students' palettes yet ignore
their paintings, wishing (he claimed) not to interfere with their individuality
and free expression (6) .
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