What are Artists’ Colourmen?
Artists’ Colourmen is a term that we are unfamiliar with today, but one that was key to the development of art materials in the golden era of scientific pigment development and use. Think of the delightful Cornelissen, a cabinet lined shop brimming with pigments in large jars, hand-tied paintbrushes and draws overflowing with paper. It's a temple for artists. It has the most distinctive smell. This is what an Artist Colourman is. An innovator and manufacturer of pre-prepared materials ready for artists to use.
A page from a Victorian Winsor & Newton art materials catalogue, which refers to the company as “Artists’ Colourmen”.
It is not hard to draw a line from the Artists’ Colourmen and their products to the apothecaries and herbalists that were their predecessors. Gamboge for example was both a yellow pigment and a treatment for high blood pressure (it’s actually very dangerous if ingested). The apothecaries would supply the raw materials, and in the 16th century onwards when the studio workshop system was very much alive, apprentices would grind and mix the pigments for the principal artists use.
An antique watercolour cake of Gamboge by Winsor & Newton.
With the studio system beginning to die off during the 17th century the gap was filled by the Artists’ Colourmen, who were able to create and supply artists’ colours and materials to a growing market, that included both professional artists and a growing group of amateurs. They had the added advantage of being able to supply consistent colours and reinvest profits into product development. There is a wonderful scene in the film Mr. Turner, where Turner’s father goes to a colourman and a friendly debate ensues over the price of a “bladder of ultramarine”. The colour man is also clearly delighted to be able to supply an artist as gifted as Turner.
An Artists’ Colourman’s Shop taken from a scene in Mike Leigh’s film Mr Turner (2014).
It was out of these Artists’ Colourmens’ ateliers that the most well know of art materials companies emerged. Names such as Reeves, Winsor & Newton, Rowney and Roberson are still world leaders in the field and are used by many professional artists to this day.
During the early 1800s, it was Winsor and Newton that was responsible for many of the innovations that are still in use today. There was the introduction of moist watercolour pans in 1832 and by 1842 they had started manufacturing Thomas Goffe Rand’s collapsible metal tubes. All of these developments took place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Britain. In 1851 the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace took place when the country was flourishing, so were the artists’ colourmen. Several of whom were awarded medals for their scientific advancements.
An image of the medal awarded to Winsor & Newton at the Great Exhibition, which they proudly displayed in their Art Materials Catalogue in 1853.
Eventually, the Artists Colourmen became large, formalised companies that would export their superior products all over the globe. For artists, it must be wonderful to be able to purchase materials from companies with such a provenance.
An illustration of the Reeves’ factory in Dalston, London, which opened in 1868. The building is still in existence today, but no longer owned by Reeves.
