The Reeves brothers are credited with the invention of watercolor cakes.
Not only did a series of innovations in the 19th century improve watercolor painting materials, but thanks to modern chemistry, the variety, saturation and permanence of artists’ pigments available is greater than ever before.
Artists’ paint manufacturers buy very small amounts of these pigments to prepare watercolor paint. Consequently, the art materials industry is far too small to exert any leverage on global pigment manufacture. With rare exceptions, all modern watercolor paints utilize pigments that are manufactured for use in printing inks, automotive and architectural paints, and as colorants in ceramics, plastics and cosmetics.
Rublev Colours is an exception. Why are Rublev Colours different from other manufactured watercolor paints? One reason is that we use genuine natural and historical pigments like those used by watercolorists of past centuries. Most of these pigments are not found in other brands today.
Rublev Colours Watercolors are made in small batches using gum arabic, honey and sugar, which were the basic ingredients used in watercolors of past centuries (see below). There are no additives to alter the characteristics of each color. Rublev Colours Watercolors do not contain fillers to extend colors, dispersants to disperse and granulate pigments and brighteners to intensify colors. Rather, each color is crafted to develop its unique character so they behave much the same as the watercolors of past masters.
Read more about Rublev Colours Watercolors
A Brief History of Modern Watercolor Paint
Watercolor painting has a long history beginning from manuscript illumination and 'limning’ in the medieval and early Renaissance periods to the golden age of watercolor painting in the 19th century and today. The history of manufactured watercolor paint, however, begins in the late 18th century.
The Invention of Watercolor Cakes
It is believed that William and Thomas Reeves set up business as colormen near Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, as early as 1766 (Goodwin 1966), or in 1777, according to Reeves’ late 19th century advertisements (Royal Society of British Artists 1889). However, from William Reeves’ own claim in 1784, the partnership between the two brothers was not formed before 1780.
The brothers were awarded the Silver Palette of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (now known as the Royal Society of Arts) in April 1781 for the manufacture of improved watercolor (Goodwin 1966). The improvement consisted of adding humectant to the formulation and forming the paint into cakes. Various forms of sugar and honey, a natural humectant, was used to attract and retain moisture in the cake, so that wetting was easier.
A writer in Ackermann’s The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics in 1813 credited the invention to William Reeves, who “about thirty years ago, turned his attention to the preparation of water colours, and, by his successful experiments, produced the elegant invention of forming them into cakes. Until this period, every artist was obliged to prepare his own colours.” (Anon. 1813)
The Introduction of Moist Watercolors
Winsor and Newton introduced moist watercolor cakes in the 1830s. Since the Reeves brothers’ invention, other colormen introduced their own cakes and a multitude of formulations, improving upon the original cakes. One such improvement utilized the moisture-retaining properties of a then recently discovered material, glycerin. In 1835, Winsor and Newton added glycerin to their formula for watercolor paint and introduced moist watercolor in pans. By the late 1830s painting sets with little porcelain pans of watercolors were available to artists, competing with the harder pressed cakes.
Winsor and Newton introduced moist watercolor cakes in the mid-1830s utilizing glycerin.
By 1846 Winsor and Newton modified their moist cake formula and created a paste formula for metal tubes. In 1841, the artist John Rand invented a collapsible paint tube made of tin for storing artists’ oil paints. They improved upon Rand’s tube design by adding the screw cap and obtaining a patent for it in 1842. Following this invention, Winsor and Newton were able to offer moist watercolors in tubes.
By 1846, Winsor and Newton introduced paste watercolor paint in tubes.
By 1846, Winsor and Newton introduced watercolor paint in tubes. By the middle of the 19th century, commercial watercolor paints were available in two basic forms, tubes or pans. The majority of paints sold in collapsible metal tubes were available in several standard sizes (the most common sizes today are 5 ml, 14 ml, and 37 ml tubes). Watercolor cakes were usually sold in two sizes, full pans (approximately 3 cubic centimeters of paint) and half pans.
Ingredients of Early Watercolor Paint
Watercolor paint essentially consists of pigment, binder (the most common in 19th century was gum arabic) and water. It is not known when such additives as plasticizers, humectants and preservatives were first added, but sugar and honey have been used from the beginning of watercolor paint history (Ormsby 2005). They are added to ‘impart strength and transparency,’ as reported by Clark, and to create ‘moist colours’ by acting as humectants and as plasticizers to prevent cracking (Clark 1838).
Almost all early watercolor cake recipes included candy sugar or honey, which was later replaced by glycerin. In the early 19th century, Ackermann marketed watercolor cakes made with honey, called ‘honey colours’, where a significant portion of the binder—and in some cases the sole binder—was honey (Ormsby 2002).
Preservatives, in the form of essential oils, have been used to preserve watercolor paints from the degradation caused by insects, bacteria and fungi. Many of the Roberson recipes, for example, suggested ‘rubbing up’ the gums in lavender water (Ormsby 2002, pp. vii-viii), while others included the addition of rosemary water (Anon. 1843) and rose water (Goeree1674). Other preservatives were utilized, such as borax (Field 1835) along with alcohol and ammonia and, later, alum (Anon. 1843, p. 17; 37) and ammonium carbonate (Field 1850). Modern preservatives have largely replaced these in the 20th century.
Ox-gall was used as a wetting agent in watercolor paints, to decrease surface tension, prevent pigment agglomeration and to increase paint flow. The majority of the Roberson recipes from the early to mid 19th century, for example, included ox-gall. Ox-gall was later replaced by synthetic alternatives known as dispersants.
In a comprehensive study of British watercolor cakes from the 18th to early 20th centuries, it appears that early watercolor cake manufacturers, such as Ackermann, produced cakes using gum arabic alone. Other early watercolor cake manufacturers, such as Reeves and Roberson, occasionally added other gums such as tragacanth, cherry or sarcocolla to their paints while retaining gum arabic as the primary binder. By the early twentieth century, gum arabic was again being used as the primary binder. The amounts of honey or sugar added to the paints were either pigment-dependent, or quality-dependent, with a significant increase in student-grade watercolors (Ormsby 2005).
Later Ingredients
In the 20th century, watercolor paint manufacturers introduced wheat starch (U.S. Patent 816,648) and dextrin (U.S. Patent 2,594,273) into their formulations and, later in the century, such synthetic polymers as polyvinylpyrrolidone (BASF 1993). Many formulas, especially for student grade products, replaced gum arabic entirely with starch or dextrin. Sugar and honey were substituted in part or entirely with sorbitol (U.S. Patent 2,822,281), propylene glycol and polyethylene glycol (BASF 1993). Many of these new ingredients improved certain properties of watercolor paints, but also changed their appearance and handling qualities.
Staining
Staining is the characteristic of watercolor paint that makes difficult to remove from paper after it has been applied. Less staining colors can be lightened or removed almost entirely when wet or when wetted and then lifted by stroking gently with a clean, wet brush and then blotted up. Staining depends in large part on the composition of the paper and on the particle size of the pigment. Staining is increased if the paint manufacturer uses a dispersant to reduce the paint mixing time, because the dispersant acts to embed pigment particles in the fibers of paper, dulling the finished color. While most brands of watercolors contain dispersants, Rublev Colours Watercolors do not contain dispersants; staining is minimized.
Granulation and Flocculation
Granulation is the appearance of visible pigment particles once the color is applied, especially when the paint is diluted and applied with a wet brush stroke. Some iron oxide pigments are noted for their property of granulating.
Flocculation is the clumping together of pigment particles, typical of some colors, such as lapis lazuli and ultramarine. Both granulation and flocculation create subtle effects as the paint dries and are considered desirable by some painters. The trend in commercial watercolors is to suppress pigment texture in favor of homogeneous washes of color. Many of the earth and mineral pigments used in Rublev Colours Watercolors are composed of larger particle sizes and produce granulation effects naturally without the use of additives.
Rublev Colours Makes It Simple Again
By making watercolor paint simple again, Natural Pigments gives today’s artists new choices. Rublev Colours Watercolors provide a new selection of colors by restoring natural and historical pigments to the artists' palette. Without modern additives these paints have a noticeably different consistency and appearance.
These choices represent clear advantages to artists’ material retailers who must differentiate themselves in today’s competitive marketplace.
Resources
Goodwin, Michael (1966) Artist and Colourman, Reeves and Sons, pp. 17.
Royal Society of British Artists (1889) Exhibit Catalog, p. ix.
Anonymous (1813) "Observations on the Rise and Progress of Painting in Water Colours," Repository of Arts Vol. 9, pp. 91-92.
Ormsby, Bronwyn A., Joyce H. Townsend, Brian W. Singer, John R. Dean (2005) "British Watercolour Cakes from the Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century," Studies in Conservation, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 45-66.
Clark, John H. (1838) Elements of Drawing and Painting in Water Colours, William. S. Orr and Co., Edinburgh, W and R. Chambers, London, p. 132.
Ormsby, Bronwyn A. (2002) The Materials and Techniques of William Blake’s Tempera Paintings. William Blake 1751-1827, unpublished PhD dissertation, Northumbria University, Newcastle, pp. 211-219.
Anon. (1843) Hand Book of the Elements of Painting in Water Colours: With Practical Instructions for Mixing and Shading the Same, published by H.G. Clarke, London, p. 54.
Goeree, W. (1674) An Introduction to the General Art of Drawing, Wherein is Set Forth the Grounds and Properties, Which of this Infallible and Judicious Art are Necessary to be Known and Understood, printed for Rob. Pricke, London, p. 9.
Field, George (1835) Chromatography; or, A Treatise on Colours and Pigments, and of their Powers in Painting, Charles Tilt, London , p. 200.
Field, George (1850) Rudiments of the Painter's Art; or a Grammar of Colouring, Applicable to Operative Painting, Decorative Architecture, and The Arts, John Weak, London, p. 128.
BASF (October 1993) Manufacture of Colored Pencils, Wax Crayons, Watercolors, Poster Paints and Artist’s Colors, BASF Technical Information.
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