Grumbacher Artist Pallette Collection: 1930's - Late 1950's

摘要

The re-emergence of an unknown palette collection, numbering approximately 350 from the Grumbacher Collection, is one of the largest and most significant collections of artists' palettes collected and created in the United States in the early- to mid-20~(th) century. This collection provides additional clues and possibilities for documenting an artist's choice of colors. The Grumbacher Collection palettes represent a unique resource for conservators and microscopists involved in the authentication process. The results of this investigation provided insight into artists' use of colors and the pigments used to make them. They also showed that similarities between pigments used by separate artists existed and in fact were greater than previously hypothesized. The mi-croanalyses of the twenty-four pigments from four palettes showed that the whites, reds, yellows and orange colors were identical pigments. This could be due to the popularity of the zinc white and cadmium pigments in the early 20~(th) century. Or it could be because Grumbacher actually provided those pigments to the artists. Either way, the results of the testing provide valuable clues for art historians and conservators alike. The blue and green pigments turned out to be equally informative because of their variability, especially the light blues and greens. These light colors appear to be commercially prepared tints, identifiable by the uniformity and fluidity of the pigment dispersion, which can be sourced to Grumbacher manufacturing. These light blues and greens have the potential to become marker pigments linked to specific artists thus beneficial to the authentication of their works.