Customer Reviews

The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting

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Max Doerner lectured art students with the most accurate information ever compiled up to 1932. About 1900 there was a big change in the manufacturing of color, Max was the artist's protector. "Art has abandoned the sound principles of craftsmanship and is therefore lacking in a dependable foundation". Max Doerner 1931

1916, THEORY, The last color-wheel (square) of college record was by Church-Oswalt. It has Yellow, Red, Sea Green and Ult. Blue at the corners. It made way for the new coal-tar colors, all pigments were replaced by there top-tone matching colors. Naples Yellow, Rubins favorite, and artists favorite for two thousand years, was replaced by a mixture of Zinc and Ocher. Pigments were moving from the Iron Age to the Oil Age. Church-Oswalt had no regard for transparency/opacity, or raw pigment content. Only the final dried color. This is the way todays pigment manufactures make colors. Clearly, the artists interests are not at heart.

1886, COLOR,

THE FIRST AND LAST PUBLIC STANDARD OF PIGMENT COLORS FOR ARTISTS As noted by Max Doerner.

A. W, Keim, German. "Deutche Gesellschatf zur Forderung rationeller Malverfahren", The German Society for the Promotion of Rational Methods in Painting. They set up control for the pigments in colors found best by the artists, to guarantee the color's characteristics and ingredients. These are the colors deemed necessary by the artists; 1.White Lead, 2. Zinc White, 3. Cadmium Yellow Light, Medium and Orange. (Cadmium Red wasn't discovered until 1909), 4. Indian Yellow, 5. Naples Yellow Light and Dark, 6. Yellow to Brown, Natural and Burnt Ochers and Sienna, 7. Red Ocher, 8. Iron Oxide colors, 9. Graphite, 10. Alizarin Crimson, Madder Lake, 11. Vermilion, 12. Umbers, 13. Cobalt Blue, Native and Synthetic, 14. Ultramarine Blue, Natural and Synthetic, 15. Paris-Prussian Blue, 16. Oxide of Chromium, Opaque and Transparent Veridian, 17. Green Earth, 18. Ivory Black, 19. Vine Black.

Today we still have no exceptable replacements for the Naples Yellows or Indian Yellow Transparents, Golden or Brown.

Turpentine is the best thinner for oil paints. I don't agree with Mayer's Handbook saying that petroleum distilled paint thinner works for fine artwork. Doerner explained in his 1934 book, The Materials of the Artist, how they are unnatural with paints that absorb oxygen while drying. Being refined from a nondrying petroleum oil, they only evaporate, without absorbing oxygen. Petroleum thinners are good only for cleaning brushes of the trade, not the expensive brushes we use as artists. Petroleum thinner will not dissolve the valuable damar varnish either, as turpentine does so well.

You can see now why this book was suppressed after the wars. It was not in the paint manufactures best interest to let this knowledge get back to the new emerging artists.

If you are a serious artist, I urge you to get this book, The Materials of the Artist by Doerner. Compare it to the Mayer's Artists Handbook and see how just information pertaining to new colors is mentioned and the rest of Max's historical work was usurped. Don Jusko

this book deals alot with traditional methods of working with oil, tempera, pastel and watercolour. it also goes into detail about different methods of painting such as layers, wet in wet and discusses what makes a good painting. it is a very complete book for its generation but was written in the 1930s before acrylics and i found it unhelpful in this respect when dealing with acrylic primer and alkyd paints. however thos who prefer a time tested approach to painting will love this book.

This book was very informative, I have learnt a great deal from this book, it tells you how the old masters paiited and it is invaluable in understanding the solid foundations of painting so you understand the complex spectum of oil painting, from glazed painting, wet in wet painting, fresco painting and mural painting. e.g. Vermeer quoting 'careesly soft glazes'. Excellent book and recommended!!

I bought this book when I was a student and over the years have been dipping into it, usually to seek specific information, but then one finds other fascinating bits which jump out at one. The book is a gold mine: it will tell you in depth about traditional pigments, their sources and how particular colours are made, how they react together, how to lay a suitable painting ground, gesso and the likes, how Vermeer, Rubens, Goya, Velasquez, Rembrandt, El Greco, and other great painters achieved their effects. It can generate ideas and be inspiring if you like experimenting and being in touch with those more organic materials. You have a more of a personal connection to them and it is like growing your own vegetables compared to buying imported ones. Once you thoroughly understands the workings and chemistry of a process you might think your way further experimentally and adapt it for your own purpose. You can then add to your arsenal of modern techniques.

For anyone with a serious interest in pursuing painting, Doerner is an absolute must have. The experience and knowledge in this book accessible to all.I am so grateful to it.