Until 1880, varnishing oil paintings was standard practice, but three completely different types of varnish were used. A journey through names like sandarac and colophony.
Poynter
A common convention in paintings of classical myth, the river god was a bearded old man with a put pouring forth water, often seen with a Naiad, his daughter.
One of Ovid’s most painted stories, still popular, with some of the finest depictions by Poussin, Rubens, Corot, Watts, Scheffer, and others.
From Richard Parkes Bonington, through AW Hunt, John Brett, Edward Poynter, Delacroix, Rosa Bonheur, Daumier, Gustave Moreau, and Winslow Homer.
Were Pre-Raphaelite landscape paintings just a brief and unimportant, passing phase, or did they have significant influence?
After his reputation was shredded by Roger Fry, Alma-Tadema was almost forgotten. Why should his work now be revived?
An unusual classical god in very peculiar circumstances: what took the goddess of love to the doctor?
His classical narratives are as sophisticated as Leighton’s, his spectacles as good as Gérôme at his best, and he made some of the best paintings of the Aesthetic movement.
Reviled through the twentieth century, in his day he was one of the most eminent British artists. Is he due a revival?
The Eclectic Light Company 