An illustrated table of contents for the whole of this series, with listings of featured artists, pigments, etc.
sciences
Fading and colour change in paints has been well-described since 1400. Shown here in examples using indigo, it wasn’t properly investigated until the late 19th century.
Joshua Reynolds, who aspired to paint like Rembrandt; JMW Turner who explored colour contrasts and texture; Edgar Degas, who dried his oils before painting.
Physiognomy originated in ancient Greece, but was codified by Lavater in 1772; phrenology followed from 1796, and together they attracted many painters.
It has been claimed that Impressionism relied on oil paint being sold in tubes. In fact that was but a part of a change from craft to technology in the artist’s studio.
Acrylics are too chemically complex for artists to prepare themselves, containing packaged blends of polymers with surfactants, and much more.
After Seurat’s unexpected and early death, Paul Signac was his artistic heir, but the movement went in different directions before fading out after 1900.
With its origins in the old rivalry between form and colour, Divisionism was the concept of scientific painting in the mind of Georges Seurat.
From 1875 on, paintings of surgical procedures, heroes of medical and surgical advances, and the new clinical look of hospitals.
Paintings of iron and steel production, printing, lead mining, machining a cog wheel, spinning, and developing a photograph.
The Eclectic Light Company 