Gilbert Stuart

Here's a picture of Gilbert Stuart's portrait palette as described by Matthew Jouett in his manuscript, "Notes on Painting" from conversations with Gilbert Stuart in 1816. Along the top edge are his 7 basic colors - beginning over the hand(right to left) - antwerp blue(prussian blue), flake white, yellow ochre, vermillion, madder lake, burnt umber, and ivory black. Going down below the ochre are the flesh colors - ochre and white(pale), vermillion and white(pale), ochre white and vermillion(pale), vermillion white and a little lake(deep), vermillion and ochre equal parts(for reflections), and lake and a little vermillion(for the blood). And 4 more mixtures, below the top row, from right to left - white and blue, ochre and black(for a green), black and vermillion, and burnt umber and lake(for deepest shadows and glazing)

These are the real pigments. I actually have a tube of vermillion, Winsor Newton cambridge(their student line back in the 60's), and a tube of Winsor Newton genuine madder lake. Vermillion and white makes a cool pink, so, while cadmium red lt. looks like vermillion, cadmium red medium makes a much closer match when mixed with white.

There's a whole lot more valuable information on portrait painting in this manuscript. Here's how I found it. I had a book from the library on Gilbert Stuart - one of those big picture books. The Bibliography listed a book with the description that it included the complete manuscript written by one of his students - notes on Stuart's palette and painting methods. The book was titled "Gilbert Stuart and his Pupils" by John Hill Morgan; Matthew Harris Jouett. So I did a google search for - find in a library. The first site that came up was www.worldcat.org. You put in the title, select the book from the search results, then enter your zip code, and you get a list of libraries in your area that have the book. If none are real close, you can probably get an inter-library loan from your local library - they'll get the book for you! I was lucky - the book was at a college library less than 2 miles away.I went there the next day after work.