CHARCOAL BLACK

Origin, History and Characteristics

Used throughout history, carbon or charcoal  black is easy to prepare and has excellent hiding power. Since carbon absorbs light so well, it often appears dark with infrared imaging, revealing an artist's charcoal sketch under the painting. The name carbon black is generally used as a generic name for those blacks that are made from the partial burning or carbonizing of natural gas, oil, wood, vegetables and other organic matter.

Charcoal Black in Vermeer's Painting

Charcoal black was used to portray the black marble tiles seen in  many of Vermeer's interiors. Since charcoal black has a strong brownish undertone, the artist added a touch of natural ultramarine to render the bluish cast of the marble itself.

Vermeer also used charcoal black to reduce the chromatic intensity of natural ultramarine in the deeper shadows of the blue tablecloth which appears in a few of his works.

However, one of the most subtle uses of charcoal black is found in various white-washed walls which appear in his interiors. Painters of the time used black, often with umber, to render the shadows of white objects. However, Vermeer's walls convey a pearl-like luminosity not to be found in similar depictions of white-washed walls of painters working in the same genre such as Gabriel Metsu or Pieter de Hoogh.

In Vermeer's best works, the viewer does not have the impression of seeing lighter and darker shades of gray pigment but rather a perfectly white wall which receives more or less light. Charcoal black was used to tone down the lighter areas of the wall painted with heavy impasto white lead. In the deeper shadows, umber dominates over black in the dark gray mixture since excessive quantities of black lends the shadows a sullen effect.