Hand Grinding and the Purchase of Materials

The production of paint is a simple but demanding chore. The necessary knowledge was acquired through the traditional apprentice-master relationship. In fact grinding paint was one of the apprentice's principal daily chores which left the master greater time and energy to spend on the creative act of painting. Raw materials could be bought from a number of sources. In the studio, these materials had to cleansed and properly prepared for making paint. The fact there exists absolutely no historical  evidence that indicates that Vermeer ever had an apprentice reinforces the idea that the artist produced his own paint.

Although the principal of hand grinding paint is fairly simple, the actual practice presents many subtleties which can be only mastered through experience. At the beginning, very little oil is added to the dry pigment powder which is roughly mixed together with  a spatula. Then with a hand muller, usually made of  marble,  the paint is ground together with a circular motion spreading it out over the surface of a marble slab. The paint is then heaped up and grinding is repeated a second time, if necessary.

Each pigment absorbs different quantities of binder and in order to produce the most permanent and brilliant paint the artist must also know how long he must grind each of them. Some pigments must be ground for extended lengths of time to create a suitable paste. Others quickly lose their brilliance if ground too much. In general however, hand ground paint used in Vermeer's times paint was probably stiffer and coarser than today's commercially sold paints which are passed through rollers in order to bring them all to the same degree of coarseness.

Ernst van de Watering (Rembrandt: The Painter at Work) provides convincing evidence that apprentices prepared a limited amount of paints depending on the what the master intended to paint that day rather than the whole range of available colors. This practice finds its roots in the logic of contemporary painting methods. After having first blocked in the general forms, composition and lighting scheme in a monochrome  grayish underpainting, the artist then proceeded to complete separate areas of the painting one at a time usually in a single sitting.

Did Vermeer Hand Grind His Own Paints?

Historical evidence demonstrates that paint was already being commercially produced in the mid-seventeenth-century in major artistic centers in the Netherlands. However, it is not to know exactly to what extent painters employed pre-prepared paint since production methods are unknown and thus the presence of commercially prepared pigment cannot be determined by laboratory analysis. However, In the light of Vermeer's highly perfectionist approach to the thematic, compositional and technical components of his art, it might be safely assumed that  he was more apt to have made his own paint in order to assure the exact qualities he desired. This attitude is confirmed by his rather uncommon use of the finest grade of the costly ultramarine (crushed natural lapis lazuli) instead of the cheaper azurite.

Conservation of Paint

Metal tubes¹ were widely employed only in the mid 1800s so excess paint which had not been used could be kept temporarily in pig's bladders or emerged over night in water to prevent contact with oxygen which induces drying. As already stated, paints were stiffer than paints in tubes today although each artist could impart to his paint the particular qualities he may have desired.

The Purchase of Artist's Materials

Painters could acquire their materials from shops specialized in artist's materials, apothecaries, sailors from abroad and even quack doctors.   It should be noted  that "it was quite common for painters to buy equipment outside the cities where they worked. If we examine the accounts of Crijn Hendrikszoon Volmarijn, the major dealer in painter's materials known from Dutch sources of this period, who was active in Rotterdam in the first half of the seventeenth-century, we find that he had a large number of clients from Delft."² Materials could also be easily found in Utrecht and Amsterdam were great number of artists lived. However, "in the city of Delft there seems to been an accumulation of  specialized knowledge of the nature, composition and application of pigments and other substances used in painting. In addition to the painters themselves, there was also a group of apothecaries and artisans (largely involved in producing Delftware) who were experienced in the production of pigments." ³

It is known that Vermeer had accumulated a debt with the apothecary in Delft where he is believed to have purchased some of his artists materials. Lead-tin yellow, the characteristic lemon yellow tone in Vermeer's paintings, was listed among the materials in the apothecary's ledgers.  In the nearby city of Leiden "a Danish student attending the Leiden University described the situation there by remarking that Leiden held public sales of cartloads of books on topics such as pharmacopoeia, pigments, drugs and herbs. The only color not listed in any of the existing shop inventories is ultramarine; this must have been obtained through another channels."⁴ Vermeer, differently from his contemporaries, made extensive use lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone used in the production the costly natural ultramarine. In any case, Vermeer had no lack of either the materials of the knowledge necessary to produce the highest quality paints.