A Vault for Colors: The Forbes Pigment Collection

Via Colossal: Photos courtesy Zak Jensen & Andrea Shea/WBUR

The extensive collection of pigments of the Forbes pigment collection is amazing, and a place that I definitely would like to visit. Below is a little excerpt from an article written at Colossal and a video from Great Big Story about the collection. 

Colossal: Harvard’s Colorful Library Filled With 2,500 Pigments Collected from Around the World

The Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard Art Museums is different than many other departments of its kind—it's visible to the public. The public can witness conservators at work as well as view 2,500 pigment samples placed in tincture bottles and housed behind tall glass cabinets. The samples are reminiscent of medicine bottles—the concentrated material’s purpose to help doctor paintings rather than physical maladies. 

The Forbes pigment collection was started by its namesake—Straus Center founder and former Fogg Art Museum Director Edward Forbes who began the collection at the turn of the 20th century. Forbes would collect his samples from his travels all over the world, bringing back pigments from excavated sites at Pompeii to rare lapis lazuli found in Afghanistan.

Forbes’ interest in pigments and preservation started with his purchase of the 14-century Madonna and Child with Saints, which he bought in 1899 and noticed that the painting was quickly deteriorating. Harvard Art Museums research curator Francesca Bewer remarks in her book A Laboratory for Art: Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in America, 1900-1950 that he then began a passionate exploration into the process of how paintings were made. This interest led to collecting the materials needed for the preservation of fine artworks alongside his own collection of early Italian paintings.

Colossal's article also mentions this database, CAMEO: Conservation & Art Materials Encyclopedia Online, which I didn't know existed. Not only is the database impressively extensive, but it also houses a digital database of the Forbes' pigments! I am going to have to go through and read about the pigments I have already written about just to make sure I have all of my information correct. 

If you would like to read about various oil pigments, but in much smaller doses, take a look at my Pigment posts on my main Tips and Techniques page.