Rembrandt, Portrait of Margaretha de Geer
ca 1661Paintings sorted by Historical period | Painter | Subject matter | Pigments used
Overview
Rembrandt, Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, and its companion portrait of her husband Jacob Trip are examples of Rembrandt’s popularity as a portrait painter in the last decade of his life. The family of the Dordrecht merchant Jacob Trip was one of the richest in Holland.
The pigment analysis revealed a palette consisting of red, orange, and yellow ochres, smalt, bone black, lead white, and carmine cochineal lake.
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 130.5 x 97.5 cm
Art period: Baroque
National Gallery London
NG1675
Painting in the Rembrandt Database
Pigments
Pigment Analysis
This pigment analysis is based on the work of the scientists at the National Gallery London (1).
1 Dark greyish-green wall to the left: underpaint consisting of red, orange, and yellow ochre mixed with bone black and a trace of lead white. The surface glaze contains smalt, red ochre, and possibly yellow lake.
2 Deep shadow of the wall: same underpaint layer as in 1) above but the glaze consists now of bone black tinted with red lake and red ochre.
3 Deep brown shadows in the left edge: thick glaze containing smalt, carmine cochineal lake over an underpaint of bone black.
4 Black robe: Glaze of bone black and smalt warmed with a little reddish-brown lake.
5 Orange-brown fur trim of the robe: olive-grey underpaint layer overpainted with a mixture of red lake, smalt, and possibly yellow-lake pigment. The final glaze contains smalt and a little red lake.
References
(1) Bomford, D. et al., Art in the making: Rembrandt, New edition, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 172-77.
Pigments Used in This Painting
Resources
See the collection of online and offline resources such as books, articles, videos, and websites on Rembrandt in the section ‘Resources on Painters‘
PowerPoint Presentations
Painter in Context: Rembrandt
A richly illustrated presentation on the painting technique and pigments employed by Hieronymus Bosch specially crafted for Art Education. (Number of Slides = 20)
- Each presentation starts with the basic resources on the painter such as his biography, main catalogs of his paintings, and a bibliography.
- Next, you find slides describing the painting technique of the artist and the pigments he usually employed in his work.
- The majority of the slides show examples of paintings containing the specific pigments.
The majority of the slides show important examples of paintings where Rembrandt employed specific pigments. The slides are organized according to the color of the pigments.
Publications and Websites
Publications
A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, Volumes I – VI, by the scientists of The Rembrandt Research Project are available on the website of The Rembrandt Database in pdf-Format.
(1) Bomford, D. et al., Art in the making: Rembrandt, New edition, Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 172-177.
