Anthony van Dyck, Lady Thimbleby and Dorothy, Viscountess Andover

This pigment analysis is based on the work of the scientists at the National Gallery London (1). The scientists employed x-ray radiography (XRR), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and x-ray diffraction (XRD)  to gain insights into the inner layers of the painting and to identify the pigments.

1 The blue patch of sky near the horizon: smalt and lead white mixed with a red lake.

2 Blue parts of the sky: smalt.
3 Dark grey parts of the sky: charcoal black mixed with smalt.

4 The dark green curtain in the background: a mixture of green verditer (artificial malachite) and yellow lake with charcoal black added in the shadows.

5 Green rose leaves in the basket: lead-tin yellow, yellow lake, and azurite.

6 Putto’s red drapery: vermilion with lead white glazed in the shadows with a red lake.

7 Viscountess Dorothy’s brown shawl: vermilion, red ochre and black pigment mixed (not glazed) with a red lake.
8 Viscountess’s golden-yellow dress: lead-tin yellow. The darker and more golden tones contain deep yellow ochre with white and a little crystalline red ochre (haematite). The more orange tones of the sleeve are painted with a higher proportion of haematite, as well as lead-tin yellow, yellow ochre, and red lake.

9 Lady Elisabeth’s white dress: pure lead white painted over an underlayer of grey tones made of white and charcoal black in the cooler tones and white and Vandyke brown in the warmer tones.
10 Flesh tones: virtually pure lead white with very small quantities of finely ground red ochre, vermilion, and Vandyke brown in the lights and with a little yellow ochre and black in the shadows.
11 Distinctly cool bluish shadows of Lady Elisabeth’s raised hand: a small quantity of natural ultramarine was added to the paint mixture described above (No 10).

References

(1) Ashok Roy, The National Gallery’s Van Dycks: Technique and Development, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Volume 20, 1999, pp. 73-76. Available as pdf.

(1) Ashok Roy, The National Gallery’s Van Dycks: Technique and Development, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Volume 20, 1999, pp. 73-76. Available as pdf.

(2) Walter Liedtke and Michelle Safer, Reversing the Roles: Van Dyck’s Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Thimbleby with Her Sister Dorothy Savage, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 151, No. 1271, Dutch and Flemish Art (Feb. 2009), pp. 79-83.

(3) Liedtke, Walter A, “Anthony van Dyck“: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 42, no. 3 (Winter, 1984–1985). Available as pdf.