Rhode Island School of Design DigitalCommons@RISD

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Spring 2015

Manual / Issue 4 / Blue

Amy Pickworth, Editor Rhode Island School of Design, [email protected]

Sarah Ganz Blythe, editor Rhode Island School of Design, [email protected]

S. Hollis Mickey, editor Rhode Island School of Design, [email protected]

Lawrence Berman Rhode Island School of Design

A. Will Brown Rhode Island School of Design, [email protected]

See next page for additional authors

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Recommended Citation Pickworth,, Amy Editor; Ganz Blythe,, Sarah editor; Mickey,, S. Hollis editor; Berman, Lawrence; Brown, A. Will; Catano, Linda; Finch, Spencer; Helfend, Jessica; Irvin, Kate; Molon, Dominic; Nelson, Maggie; Neuman, Ingrid; Nishimura, Margot McIlwain; Schloss, Karen B.; Strickland, Anna; van Tilborgh, Louis; van Maanen, Oda; and Williams, Elizabeth A., "Manual / Issue 4 / Blue" (2015). Journals. 4. https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/4

This Journal is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at DigitalCommons@RISD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journals by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@RISD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Amy Pickworth, Editor; Sarah Ganz Blythe, editor; S. Hollis Mickey, editor; Lawrence Berman; A. Will Brown; Linda Catano; Spencer Finch; Jessica Helfend; Kate Irvin; Dominic Molon; Maggie Nelson; Ingrid Neuman; Margot McIlwain Nishimura; Karen B. Schloss; Anna Strickland; Louis van Tilborgh; Oda van Maanen; and Elizabeth A. Williams

This journal is available at DigitalCommons@RISD: https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/4 1 Issue— 4

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Blue Issue — 4

Manual Manual column

Spring 2015 BlueBlue Spring 2015 Spring Spring 2015 Spring Manual Manual 3 Issue— 4

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(cover) (end papers) Gift of Exit Art 2012.133.2.6 Talasnik © Stephen French (Mantes-la-Jolie) ca. 1225–1235 Window, Stained-Glass Glass with lead × 18 in.) 61 × 45.7 cm. (24 19.044 Gift of William A. Viall and William C. Dart Bartolomeo Coriolano active 1627–1653Italian, Guido Reni After 1575–1642 Italian, , ca. 1640 Sleeping Cupid Chiaroscuro woodcut Gift of Murray S. Danforth, Jr. 50.365 S. Danforth, Gift of Murray Plate: 29.8 × 38.3Plate: cm. (11 Height: 4.8 cm. (1 Radeke 11.768 Gustav Gift of Mrs. Talasnik Stephen American, b. 1954 ( 86 × 56 cm. (33 Fossil, 2010 Fossil, Ecstasy From the Exit Art portfolio Screenprint and collage on blue Gampi Soft White paper and Somerset Japanese century 19th–mid-20th late coat), (work Noragi cotton, indigo dyed Plain-weave × 94 cm. (31 × 37 in.) 78.7 2012.21.1 Fund N. Casey T. and Dorothy Elizabeth Roman 1st century BCE–1st century CE Cup, Patella Glass Blue RISD Museum director: John Smith Manual Editor-in-chief: Ganz Blythe Sarah with S. Hollis Mickey Editor: Amy Pickworth designer: Derek SchusterbauerGraphic Erik Gould Photographer: otherwise noted) (unless Printer: Meridian to Denise Bastien, Gina thanks Special Borromeo, A. Will Brown, Laurie Brewer, Guenther, Erik Gould, Sionan Linda Catano, Molon, Irvin, Dominic Kate Jan Howard, Emily Ingrid Neuman, Maureen C. O’Brien, Poterack, Glenn Stinson, Alexandra Peters, A. Williams. and Elizabeth This issue of Manual is generously the RISD Museum supported by Associates. Manual: a journal about art and its making (ISSN 2329-9193) yearly is produced twice the RISD Museum. by Museum of Art, © 2015 Contents Rhode Island School Design of RISD WORKS at Manual is available and as a benefit of RISD (risdworks.com) Learn more at Museum membership. risdmuseum.edu. Back issues can be found issuu.com/risdmuseum. Funds online at through the sales of Manual generated the at programs support educational RISD Museum. Manual Street Benefit 224 RI 02903 Providence, United States [email protected] risdmuseum.org / 2015 4 / Spring Issue— Blue Spring 2015 Spring Manual

Italian (Venice) Bowl, ca. 1600 Glass with gilded brass mounts 12.7 × 19.4 × 16.5 cm. (5 × 7 ⅝ × 6 ½ in.) Gift of Mrs. Frank Mauran and John O. Ames, by exchange 73.060 5 Issue— 4

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is the author of nine books of poetry of poetry books author of nine Nelson is the Maggie , most recentand prose, the being The Argonauts She Press 2015. in May Graywolf due out from teaches School in the of Critical Studies CalArts at and livesLos Angeles. in Ingrid Neuman is the RISD Museum conservator. Her work focuses on three-dimensional sculpture, interest in the museum’s with a specific research polymers. art composed of contemporary the history of medieval taught Nishimura Margot to RISD undergraduates art and architecture director for She is now the deputy for many years. engagement and public collections, programming, Foundation. the Newport Restoration at B. Schloss is an assistant professor of Karen of Cognitive, Linguistic in the Department research Sciences Brown University. at & Psychological color perception, include Her areas of research of aesthetics, studies and information behavioral visualization. is a senior critic in the Photography Anna Strickland Given was RISD. Her installation Department at in 2013 the Month of Photography shown at on the work opens a variation Slovakia; Bratislava, NY. Gallery, the Christian Duvernois at in July 2015 is a professor of art history at Tilborgh Louis van of Amsterdam and a senior researcher the University Maanen, Gogh Museum, where Oda van the Van at both They is a painting conservator. his co-author, Van are currently working on the last volume in the paintings. of the artist’s catalogue Gogh Musem’s and Tilborgh Van an article by In October 2013, Maanen with Teio Meedendorp, “Sunset at Van Vincent Montmajour: A newly discovered painting by published in Burlington Magazine. Gogh,” was van and Peggy A. Williams is the David Elizabeth and Design Arts of Decorative Rockefeller Curator interests include the RISD Museum. Her research at American and British silver from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, French faience, American French faience, and nineteenth centuries, chinoiserie, Japonisme, and the and British interiors, grotesque. Contributors , and is the Norma Jean Calderwood Calderwood Norma Jean is the Berman Lawrence Nubian, Egyptian, of Ancient Senior Curator Arts, the Museum of Fine Art at and Near Eastern latestBoston. His book, The Priest, the Prince, and and Afterlife The Life of an Ancient the Pasha: Publications), (Boston: MFA Sculpture Egyptian spring of 2015. is due to appear in the curatorial A. Will Brown is the RISD Museum’s art. His work features assistant of contemporary with a particular artists contemporary emerging new media. His most recentfocus on film, video, and In Diverse Çavuşoğlu: Estimations projectAslı was (2014). Moscow Little paper is the RISD Museum’s Linda Catano specialist Department of Prints, in the preservation where her work involves and Photographs, Drawings, collections of all media. the care of paper-based She has a particular interest in historic materials artists. and techniques used by Finch is a Brooklyn-based visual artist Spencer the mechanics and mysteries whose work explores Recent solo museum exhibitions of perception. and in New York City Library include the Morgan in North Adams, Massachusetts.MASS MoCA , a founding editor of Design Jessica Helfand designer and writer. A former is a graphic Observer, contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye Communications Arts magazines, she is a member and a recent Internationale of Alliance Graphique of the Art Director’slaureate she also Hall of Fame; at has taught Helfand medal in 2013. won the AIGA since 1994. University Yale for the RISD Irvin is the head curator Kate and Textiles. Department of Costume Museum’s fashion from men’s range Her recent exhibitions robes. to Islamic clothing and Chinese Taoist she authored Artist/Rebel/ With Laurie Brewer, Press, University 2013). (Yale Dandy: Men of Fashion Richard Dominic Molon is the RISD Museum’s Art. He is of Contemporary Brown Baker Curator in exhibition solo the first currently organizing Scottish artist an American museum of work by The show will open in October 2015. Martin Boyce. Manual Spring 2015 book mark 35 22 10 8 —— —— —— —— —— Clear Couplings Loose Links& Portfolio Spencer Finch 3035 ShadesofBlue Study for Artist onArt Oda van Maanen Louis van Tilborgh and Auvers surOiseRevisited Van Gogh’sViewof Lesson Object Karen &DominicMolon B.Schloss Dan Flavin’sUntitled Linda Catano &Margot Nishimura Italian IlluminatedInitial Lawrence Berman&IngridNeuman Egyptian Paint Box Double Takes A. WillBrown as aRelative Medium Joseph Albers,andBlue From theFiles

Table of 60 56 48 46 Contents —— —— —— —— Object Lesson Object Maggie Nelson by AliceNeel On NancySelvage Artist onArt Jessica HelfandJessica Fugitive Project Artist onArt Anna Strickland Anna Atkins’sCyanotypes Elizabeth A.Williams Blue andWhiteCeramics How To Kate Irvin of Faded Indigo Japanese Boro:AnArchaeology 7 Issue— 4

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Blue Columns Indigo blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, zaffre blue, indanthrone blue, indanthrone blue, blue, blue, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, zaffre ultramarine Indigo blue, blue, Venetian Berlin blue, Prussian blue, French blue, blue, Han cyan phthalo blue, Klein blue, International Lanvin blue, Majorelle blue, blue, Dresden Tiffany blue, blue, blue. The names minerals, given to different shadesFacebook plants, of blue speak of branding pride; capitalist national and global trade, exoticism, and modern chemistry; history has but since then its palette, ancient artist’s to the late Blue came relatively suggested fathoms the deeper blue has always matter, such histories of material Beyond to control but also the heart and mind. From precious matter of not only the sea and sky, is a meditation on blue. The fourth issueand pure invention. of Manual is a meditation was particularly competition. Lapis lazuli and fierce evocation been one of ethereal as and employed known as Afghanistan is today mined in what sought after. It was traded Made from ground lapis lazuli and Asia. the Middle East a pigment throughout a paint more precious than gold, used in was the sea,” ultramarine from “beyond the divine. Azurite, and Renaissance and paintings to symbolize manuscripts medieval or base often served as surrogate cheaper and more fugitive alternative, ultramarine’s and especially wear blue from Edo Japan Plants—woad indigo—dyed workers’ layer. iron yielded chance concoction around 1704 California. A Berlin chemist’s to Gold Rush consistent, to bottle, it became known as Prussian blue, and easy saturated, ferrocyanide; a cash prize, Jean-Baptist spurred on by 1828, Berlin blue. In or to Japanese printmakers, and no longer inexpensive was that of ultramarine version Guimet invented a synthetic of other blues—Prussian, a range and ultramarine Synthetic dependent on lapis lazuli. readily accessible new portable, This in tubes. cobalt, became cerulean—soon available quest light and “paint air.” Soon to capture allowed Monet’s to artists palette available glow. In the to emit a blue tubes in fluorescent calibrated would be contained light itself dyes and pigments beyond palette has extended the artist’s and today, century twentieth away. click and a drag of RGB blue, all but a possible variation to every join us as we leap into the blue. lable algorithm to the wide blue yonder, looks at one object two one object at two looks Double Take From the Files pries open the archive, by an invited artist, response a creative Artist on Art offers ways, different Object Lesson the stories behind objects, presents Portfolio exposes a series the making of an object of objects on a theme, How To explores Blue From the Files Joseph Albers, and Blue as a Relative Medium by A. Will Brown Spring 2015 Spring

Josef Albers Josef Albers was a uniquely focused painter and color American, b. Germany, 1888–1976 theorist. He produced myriad rich compositions that often Study for Homage to the Square, detail one striking motif—Homage to the Square. From Excentric, 1961 as early as 1950 until his passing in 1976, Albers composed Oil on Masonite more than 2,000 paintings in this series.1 These works 40.6 × 40.6 cm. (16 × 16 in.) range widely in size, color, and composition, yet remain Gift of Josef Albers 69.214 incrementally consistent as he worked with one or a few

Manual © 2015 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights color juxtapositions at a time over multiple canvases. Society (ARS), New York Albers was a tremendously influential educator, teaching

Artist’s inscriptions on reverse: at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale. His groundbreaking treatise Interaction of Color, published Upper left: 16 x 16” [circled] in 1963, expounded on this “most relative medium in art,” Upper right: “Excentric” illustrating how “color deceives continually” in relation Ground: 6 coats of Liquitex to its surroundings. (Permt Pigment) Painting: paints used — from center: Albers expressed his theories through his paintings. The RISD Museum’s contemporary art collection holds Study Mars Yellow (Bocour) Mars Yellow (Lefebvre) for Homage to the Square: Concentric (1960) and Study for Reilly’s Gray #4 (Grumbacher) Homage to the Square: Excentric (1961)—both reproduced Cerulean Blue (Pretested) here, front and back. Albers’ studious approach is visible all in one primary coat not only in the compositions, but on the back of each can- “directly from the tube vas, in notes meticulously document­ing the colors, paint Varnish: companies, numbers of coats, and mixing formulas used, Albers’ 1961 9 Issue— 4

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provide seldom 2 seen yet hardly surprising details hiding in the shadows of hiding in the shadows seen yet hardly surprising details studies. Albers’s revealing his measured commitment to experimentation to experimentation his measured commitment revealing 1 Jeannette Redensek, Materials Painting On Josef Albers’ 28. 2014), Juan March, and Techniques (Madrid: Fundación Foundation. 2 The Josef & Anni Albers and his thoughtfulness about color theory as a study that is that and his thoughtfulness about color theory as a study about intellect. as it is The images as much about perception text, reproduced here, with transcribed

from center:

—

Painting: paints used Josef Albers 1888–1976 American, b. Germany, the Square, Study for Homage to Concentric, 1960 Oil on Masonite × 16 in.) 40.6 × 40.6 cm. (16 69.213 Gift of Josef Albers © 2015 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Artist’s inscriptions on reverse: Upper left: 16 x 16” [circled] Upper right: Study for Homage to the Square: “Concentric” Ground: 6 coats of Liquitex (Permt Pigment)[i.e. Liquitex acrylic gesso manufactured by Permanent Pigments] Reilly’s Gray #4 (Grumbacher) Cadmium Green (Shiva) Cadmium Green (Shiva Signature) Cobalt Green (Winsor + Newton) + second coat all directly from the tube Varnish: Metacrylate resin in Xylene Albers’ 1960 Blue

Egyptian Paint Box, 1302–1070 BCE Ceramic and pigment cakes 5.8 × 22 × 5.5 cm. (2 5⁄16 × 8 11⁄16 × 2 3⁄16 in.) Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 1997.82

Lawrence M. Berman / Double Ingrid Neuman Take Spring 2015 Spring

Lawrence M. Berman: This paint box has a sliding lid with a knob in the form of a genet, a small predator related to the mongoose and often depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings. The box was probably not used for making wall paintings, though it could have been used for illustrating Book of the Dead papyri. Chances are, however, that this charming example belonged to an amateur rather than a professional painter. Painting was a leisure pursuit among the Egyptian elite, and a number of paint boxes—mostly made of wood but also of ivory or stone—are inscribed with the names of high officials, members of the royal family, even Pharaoh himself. Although the ancient Egyptians were quite

Manual capable of mixing pigments to obtain subtle hues, in general they were not interested in illusionistic effects of light, shading, and texture. Most artists seemed content with a fairly restricted palette, as demon- ciated with the inhospitable desert (Deshret, or “the strated by these cakes of black, white, red, dark red, Red Land”), but also with the life-giving sun, the ulti- yellow, and blue pigments. For the Egyptians, color mate symbol of rebirth. was charged with symbolism, although the meaning White (hedj) is color of light and ritual purity. could vary according to the context. Black (kem in Egyptian priests officiated in garments of immaculate Egyptian) was the color of the fertile silt deposited white linen, and mummies were wrapped in yards of annually by the Nile flood, and thus was the color white linen to protect their sanctity. The same word of Egypt itself (Kemet, “the Black Land”). As the soil was used for silver and in the verb “to brighten”; the held the promise of new life, black was associated term for daybreak was hedj ta, “brightening the land.” with Osiris, god of resurrection and renewal, who There seems to have been no special word for yellow. often appears with black skin. Red (desher) was asso- The Egyptians may have seen it as related to red, 11 Issue— 4

/ 64 There is always something exotic, otherworldly something exotic, There is always about blue. For ancient Egyptians, blue was the color blue was about blue. For ancient Egyptians, across expanse conceived as a watery of the heavens, from east to west boat by which the sun god traveled the rarest the color of lapis lazuli, Blue was day. every which came jewelry, of the stones used in Egyptian The god Amen, “the hidden Afghanistan. from faraway the most prestigious one,” had blue skin. Blue was as the blue favorite, this painter’s it was color. Clearly, pigment in the paint box is almost used up. Double Take Double Whereas the other primary colors used in Whereas the other primary colors both being associated with the sun. Yellow paint also both being associated served as a substitute for gold, the purest of metals, gods. it with the associated whose incorruptibility obtained painting came from pigments Egyptian yellow from the earth—red from hematite, naturally white from black from charcoal, from yellow ocher, different. Blue was carbonate)—blue chalk (calcium by manufactured but was did not come from nature, into a paste combining and fusing different elements blue. as Egyptian today known even Blue Spring 2015 Spring Manual 13 Issue— 4

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Lawrence M. Berman Ingrid Neuman Take Archaeological excavations have unearthed unearthed have excavations Archaeological Egyptian blue is chemically stable; that is why, is why, that blue is chemically stable; Egyptian This article draws on information found in François Delamare’s Blue Delamare’s found in François on information This article draws Publications, of Art and Industry (London: Archetype 5000 Years Pigments: 2013), 6–17 and 293. small cylindrical pigment cakes with the texture of texture small cylindrical pigment cakes with the still preserved on the their original linen wrappings suggesting both the preciousness of the surface, was Once a pigment cake friability. and its material and made, a portion could be ground more finely arabic binding agent such as gum mixed with a natural finer the to hold the pigment particles together. The size of the pigment, the paler the final color would be. ground particles (0.1mm) such more coarsely Larger, blue in our paint box were generally as the Egyptian on hieroglyphics painting or to create used for mural and imparting surfaces boldly covering larger a wall, Egyptian a strong visual presence. Ground more finely, prepared as ink and applied to papyrus. blue was in part, it has been so well preserved over the millen- to light radiation, when exposed nia. It will not fade mate made from organic unlike many other colorants color this Another reason why rials such as plants. is that has been so well preserved on ancient artifacts as a copper salt, blue possesses fungicidal Egyptian to which it qualities. It actually protects the substrate biologi- has been applied from potentially detrimental of ancient cal or plant growth. Not limited to examples art, blue can also be found in later Egyptian Egyptian art forms, such as Minoan, Greek, and Mediterranean painting. Roman fresco wall

Double Take Double in.) 16 ⁄ 3

× 2 16 ⁄ 11

× 8 16 ⁄ 5

Double Egyptian BCE Box,Paint 1302–1070 pigment cakes and Ceramic 5.8 × 22× 5.5 cm. (2 Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 1997.82 Fund Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Unlike so many other things the Egyptian blue is a copper silicate, composed composed blue is a copper silicate, Egyptian clearly a blue was The making of Egyptian Ingrid Neuman: ancient Egyptians detailed in hieroglyphic form, detailed ancient Egyptians like the ones in this paint box recipes for pigments were they word of mouth, as were passed down by were derived highly coveted. A number of pigments but Egyptian plants, ores, or organic from rocks, intentionally blue is often referred to as the first pigment. synthesized of quartz, sand, lime, natron (sodium carbonate), carbonate), of quartz, (sodium sand, lime, natron that however, oxides. It is the copper, and metallic The successful gives this mixture the blue coloration. demands making of this pigment is laborious, and of about 950°C a kiln temperature maintaining If the temperature days. for one to two (1740°F) time period, the blue for that cannot be maintained in the color becomes green; without enough oxygen kiln, the copper oxide turns to black. required carefully measured process that fastidious Where did those ingredients of ingredients. ratios come from? The copper component would most likely Syria, Phoenicia, been imported from Cyprus, have sand, The quartz likely came from desert or Palestine. abundant Egyptian and the calcium from naturally used as flux to speed limestone or gypsum. Natron, from dried sourced up the chemical reactions, was lake beds or plant ashes. Blue

Master of the Brussels Initials Italian (Bologna), active ca. 1390–ca. 1420 Initial C with Saint Nicholas from an Antiphonary, ca. 1410–1420 Tempera, gold, and ink on vellum 12.9 × 12.5 cm. (5 ⅛ × 4 ⅞ in.) Mary B. Jackson Fund 2010.19.2

Linda Catano / Double Margot Nishimura Take

Linda Catano: In the early fifteenth century, artists The other blue mineral color, azurite, more Spring 2015 Spring worked from a broad palette of rich pigments. Nature commonly used by medieval European painters, was offered raw materials in plants and colored miner- abundant and obtainable from mines in Germany, als, which were infused or ground then mixed with a Hungary, and France. Though not as exotic as ultra- binder to become paint. Other colors were artificially marine, which could cost as much as forty times more, fabricated through chemical formulations. Manuscript azurite also produced a deep vibrant blue, and when artists acquired colors from apothecaries and statio- the highest-quality stones were properly prepared, ners and learned preparation through apprenticeships the pigment could resemble the beauty of its rival. with experienced illuminators and from treatises and The two minerals could at times appear so similar that instruction books. Illuminators had to recognize the instruction books often recommended that the authen- limitations and properties of each of their colors, ticity of lazurite be confirmed by heating the stone. including which pigments oxidize or become unstable Under high temperature, lazurite remains unaffected, if intermixed with or placed next to others, and how while azurite quickly turns black. long to grind a mineral to achieve the particle size We decided to examine the blue in our illumina- yielding the best hue. tion to determine whether it was made from lazurite Blue mineral colors and of course gold were or azurite. A stereomicroscope at 30x magnification

Manual costly, and their use in manuscripts was often dictated showed that the pigment particles are similar in size by the budget of the patron who commissioned the to very fine sand, a characteristic of ground azurite, project. The clear, vibrant blue in this background was which requires some coarseness to reflect its blue assumed to be the legendary ultramarine, obtained color. Because the illumination was executed on parch- from the semiprecious mineral lazurite. Cennino ment, a smooth material made of prepared animal skin, Cennini, the author of the fourteenth-century painter’s a strong binder was needed to affix these sizable pig- manual Il libro dell’arte, describes it as “a color illus- ment particles. Made from plant gum or animal protein, trious, beautiful and most perfect, beyond all other binder was used abundantly in the paint mixture and colors.” Mined in a single province in Afghanistan and may have been applied alone as a varnish, explaining distributed via the major ports of Italy, it was the most the blue’s glossy surface. expensive pigment in the world. In European manu- We then turned to Raman spectroscopy, an scripts, ultramarine was reserved for the garments of analytic technology made available to us by the figures of great religious importance. generous invitation of scientists at Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. This non-destructive technique uses low-power 15 Issue— 4

/ 64 Although this discovery was initially met Although this discovery was Great thanks to Dr. Jens Stenger and Dr. Paul Whitmore at Yale for providing Yale Whitmore at to Dr. Jens Stenger and Dr. Paul Great thanks of the pigment. the Raman analysis with a tinge of disappointment, historical given the is a in the azurite we have what allure of ultramarine, of state brilliant pigment in an excellent high-quality a most befitting color after 600 years, preservation Nicholas. for St. of the heavens for the representation Double Take Double laser light to activate vibrations in molecules or vibrations laser light to activate of an object. The on the surface material crystalline spectrum light is collectedscattered and a vibrational material. is produced—a unique fingerprint of that a of known materials, Compared with the spectra can be made, and within minutes, our blue was match confirmed to be azurite. Blue Spring 2015 Spring Manual 17 Issue— 4

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Linda Catano / Linda Catano Nishimura Margot Take Blue is a connector and here, bridging Earth The C originally introduced the Latin respon- The C originally introduced the Latin leged to sing from it on a daily basis in the choir of leged to sing from it on a daily basis in the of prayer services for the season of Advent, from of prayer the Middle Ages, northern and southern Europe, sky, sory, “Confessor Dei Nicolaus,” for the communally “Confessor sory, cele sung opening to the Feast of Saint Nicholas, dowries and rescuing the man’s three daughters three daughters dowries and rescuing the man’s the saint, his steadfast emphasizes eternity—of antiphonary that contained all the sung portions contained antiphonary that or canons privi- sight for the monks a spectacular in northern Italy. a church the blue and a brisk, cloudless early December day, image was cut from a choir book, cut from a image was likely an most six lines of large-scale five or contained have been The manuscript must have musical notation. brated each year on December 6.* This tells us the brated house of an impoverished man—thus providing house of an impoverished man—thus providing on and his power to intercede profession of faith, initial the framing behalf. By contrast, humankind’s November through Christmas. The original page November through Christmas. The original C takes us to a specific moment and place. C takes the Renaissance, and today. Redolent of Heaven Redolent of Heaven the Renaissance, and today. was easily more than twenty inches high and would easily more than twenty was for whom the initial would have held a singular, if held a singular, for whom the initial would have from lives of prostitution. Here the blue background background from lives of prostitution. Here the blue field resonates with the angelic sounds of choristers with the angelic sounds of choristers field resonates fascination. fleeting, annual to a version by Anonymous 4: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-VURwOXL2s. by to a version *This medieval chant is popular with early-music groups today. Here is a link groups today. chant is popular with early-music *This medieval

Double Take Double Double Master of the BrusselsMaster Initials active (Bologna), 1420 ca. 1390–ca. Italian with SaintInitial C an Nicholas from ca. 1410–1420 Antiphonary (verso), gold, and ink on vellum Tempera, 12.9 12.5 × (5 ⅛ × 4 ⅞ in.) cm. 2010.19.2 Fund Mary B. Jackson From related works, we know the artist was we know the artist was works, From related As for the figure—this is Saint Nicholas of for the figure—this is Saint Nicholas of As setting was replaced in Western European illumination illumination replaced in Western European setting was century Italian illuminated manuscript that could be manuscript that illuminated century Italian Several great acts of charity are associated with him, with are associated acts of charity great Several associated with artistic developments of the early with artistic developments associated active in both Paris and Bologna from about 1390 and Bologna from about active in both Paris admired simply for the striking mineral blue of the striking mineral admired simply for the little more But if you know just a background. abstract about the artist, subject, the audience, and intended antecedent of today’s many “Jolly Old” variations). many “Jolly Old” variations). antecedent of today’s understand the painting as a whole and to appreciate as a whole and to appreciate the painting understand by interiors and landscapes that match in studied in studied match and landscapes that interiors by the three-dimensionality of the finely naturalism and modeled figure, which is more forward-looking in part by the use of blue in the background and the the use of blue in the background in part by in all of Christendom (and, yes, the historical in all of Christendom (and, yes, the historical the three gold balls in by including the one evoked more fully its original context and use. context original more fully its his right hand. A kind of visual shorthand, the balls of gold that, according represent the three purses Bari, fourth-century Bishop of Myra (in modern-day Bari, fourth-century (in modern-day Bishop of Myra Here’s a fragment from a fifteenth- a fragment Here’s Nishimura: Margot treatment of its surface. The delicate white tracery white tracery The delicate surface. of its treatment to 1420, but his training in northern Italy is betrayed is betrayed in northern Italy but his training to 1420, the blue itself becomes a lens through which to better the blue itself to early legends, the saint secretly deposited in the was typical for this region in the fourteenth century. typical was Within a generation, however, this kind of abstract this kind of abstract however, Within a generation, fifteenth century. Turkey), and one of the most widely venerated saints saints and one of the most widely venerated Turkey), Blue Spring 2015 Spring Manual 19 Issue— 4

/ 64 Double Take Double Blue Dan Flavin American, 1933–1966 Untitled, ca. 1970 Blue and red fluorescent light fixtures Length: 121.9 cm. (48 in.) Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2003.14 © 2015 Stephen Flavin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Double Dominic Molon / Karen B. Schloss Take

Dominic Molon: My idea of Hell—whether a simple of raw wood and metal in corners are immediately Sartrean assortment of other people or a Boschian evoked by Untitled’s similar presentation of unadorned compendium of hideous creatures and torments—is industrial materials. Spring 2015 Spring lit by fluorescent light. From the dentist’s office to The diffused, immaterial nature of the light the DMV, no soul-draining institutional waiting-room allows the color fields to blur, causing initial associa- experience would be complete without the deadened tions—blue with water, cold, and the sky, and red with atmosphere created by this particular form of illumi- heat, love, and anger—to erode and ultimately col- nation. That the only spaces to have apparently re- lapse. It also complicates any definitive determination deemed fluorescent light are recently built art galleries as to which color reads as the more dominant, and museums owes much to the legacy of Dan Flavin’s with the concentrated red center dissolving into the transcendent and transformative use of the medium greater volume of the more dispersed blue shades. beginning in the early 1960s. His Untitled work from Given the expansive nature of Flavin’s sculpture in 1970 is exemplary, placing blue and red fluorescent dictating the terms of the environment it occupies, bulbs in a corner to create a haunting, multi-chromatic and the role that the blue light plays in extending the aura that pours in the surrounding space and, in the work onto the wall and into the viewer’s space, most secular understanding of the word, spiritualizes a consideration of the associations with blue light that it. The effect is reminiscent of Mark Rothko’s ability the work inspires is somewhat unavoidable. Untitled’s to make fields of color appear to float on the canvas, atmospheric ambience recalls the bluish-purple hue of

Manual yet any aspirations of the viewer to be transported black-light ultraviolet tubes, ubiquitous in nightclubs to another state of being are brusquely negated by and college dorm rooms. It also elicits comparisons the blunt material presence of the lights themselves with the frequently dramatic use of blue lighting in and the apparatus necessary for their use. This honest movies and television to connote transcendence, gesture of allowing the fixture to establish a mystery, or otherworldliness. Like black, blue has come tension between the mundane and the metaphysical to represent vastness, this owing to associations of safeguards the work against facile associations with blue with the sea and with day and night skies, and presentations of light as mere spectacle or effect. perhaps the color’s connection to the eternal accounts It combines with the sculptural engagement of the for the strangely harmonic sensation this work corner space to betray the profound influence on engenders. As such, Untitled’s evocative use of light Flavin of Russian Constructivist art of the early twen- and color to affect our experience of space and place is tieth century, particularly the work of Vladimir Tatlin, positively celestial, transcending any hellishly infernal whose Counter-Relief (1914–1915) agglomerations associations of their humble if ubiquitous medium. 21 Issue— 4

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Take The assignment of colors to particular tubes in The assignment of colors emphasize the powerful situations Flavin’s and oceans. This work in particular evokes a fiery in particular evokes and oceans. This work Second, blues are evening. sunset on clear summer in with calmness, and bathing strongly associated a soothing effect. Third, the blue light could have to cage the blue tube and surrounding halo appear red, with the blue veil in the aggression-associated tempering it into a more innocuous magenta. phenomenological defines the viewer’s this situation this point, imagine the To illustrate experience. The short tube projects a blue reversed. situation the space in diamond and the longer tube bathes behind fiery red light. The calm blue is now caught under a veil of red. Instead of the glowing bar, this expanse, in a blue feelings of floating evoking Further, feelings of entrapment. elicits new situation in people aesthetically prefer color combinations surrounding regions, occupy larger which bluer colors than smaller surrounded regions, which rather preferable would be less this new situation suggests of the two the colors than the original. Reversing experience. the psychological tubes transforms of color to shape an environment. His use of ability extreme artifi- far more a fluorescent tubes creates environments. than is found in typical cial situation he probes the question of how environ- Nevertheless, of an state influence the psychological colors mental topic for scientific inquiry. exciting inhabitant—an Dan Flavin: New Light, ed. New in Dan Flavin: Light Diagrams,” Flavin’s “Nocturama: Briony Fer, Jeffrey Weiss (New Haven: Yale University Press,Yale University 2006), 25–48. Weiss (New Haven: Jeffrey 1

1 Double Take Double Double them. being in them, but rather Several components make this situation feel make this situation components Several inviting, calm, and safe. First, vivid blue is among the inviting, calm, and safe. First, vivid blue people across the world, most preferred by colors and studies suggest this is because blue is largely with positive things such as clear sky associated So, what does it mean to take part in Flavin’s Untitled? part in Flavin’s to take does it mean So, what Dan Flavin’s description of his pieces description B. Schloss: Flavin’s Dan Karen - and interac their dynamic highlights as “situations” they all the surfaces engage These works tive nature. other projectingcan reach, ceiling, floor, onto walls, in flux, are continually humans. They and artworks, - of architec constellation by the particular influenced a given in the space at and human surfaces tural wear transform viewers the clothes moment. Even shirt actively A white contributes to the situation. amount of light, reflecting a substantial the glow by passively absorbs light. As whereas a black shirt does works Flavin’s Briony Fer writes, experiencing not involve looking at Manual Spring 2015 Blue 1 23 Issue— 4

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1 2 Object Lesson Object The last one was bought at the end of 1928 for $8,000 from Jacques Seligmann & Co. in New York. Revisited Van Gogh’s Gogh’s Van Louis van Tilborgh and Oda van Maanen and Oda van Tilborgh Louis van (detail), 1890(detail), in.) 16 ⁄ 9

6 View of Auvers-sur-Oise Auvers-sur-Oise View of ⅜ × 1

View of Auvers-sur-Oise (fig. 1) was donated to the View of Auvers-sur-Oise Van Gogh painting in a the first RISD Museum in 1935, already boasted works by such collection that at the time masters as Cézanne, outstanding nineteenth-century landscape was given, as worded Degas, and Manet. The of Miss Dorothy Sturges by in the records, “in memory in 1889 as the daughter of the a friend.” Sturges, born Sturges, Howard O. well-to-do Providence entrepreneur and etchings, ancient textiles collected Rembrandt of Egyptian faience, and artifacts, including examples of her collection does not also paintings. An inventory she acquired, in harmony with exist, but we do know that of the growing reputation Gogh among American Van three collectors of modern art at the end of the 1920s, Menders (1889), works by the Dutch master: The Road House at Auvers, and View of Auvers-sur-Oise (both 1890). Dominant blues and disappearing violets disappearing and blues Dominant FIG. 1 Given in memory of Dorothy Sturges a friend by 35.770 34 × 42.1 cm. (13 Oil on canvas Vincent van GoghVincent van 1853–1890 Dutch, View of Auvers-sur-Oise Blue

Sturges died in 1933, and the paintings were inherited by her close friend, Elisabeth Hudson. Hudson sold The Road Menders and House at Auvers later in her life to the Phillips Collection in Washington, but in 1934, being short of cash and perhaps being less fond of View of Auvers- sur-Oise than her friend had been, toyed with the idea of putting the small landscape on the market.3 Hudson had “not yet made up” her mind, however, and a year later, in a generous gesture, donated it to the RISD Museum. Sturges had been a strong supporter of and donor to the

Spring 2015 Spring institution, and in this way Hudson honored Sturges and her lifelong passion for art.4 When it was donated, View of Auvers-sur-Oise had an unblemished reputation. It was included in De la Faille’s oeuvre catalogue of 1928, with its first owner listed as the Paris art dealer Ambroise Vollard,5 and there was no reason to question the authenticity of the work. However, in 1963, Mark Roskill, who had just been appointed assistant professor of art at nearby Harvard University in Cambridge and had recently published 6 FIG. 2 an anthology of Van Gogh’s correspondence, Vincent van Gogh, suggested in a letter to Hugh Gourley, the director Landscape near Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890 Oil on canvas of the RISD Museum at the time, that the painting 44 × 51.5 cm. was “a pastiche” after Van Gogh’s landscape near © Musée d’art et d’histoire, Ville de Genève, Auvers-sur-Oise, now in Geneva (F 801; Fig. 2). inv. n° 1990-0055 Photo : Jean Marc Yersin Both works depict a wheat field with the church of Notre Dame de l’Assumption at top right, and

Manual although Roskill had no knowledge of the village itself, he suggested that the maker of the painting in Providence did not know the actual site. “It appears to show the same view of the church […], only from closer up. However, the buildings other than the church in your picture are completely differently placed. It is theoretically possible that the view in your case was taken from the opposite side, but even so, I find it difficult to square the two representations.”7 Perhaps more important as an argument, Roskill also thought that the style did not resemble Van Gogh’s. “It looks in your case as 2 Object Lesson

3

FIG. 3 Vincent van Gogh Dutch, 1853–1890 View of Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890 Oil on canvas 34 × 42.1 cm. (13 ⅜ × 16 9⁄16 in.) Given in memory of Dorothy Sturges by a friend 35.770 Blue Spring 2015 Spring

4 Manual

if the paint was first laid on thickly and then subsequently dug into with a different kind of brush. The foreground space of the cornfield in your picture does not read at all clearly compared to the cornfield in F 801 […]. Nor does the color fit with the Auvers period […]; this applies for the handling as well.” Roskill thought that the artist in question had used as models the Geneva painting (Fig. 2) and a work that was believed at the time to depict also the Auvers church (F 803). “This would help to explain his choice of blue for the roofs and also the rather curious short strokes which appear in the forefront of your picture. I cannot explain the latter as representing anything and you will see that in F. 803 when similar strokes are used, they all flow in a certain direction and represent Van Gogh’s shorthand for the surface of a plowed field.”8 27 Issue— 4

/ 64 around 1974 12 Although the painting 11 It was moved from the 13 Whatever the truth in Whatever the truth 10 14 Object Lesson Object The question whether it was authentic or not was now Roskill even had a suspect in mind, Amedée Schuffenecker, a suspect in mind, Amedée Schuffenecker, even had Roskill 15 9 The museum did not immediately subscribe to this dismissal. Over The museum did not immediately subscribe This view did not reach Van Gogh scholars at the time, but it was Gogh scholars at the time, but it This view did not reach Van Sustaining Roskill’s idea of the work as a pastiche was his perception idea of the work as a pastiche was his Sustaining Roskill’s this matter, Roskill’s essential idea was “this Van Gogh makes a most essential idea was “this Van this matter, Roskill’s I first saw it and it did so on the occasion when unfavorable impression; again when I saw it last month.” discussed among the curators opinion was perhaps the years, Roskill’s art, but the museum started or by visiting scholars of nineteenth-century published his authoritative Roskill to take the doubts seriously only after Circle in 1970 and had a number Gogh, Gauguin and the Impressionist Van Gogh to his name. of important articles on Van was included in the 1970 edition of De la Faille’s oeuvre catalogue la Faille’s was included in the 1970 edition of De a different opinion), (without reference to the existence of gallery to storage, and was officially listed as “after Vincent van Gogh” in gallery to storage, and was officially absence of evidence that might link the 1991 collection catalogue: “in the Gogh, we have continued to identify this as a pastiche this painting to Van by an unknown hand.” the museum staff endorsed Roskill’s doubts as the final verdict, and the the museum staff endorsed Roskill’s Gogh. work lost its status as an authentic Van made public in 1997, when Martin Bailey published articles in the Art made public in 1997, when Martin Bailey Van Goghs may well be fakes” Newspaper stating that “at least forty-five in his inventory of doubtful and including View of Auvers-sur-Oise attributions. (Fig. 4), which De la Faille la Faille similarity to Wheat Stacks (Fig. 4), which De of a certain stylistic by many to in 1928 but which was rightly believed accepted as authentic be a forgery. the brother of the artist Emile, whom art historians and museum curators artist Emile, whom art historians and the brother of the a forger since the 1930s. had been labeling brought into the open, and it generated new views. Curator Maureen C. O’Brien started to question the museum’s acceptance of Roskill’s

FIG. 4 Unknown Stacks Wheat Oil on canvas, 53 × 62 cm. Stockholm, National MuseumStockholm, National Nationalmuseum Photo: Blue

FIG. 5 Picture postcard of Auvers-sur-Oise, early 20th century Private collection

assessment, and in 2009, the curators of the exhibition of Van Gogh’s Landscapes in the Kunstmuseum in Basel had also their doubts. They selected the painting for their show,16 whereupon the museum in Providence, in their search for a definite opinion, asked the Van Gogh Museum, using the latest technology, to investigate its authenticity. The research was carried out in 2009 and 2010, and its results made clear that Roskill’s remarks about the painting indeed did not stand. He believed that the artist did not know the situation firsthand and had made mistakes with the topography. However, a visit to the site and the study of old maps showed that the artist stood on one of the plots of land beside

Spring 2015 Spring the country lanes leading to the rue Montmaur, south of the railway line (Fig. 3). The building on the far right is the station, with only the smaller second floor visible from the artist’s vantage point. The low building with the gable roof, behind the trees and a little to the left, is a still-existing goods depot. It is three stories high, but only the top two were visible to the artist. The trees on the far left stood in the garden of the house of the widow of the painter Charles-François Daubigny; the garden had (and still has) a wall on the side of the present-day rue du Général de Gaulle, which was then called the Sente des Calpons. A picture postcard from the early twentieth century and a photograph that once belonged to Paul Gachet Sr. Manual

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/ 64 and the 17 Roskill’s view that the work is a view Roskill’s , Basel 1936, p 26. FIG. 6 the proportions are not always correct the proportions are been omitted, the and some details have the church and the buildings between realistically. station are depicted pastiche was also not twentieth-century research well thought out. Provenance Faille’s did not find evidence for De la was statement in 1928 that Vollard the first owner, but it could be proven that View at Auver-sur-Oise was in the possession of the French collector as early as 1904, Maurice Fabre two paintings put forward by Roskill as two paintings put forward by Roskill models were not yet reproduced at the Theo time. They were in the collection of van Gogh’s widow, who only exhibited cuts them for the first time in 1905. This the ground from under the suggestion Photograph of Auvers from the collection of Paul Gachet Sr., before 1906. From Walter Ueberwasser, Le jardin de Daubigny. Dass letzte Hauptwerk van Beiträge röntgenologische und Stilkritische Gogh’s. van Werke angeblicher und echter Unterscheidung zur Gogh’s although, strictly speaking, does not mean that the although, strictly speaking, does not Object Lesson Object 18 But Roskill’s remarks about the style and technique are equally But Roskill’s landscape is therefore authentic. palette and technique resembled problematic. He did not find that the produced Gogh’s oeuvre from Auvers, yet our examination that of Van of the start with the materials, the ground To evidence of the contrary. commercially primed canvas has been found in other works by the artist, et l’Hôte, whose canvases supplier Tasset and can be linked to the Paris show that the maker of the painting was equally faithful in reproducing faithful in reproducing painting was equally the maker of the show that and size of the trees (Figs. 5 and 6). The locations other parts of the village even though match those on the postcard, and in the painting roughly that the Providence painting is a wrongly understood imitation of other that the Providence painting is a wrongly works by the artist, 6 Blue

FIG. 7 Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) View of Auvers, May–June 1890 Oil on canvas, 50.2 × 52.5 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) s105V1962 F799

Van Gogh mainly used 1888 to 1890. 19 Furthermore, the pigments themselves are in keeping with Van Gogh’s palette from the late French period.20 Very specific is the use of two assumed paint-tube mixtures: emerald green with gypsum, found in Van Gogh’s works from Paris onwards,21 and geranium lake with red lead, frequently used from Arles onwards.22 The use of geranium lake brings us to another typical feature of Van Gogh’s painted oeuvre—namely discoloration due to the use of fugitive pigments. Roskill found the dominance of blue in the buildings uncom- Spring 2015 Spring mon, and indeed there is too little variation and contrast in the palette here. Bearing Van Gogh’s ideas on color in mind, one could say that violet tints are missing. They would have provided an effective complementary contrast to the yellow in the bottom half of the picture and enlivened these passages. It is, however, perfectly conceivable that violet tints were applied with a mixture of blue and the above-mentioned geranium lake but have disappeared through discoloration. The eosine-based geranium lake is known to be a highly fugitive paint and has often faded in Van Gogh’s works, as research from the last two decades has pointed out.23 In the case of this painting, the pigment was found combined with red lead and emerald green in a sample of the red contour of a roof, where it was applied thickly as a glaze, and therefore in comparison to other areas has retained its color well. It seems quite likely that in the buildings, this color has disappeared in the opaque mixtures with white, a factor that is known to exacerbate the effect of fading.24 Manual Besides discoloration, the fast way of working with an impartial mixing of pure colors picked up directly from the palette and wet-in-wet mixing of paint on the canvas is characteristic of Van Gogh’s oeuvre. Roskill, however, distrusted the brushwork in the Providence picture and felt it was very comparable to the forgery in Stockholm (Fig. 4). That is incomprehensible, as the handling of the paint in the latter landscape is typical of a forger—“somewhat indecisive” and “fairly haphazard,”25 as it was put in 2000—while the brushwork in View of Auvers-sur-Oise is vigorous, assured, and crisp. One of Van Gogh’s habits was to apply a large amount of paint rapidly with a lot of pressure on the brush, creating impasted edges to the stroke, and this is visible throughout the painting. Roskill did not recognize this as a trademark: “the paint was first laid on thickly and then subsequently dug into with a different kind of brush.” 31 Issue— 4

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7 Object Lesson Object There are other characteristic details in this work. For example, in this work. For There are other characteristic details In addition to voicing doubts about the brushwork and palette, the way in which the foliage is described with round, hooked strokes is the way in which the foliage is described Gogh Museum in the Van identical to that in View of Auvers-sur-Oise bluish and brownish contours (also 1890; Fig. 7), and the use of coarse both works. Further similarities are in the houses is very comparable in horizontal and vertical strokes and the rapid filling in of the walls with through in many places. In the decision to allow the ground to show in common with, for instance, terms of palette, the work has also much Gogh of Art). Van Sheaves of Wheat from the same period (Dallas Museum started to minimize his color scheme from 1889 onwards, which explains the little variation in the palette of both works, consisting of blue, violet, yellow, and green only. foreground,” which in his view “does queried the “space of the Roskill not read at all clearly,” from which one can infer that he found it too flat. short strokes” in it were impossible felt that the “rather curious Roskill to comprehend, but failed to take into account that this is a wheat field with this kind of decorative effect are with swaying stalks. Foregrounds Blue

frequent in Van Gogh’s oeuvre, with the flatness here more pronounced than in other works with the same compositional design. It looks a little more schematic, or at least rougher, but that cannot be seen in isolation from the small size of the painting. It was a format Van Gogh used on several occasions; however, it is not something that one could consider typical. It would have been this, together with the dominant blue, the limited choice of colors, and perhaps the uncommon combination of an empty foreground and a full, busy background that must have been the ingredients for Roskill’s “most unfavorable impression,” and that made him doubt the authenticity of the painting. He put forward, as we have seen, many arguments to prove his point, but none of them stands up to scrutiny today. Although there is no immediate visual parallel for this landscape in Van Gogh’s oeuvre, in no sense does it follow that the painting is not authentic. Its individual peculiarities in brushwork, color, and technical structure are most definitely typical of Van Gogh—each and every one of them. Spring 2015 Spring However, we should not blame Roskill for trying to explain his uneasy feelings about the painting. A young scholar interested in Van Gogh, he realized that De la Faille’s oeuvre catalogue of 1928 had to be revised. Despite its obvious advantages, this catalogue contained many works for which the dating and authenticity were questionable, and no one in the field at the time believed “that a firm, unequivocal, authentic oeuvre had been established,” to quote Ronald Pickvance slightly out of context.26 De la Faille’s book had to be revised, and Roskill wanted to contribute to this process. However, he did so with what we would now consider an old-fashioned, intuitive approach, perhaps with the intention to leave the final opinion to others.27 In the long run, this is exactly what happened— his queries created opposite views—and as a result View of Auvers-sur-Oise is now more firmly anchored in Van Gogh’s oeuvre than if Roskill had not formulated his “unfavorable impression.” This process of changing views enables us to look at the painting Manual again today with fresh eyes. Yes, maybe it looks too schematic, too rough, but this kind of brutal simplicity is typical of Van Gogh. Although the work has perhaps become too blue over time, the swift and straightforward execution still charms us. It is done in a flow, rapidly and energetically, one thing following the other, perhaps unskillful in parts, but “it goes straight to the target,” to quote Van Gogh himself, resulting in the feeling of “original sincerity.”28 Done on a small scale and in one go, it is shorthand painting at its best. It attracts the eye immediately, and we are sure that Dorothy Sturges—and also Elisabeth Hudson, perhaps with some reservations—would have agreed. 33 Issue— 4

/ 64 In the framework of the Thread Count Automation Project of the Van Gogh Project Van of the of the Thread Count Automation In the framework RCE report, 6–7. Pigments indicated with x-ray fluorescence spectrometry report, RCE with x-ray indicated 6–7. Pigments 1937, in ca. 1770 and Sculpture, Painting Daniel European Rosenfeld, ed., in –1937, Using SEM-EDX (or energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry), analyses of a spectrometry), x-ray (or energy-dispersive Using SEM-EDX Bernhard Mendes Bürgi, Nina Zimmer, and Walter Feilchenfeldt, eds., Vincent and Walter Nina Zimmer, Bernhard Mendes Bürgi, Moreover, F 803 (Fig. 3) was not a view of Auvers at all; see note 8. at not a view of Auvers F 803 (Fig. 3) was Moreover, July/August 1998; for his final and July/August 1997 Art, July/August Newspaper Emails from Maureen C. O’Brien to Louis van Tilborgh, February 20 and 27, 20 and 27, February Tilborgh, to Louis van C. O’Brien Emails from Maureen Sunset at Maanen, “Sunset at Teio Meedendorp, and Oda van Tilborgh, See Louis van 2009. Art,the Museum of Design of Museum, (Providence: RISD Rhode Island School no. 80. 1991), Gogh,” Burlington Magazine Van Montmajour: A newly discovered painting by Entwicklungsgeschichte der note 36. In Julius-Meier Graefe, 701, (2013), CLV “amateur- written that note 1, it was 1:120, 1904), […] (Stuttgart modernen Kunst which (View of Auvers), d’Auvers” owned a painting called “Vue Fabre marchand” Gogh for 300 Van could only be the present painting. Vollard sold a painting by Vollard, MS Archives on February 22, to Fabre francs d’Orsay, Musée (Paris, 1899 de caisse, Registre consignant les entrées et sorties 1894–1900), and [4:3] 421 , but we cannot prove this. Auvers-sur-Oise at perhaps this is View (XRF)by with optical microscopy and scanning sample analysis and confirmed spectrometry (SEM-EDX, x-ray electron microscopy with energy-dispersive and italic (HPLC, in italics) or high- performance liquid chromatography underlined): lead green, red lead, white, lithopone, zinc white, emerald viridian, cobalt blue, a little Prussian a little ochre, barium blue(?), a little lead chromate, red pigment calcium, an organic carbonate, some gypsum , a little sulphate 161 (January 2005), 63, 2005), 63, (January Apollo 161 Debate,” Gogh: The Fakes see his “Van inventory, no. 38. 20 17 18 19 This letter, however, has not been found in their archives (kind communication (kind communication archives found in their has not been however, This letter, of the RKD a former member Op de Coul, Martha Jonkman, RKD). from Mayken also said catalogue, oeuvre Faille’s edition of De la on the 1970 who worked staff of and of associated of such a letter unaware about View she was doubts that . Auvers-sur-Oise 13 14 15 16 sample of the ground showed one layer containing lithopone, barium sulphate, sulphate, lithopone, barium containing sample showed one layer of the ground pigment, lead white, and a little orange a small amount of calcium carbonate, near Auvers- Gogh(?) Landscape presumably see Muriel Geldof et al., Van ochre; (project (F800), 1890 no. 2009-023),sur-Oise RCE-report, 7. The ground has losses on the crossing pinholing and of threads and the paint shows excessive places. See of the threads in several to the twine related tiny diagonal cracks due to the use also for this kind of ground with particular aging characteristics et l’Hôte et al., “Investigation of the grounds of Tasset lithopone Johanna Salvant in Gogh in the period 1888 to 1890,” Van used by primed canvas commercially and London: Yale (New Haven Studio Practice Gogh’s Vellekoop et al., eds., Van Lithopoon doorgrond: Lamers, and Maranthe 182–201, Press,University 2013), Vincent gronderingen van lithopoon houdende van de degradatie Een uitleg van Gogh, unpublished master’svan of Amsterdam, 2014. thesis, University et al., “Weave Tilborgh Louis van (see Canvasses Gogh’s Museum for Van An Interdisciplinary Approach,” Painting: Gogh’s and Dating of Van Matching 112–22),Burlington Magazine 154 [2012], were made thread counts automatic of the painting. This from a high-resolution scan of a x-radiograph digital of 15.7 threads per centimeter thread density horizontal resulted in an average of 16.1 threads per centimeter vertical thread density and an average (weft) found with other paintings in the database, was match No weave (warp). are present the at from Auvers-sur-Oise not many paintings dating however moment. (Basel: Kunstmusem (Basel: Kunstmusem Erden und Himmel: Die Landschaften Gogh, Zwischen van no. 64. cat. then included as The work was and 280–81, Basel, 2009), 160–61 Gogh à Auvers Vincent van and Peter Knapp’s der Veen authentic in Wouter van Hulsker had but with a reference to the former doubts. 2009), 224–25, (Paris and in his copy of his oeuvre catalogue, included the work in all his editions and not doubts knowing of Roskill’s of the last one—the 1996 edition—now in the Van of the landscape (copy to the illustration next agreeing, wrote “ok[ay]” Gogh Museum). Object Lesson Object , ed. Joseph D. MasheckD. Joseph ed. 100, Gogh Van Sturges occasionally loaned her paintings to the RISD Museum. They were They loaned her paintings to the RISD Museum. occasionally Sturges (Paris and (Paris raisonné Gogh: Catalogue de Vincent van L’oeuvre J.-B. de la Faille, For the reputations of both Emil and Amedée Schuffenecker of both Emil For the reputations as possible Roskill had written (see his letter mentioned in note 7) Roskill had written (see to the Rijksbureau (London: Thames Gogh, Gauguin and the Impressionist & Hudson, Circle Van See De la Faille 1970, 236, where the editors sum up the doubts that arose that sum up the doubts 236, where the editors 1970, See De la Faille (New York: Atheneum, 1963). Gogh (New York: Atheneum, of Vincent van Mark Roskill, in The Letters It had been regarded as a view of Auvers-sur-Oise since the publication of since the publication It had been regarded as a view of Auvers-sur-Oise was acquired in 1928, with a watercolor by Berthe by with a watercolor acquired in 1928, was of Auvers-sur-Oise View Undated letter to Mr. O’Toole Undated of Jacques Seligmann & Co.; his reply is from Letter in the archives of the RISD Museum. Letter in the archives For the provenance of The Road Menders see De la Auvers, and House at 1970); “Van Gogh’s ‘Blue Cart’ Process,” (1966), and His Creative Oud Holland 81 Gogh’s “Van 1970); Oud Holland 86 with Emile Bernard in 1888,” Exchanges Gogh’s 3–19; and “Van 142–79. (1971), forgers of Van Gogh paintings, see Louis van Tilborgh and Ella Hendriks, “The and Ella Hendriks, Tilborgh Gogh paintings, see Louis van of Van forgers Gogh or a Schuffenecker Van SunflowersTokyo : A genuine repetition by especially 29–32. 16–43, Gogh Museum Journal (2001), forgery?,” Van With thanks to Maureen C. O’Brien of the RISD Museum; Monique Hageman, Monique Hageman, RISD Museum; of the Maureen C. O’Brien to With thanks Dominique Gogh Museum; Van of the and Teio Meedendorp Ella Hendriks, for Auvers-sur-Oise in Janine Demuriez and Janssens, Maryvonne Grandfils, Don of the village; and Rick Johnson, their help in establishing the topography the of characteristics the weave Erdmann for their report on Johnson, and Rob Project. the data All Automation of our Thread Count framework painting in the Muriel Geldof, is from the technical on the painting by report on the pigments of the Agency Heritage Bommel of the Cultural van Megens, and Maarten Luc Netherlands (RCE), in the text The F numbers to thank them, too. and we want and His Gogh: Paintings of Vincent van The Works refer to J.-B. de la Faille, Faille hereafter cited as De la 1970), ed. (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, rev. Drawings, 1970. October 13, 1934 (see the archives mentioned in note 2). mentioned in Hudson probably the archives 1934 (see October 13, from Theo’s View Van Gogh’s needed to finance her latest acquisition, 1970). for this acquisition in 1934, see De la Faille Apartment (F 341a; about the work in 1946, and also Per Hedström and Britta Nilsson, and also Per Hedström and Britta “Genuine about the work in 1946, Art Goghs in the Nationalmuseum,” van Bulletin of Nationalmuseum and False The same to hand appears especially 100–01. Stockholm 7 (2000), 98–101, both considered to JH 1745, and F 724 work in F 725 been at JH 1744 have of Vincent et al., The Paintings like F 560 JH 1482; Berge Jos ten be forgeries, Gogh in the Collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, Netherlands: van Museum, 2003), 360–66. Kröller-Müller (Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1996), 321–22. (Westport, CT, His interest in Van Gogh dated from the 1950s; see Mark Wentworth Roskill, “Van Roskill, “Van from the 1950s; see Mark Wentworth Gogh dated His interest in Van in majestynature,” The of Auvers: at Gogh also on loan there from 1934 until 1935, perhaps in anticipation of the formal perhaps in anticipation also on loan there from 1934 until 1935, C. Maureen kindly provided to us by (information estate settlement of Dorothy’s 2014). in emails of October 8 and 9, O’Brien 12 11 10 9 7 8 6 5 4 3 1 2 Brussels: Éditions G. van Oest,Brussels: G. van Éditions 1:227; 1928), his Vincent in repeated information 304 1970, 538, and in De la Faille 1939), no. 788, Gogh (New York and Paris, van and 642, no. 800. De la Faille’s oeuvre catalogue in 1928. However, John Rewald recognized it as John Rewald However, in 1928. oeuvre catalogue De la Faille’s & see the reference to his opinion in the Sotheby a depiction of Saint-Rémy; The Collection of ImpressionistCo. auction and Post-Impressionist catalogue after published the which Rewald 6:20, (London: July 1, 1964) Paintings Gogh to Gauguin From Van discovery himself in his Post-Impressionism: 339. 1978), (London: Secker & Warburg, Faille 1970, F 658 and F 604. 1970, Faille voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD) in The Hague about his views, as in The Hague about his views, (RKD) Documentatie voor Kunsthistorische oeuvre catalogue. edition of the 1928 a revised working on was this institution Morisot, from Jacques www.aaa.si.edu: Seligmann & Co. in New York; see Jacques & Seligmann Institution, Smithsonian the of American Art at Archives 1938. Co., letter of October 27, Blue

(eosin) on a substrate containing aluminium. See also Muriel Geldof et al., “Van Gogh’s Palette in Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers-sur-Oise,” in Vellekoop et al., 238–55. 21 Ella Hendriks, with scientific analysis by Muriel Geldof, “Van Gogh’s Working Practice: A technical study,” in Ella Hendriks and Louis van Tilborgh, Vincent van Gogh Paintings, Volume 2, Antwerp & Paris, 1885–1888 (Amsterdam and Zwolle: Waanders and Van Gogh Museum, 2011), 139–40. 22 The latter mixture was also identified in a paint tube from Tasset et l’Hôte that is thought to be used by Van Gogh; see Muriel Geldof, “Van Gogh’s Geranium Lake,” in Vellekoop et al., 268–90. 23 Judith Hofenk de Graaff et al., “Scientific Investigation,” in Cornelia Peres et al., eds., A Closer Look: Technical and Art-Historical Studies on Works by Van Gogh and Gauguin (Zwolle: Waanders, 1991), 75–87, and Jean-Paul Rioux, “The discoloration of pinks and purples in Van Gogh’s paintings from Auvers,” in Anne Distel and Susan Alyson Stein, exh. cat., Cézanne to Van Gogh: The Collection of Doctor Gachet (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), 104–13. 24 The presence of eosin could not be confirmed by the use of the non-invasive method XRF. Sample analyses necessary for SEM-EDX and HPLC required to detect the eosin were not performed. 25 Hedström and Nilsson, 100. 26 To quote Ronald Pickvance on the 1970 edition: “The New De la Faille,” Burlington Magazine 115 (1973), 175. 27 See note 12. Spring 2015 Spring 28 Vincent van Gogh: The Letters, Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker, eds., www.vangoghletters.org, letter 695 (to Paul Gauguin). Manual Artist on Art Spencer Finch Study for 3035 Shades of Blue Manual 4 35 Issue— 4

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On Nancy Selvage by Alice Neel Maggie Nelson

When Neel painted this portrait of Nancy Selvage, Neel was Neel’s apartment for whatever reason. In this apartment, sixty-seven, Selvage, twenty-two. (Selvage was dating Neel’s painting was the principal—and very public—activity. In son Hartley at the time; though they soon broke up, the two this sense it resembled Warhol’s Factory across town, where women ended up staying friends until Neel’s death in 1984.) Warhol was asking visitors to sit for screen tests during the If I didn’t know Selvage’s age, I could be convinced that same period. Indeed, the kinship between Warhol and Neel—

Spring 2015 Spring here she was anywhere from ten to thirty-five. In a sense, it made manifest in in her 1970 portrait of him—minces any doesn’t matter: as with all stations of life for Neel—especially lazy binary that would pit Warhol’s interest in psychological female stations of life—there is no place here for nostalgia, shallowness against Neel’s in psychological depth. (Warhol naiveté, or any cloying mythos of “innocence.” Selvage may saw the connection too: see his diary entry for March 29, be forty-five years Neel’s junior, but she’s got tired, nearly 1982, in which he observes with a measure of recognition and blackened eyes, and her stare indicates that she’s nobody’s admiration, “[Neel] turns out these paintings so fast.”) fool. Maybe she was simply tired or overlit (I’ve heard there As is the case with most of Neel’s work, Nancy were bright fluorescent lights on the scene), and/or Neel may Selvage is a portrait of its subject, its maker, its moment of have chosen to make Selvage look especially world-weary. composition, and its times (that flat ’60s hair!). The energy is Regardless: the bags under her eyes speak of a certain palpable, even if its subject emanates a peculiar combination bruised knowingness, one that agitates enjoyably against her of fatigue, melancholy, intelligence, beauty, and alert repose. well-parted and combed hair, the prim puff of her blue dress. Its intermittent, painterly blue does indeed remind us that That dress! Neel is rightly famous as a champion of this is art—but not the kind that’s a synonym for pretension. figuration in an age of abstraction, but look at the blue Rather, it’s the kind that proves the human capacity—or at brushwork—it’s de Kooning, it’s Twombly, it’s Mitchell, it’s least Neel’s capacity—to conjure the aliveness that crackles Rauschenberg. Once I heard a cranky critic say that the between self and Other, duration and finitude, solidity and

Manual unfinished patches on Neel’s paintings are there “just so vanishment. we know it’s art,” but I think the opposite also holds true: the white patches mock the seriousness of the enterprise, shrugging You get the idea—I don’t really need to spell the rest out for you. Selvage’s blue dress is a gesture that includes its own undoing, its own fitful immanence, its own transparency—its own superfluity, even. It performs Neel’s intimate knowledge of how the good-enough and the virtuosic often touch, are sometimes indistinguishable. The white patches also speak of a certain impatience, of Neel’s speed, of her casual yet tenacious drive to capture Alice Neel American, 1900–1984 anyone within range. For Selvage and other Neel subjects did Nancy Selvage, 1967 not sit for marathon sessions in a private studio, but rather Oil on canvas 96.8 × 61.3 cm. (38 ⅛ × 24 ⅛ in.) allowed themselves to be painted as they drifted through Gift of Richard and Hartley Neel 1994.086 47 Issue— 4

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49 / 64 Kate Irvin Kate Object Lesson Object

1 Boro Japanese An Archaeology of Faded Indigo of Faded An Archaeology A far cry from garments fashioned expressly for an elite garments fashioned A far cry from and dyestuffs, an indigo- clientele from costly materials (noragi) from rural Japan dyed cotton worker’s jacket In lieu of tales of wealth and is the subject of study here. of hardship and labor at the privilege, the noragi tells profound care and respect same time that it expresses hope) love. It is an example for materials and (we can “ragged” and now of Japanese boro, literally translated as items, often of indigo-dyed used to refer to utilitarian heavy wear (and resulting tear) cotton, that show not only hand that utilized every but the sometimes desperate patching and layering bits and resource within reach, to create a regenerated, pieces of used cloth together strengthened whole. FIG. 1 Japanese century 19th–mid-20th late coat), (work Noragi cotton, indigo dyed Plain-weave × 94 cm. (31 × 37 in.) 78.7 2012.21.1 Fund N. Casey T. and Dorothy Elizabeth Blue

This particular noragi features an arrhythmic patchwork in various shades of formerly deep indigo blues that allude to a long and layered history of use. Unlike many museum objects, this one comes to us without specific names and provenance. We can only deduce a line of ownership underscored by economic want, evident in the many repairs meticulously applied to extend the functional life of a garment that cloaked its wearer through years of toil. At close inspection, the amorphous lakes of differing blue depths at the shoulders, hem, front, and back reveal the eroding effects of a laborer’s daily exertions—for example, carrying a heavy load slung over the shoulder—at the same time that they show the revitalizing effect of hand-sewn patch reinforcements.

Spring 2015 Spring They also underscore the value of even the smallest scraps which, when pieced together, create a newly formed armor. The larger expanse FIGS. 2 and 3 of fabric that comprises the main body of the Japanese Noragi (work coat), late 19th–mid-20th century garment shows at the center back a concentrated Plain-weave cotton, indigo dyed blue that possibly survived its previous life 78.7 × 94 cm. (31 × 37 in.) Elizabeth T. and Dorothy N. Casey Fund 2012.21.1 nestled within the recesses of a seam, protected from sunlight’s fading rays. The two main panels that make up the front and back of the piece are relatively intact, though worn down in color to shallow pools of their former deep blue. These and the other pieces that comprise the noragi would have been acquired as secondhand scraps, probably some of which were picked apart from older garments. Vertical running stitches down

Manual the front and back unite and strengthen the new whole, while adding the personal touch of the hand of the maker, likely someone who was within the household of the person who ultimately wore the finished garment.

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It is thought that the indigo plant came to Japan via China in the hands of Korean artisans around the fifth century, contemporaneous with Buddhism.2 Likewise, cotton seeds had by the eighth century arrived on Japan’s shores from 2 51 Issue— 4

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3 3 Object Lesson Object India, by way of China and Korea, but full-scale cultivation did not India, by way of China and Korea, could grow only in Even then, cotton develop until the fifteenth century. coast, making it a luxury product the southern regions and on the west and fishermen living in the Farmers affordable only to a select few. were immediately seduced by mountains and coast of eastern Japan the warmth and comfort provided by cotton, but due to the cloth’s cost and rarity in the region, they had little access to it, and continued to make fabrics from native bast fibers such as wisteria and hemp. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, merchant ships plied Japan’s eastern shores with used cotton rags that were readily purchased by those living in remote rural and fishing villages of the archipelago. The women of a household would transform the rags into practical garments to be worn by men and women alike by piecing fragments together and adding layers of strengthening stitches, as here, or by tearing the used cotton into strips that would be re-woven with hemp into a new cloth. Blue

FIG. 4 Japanese Noragi (work coat) (detail), mid-19th century Plain-weave cotton, indigo dyed and quilted (sashiko stitching) 81.3 × 81.3 cm. (32 × 32 in.) Elizabeth T. and Dorothy N. Casey Fund 2012.21.3

As is characteristic of many forms of workwear around the globe— from European sailor uniforms to the original Levi Strauss denim clothing made for California goldminers—boro garments were largely indigo-dyed. The dye was easily applied to cotton, readily available, and therefore plentiful enough to enable overdyeing to refresh the color if deemed necessary. Indigo was also considered by rural communities across Asia to have medicinal properties that, in rubbing off on the

Spring 2015 Spring wearer’s skin, could offer protection from snake bites, among other potential threats in the field.4 Given indigo’s cultural importance and the intricacies of its preparation and dyeing processes, growers and dyers are to this day classified in Japan as living national treasures. In the Japanese spoken language, the word ai means both “indigo” and “love.”5 The use of natural indigo today has been largely supplanted by syn- thetic indigo dyes, which were first developed in the nineteenth century. Since ancient times, however, dyers from Japan and India to Europe and North America have considered natural indigo to be alive, taking great care in its elaborate preparation. Mixing and coddling the vat for as long as six months, they eventually cajole from it a magical color that converts from a pale yellow-green to blue as soon as it is pulled from the vat and exposed to oxygen. This is the first cry that develops into the deepest breaths of blue with successive dips into the dye bath, ensuring that the dyed cloth retains its hue no matter how old or faded it becomes.6 Anthro-

Manual pologist Michael Taussig has observed of this process: “Color here will not stand. Indeed, it is not so much color that is changing here in the indigo vat, but change itself that is on view.”7 Though long removed from the vat, with some of the deepest indigo blues rubbed away, this noragi comes to life even apart from the context of the human body. The blue hues flow into one another as many rivers coming together at the end of a long and arduous journey.

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Boro clothing is born out of necessity but also expresses a deep- seated Japanese cultural tradition, mottainai, which stresses the value of everything on earth and the need to use our creations fully. Originally a Buddhist term, mottainai translates as the admonition “do not waste” 53 Issue— 4

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and as the act of being thankful. This concept of the world has deeper roots in ancient Shinto religious beliefs that consider all objects to have souls, a view that extends to the recognition that everything in our physical universe is interconnected.8 Allowing ourselves to feel, even for a moment, such a relationship to the world embodied in the noragi’s sea of blue patchwork might prove to be a transformative experience, an example of Michael Taussig’s “poymorphous magical substance”: “It affects all the senses, not just sight. It moves. It has depth and motion just as a stream has depth and motion, and it connects such that it changes whatever it comes into contact with. Or is it the other way around? That in changing, it connects?”9

Spring 2015 Spring This garment offers much to contemplate and appreciate. It invites us to become archaeologists of sorts, finding meaning and beauty in not only the ravages of time but in the care and attention that guided the piece into the present and into our vision. In the noragi’s new life as a museum collection object, its original functional purpose as workwear has come to a close. It now offers us a lesson in inherent beauty nurtured by maintenance and care. In his memoir Passions and Impressions, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote:

It is worth one’s while, at certain hours of the day or night, to scrutinize useful objects in repose: wheels that have rolled across long, dusty distances with their enormous loads of crops or ore, charcoal sacks, barrels, baskets, the hafts and handles of carpenters’ tools. The contact these objects have had with man and earth

Manual may serve as a valuable lesson to a tortured lyric poet. Worn surfaces, the wear inflicted by human hands, the sometimes tragic, always pathetic, emanations from these objects give reality a magnetism that should not be scorned.10

The noragi, in its current state, well serves the vision called forth by Neruda. Now among the “useful objects in repose,” it sighs under the weight of intense personal use as well as a layered cultural history specific both to its origins in rural Japan and to the crisscrossing paths that brought the materials to its makers and wearers. Its magnetism remains. It resonates with a haunting beauty. 55 Issue— 4

/ 64 5 Object Lesson Object FIG. 5 Passions and Impressions Passions on Impure Poetry,” Neruda, “Some Thoughts Pablo What Color Is the Sacred? What , 40. Taussig, , 2, Mottainai Dursten, 58. Ibid., 117. Ibid. 9, 127–28. Ibid. 9, Mottainai: The Fabric of Life, Lessons The Fabric from Frugality in Mottainai: Diane Dursten, Balfour-Paul, Indigo, 194–95. Balfour-Paul, (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000), 26. Fitzroy Indigo (Chicago: Dearborn Publishers, Jenny Balfour-Paul, What Color Is the Sacred? What and London: (Chicago Michael Taussig, See Shin-Ichiro Yoshida and Dai See Shin-Ichiro Williams, Riches from Rags: Saki-ori and Other 3 5 8 9 2 reference. Craft and Folk Art Museum, 1994). Craft 6 University of Chicago Press,University 2009), 149. 7 10 1 (San Francisco: San Francisco San Francisco Clothing (San Francisco: in Japanese Rural Traditions Recycling (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, University State 1999) for this (Detroit: of Identity Wayne Construction Japanese century 19th–mid-20th late coat), (work Noragi cotton, indigo dyed Plain-weave × 94 cm. (31 × 37 in.) 78.7 2012.21.1 Fund N. Casey T. and Dorothy Elizabeth (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, Straus, “Worn 1983), to Peter Stallybrass, 128. Thanks (New York: Farrar, 4 Cultural MemoryWorlds: Clothes, and the Mourning, and the Life of Things,” in Cultural 4, 35. (Portland: Gallery Japan Traditional Japanese Portland Kei & Sri at Garden, 2011), Blue

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Manual How To A global journey can be launched through an explo- (1) was most likely made for export to Islamic courts ration of ceramics with blue decoration on a shining using cobalt mined in Persia. Cobalt applied to white ground. The mineral cobalt is the colorant most a white porcelain body before the ware was glazed often used to create these hues, from soft grayish was thus known as underglaze blue. Inspired by blue to a dazzling sapphire. But while the palette is Chinese porcelains, Dutch potters produced white simple, the wares themselves reveal complex artistic, tin-glazed earthenware decorated with cobalt blue social, economic, and cultural connections, vividly Asian patterns (2). illustrating the intriguing history and ongoing legacy The Chinese closely guarded their formulas and of blue and white. processes, but Augustus the Strong, king of Poland, For centuries, Chinese porcelain played a signifi- was determined to learn how to make porcelain cant role in international economic and cultural trade. wares. He retained alchemist Johann Friedrich This elegant Chinese double-necked porcelain vessel Böttger, who in 1709 uncovered the process; under Augustus’s patronage, Meissen, the first European 57 Issue— 4

/ 64 - 8 6 Some manufacturers developed new ways to new ways developed Some manufacturers painted wares. In this technique, colored designs painted wares. to copper plates from engraved were transferred body (6). of paper applied to the clay thin sheets a signature creating apply cobalt to their ceramics, Porcelain the Worcester to 1767, About 1765 style. introduced an underglaze-blue scale Manufactory ground with white reserved panels filled with metic and insects birds, flowers, ulously rendered exotic (7).cobalt of , a light wash For the scale pattern to the vessel, then the scales were applied blue was hand in a more concen- added by painstakingly cobalt blue (8). trated How To How by Elizabeth A. Williams Elizabeth by Blue and White Ceramics 7 5 Objects on page 62 are identified Innovations continued across Europe. Delftware, Delftware, continued across Europe. Innovations a tin-glazed for which Delft, Holland, earthenware introduced to of production, a major center was was England from the Netherlands in the sixteenth cen- - were exper English manufactories tury. By the 1740s, producing bone bodies, ultimately imenting with clay china from the addition of bone ash to a porcelain later developed was body (5). English transferware to hand- in the century as a less costly alternative porcelain manufactory, was established in 1710. Asian in 1710. Asian established was manufactory, porcelain decoration blue using underglaze created motifs 4). became popular (3, Blue Spring 2015 Spring Manual 59 Issue— 4

/ 64 - Because of the presence of pin marks in the cor- Because of the presence of pin marks Anna Atkins’s father, Sir John George Children, John George Sir father, Anna Atkins’s her a scientific a well-known scientist, and gave was usually afforded only to males in the education friend, a close family was Herschel Victorian era. a natural process was so learning the cyanotype Her inventory of education. of Atkins’s continuation ease of processing, algae benefitted from cyanotype’s was print and the Prussian blue color of the finished This habitat—water. natural suggestive of algae’s most likely part of a different was fern photogram Cyanotypes in about 1854, Atkins study published by and Ferns. of British and Foreign Flowering Plants prepared to have is believed Atkins of her prints, ners each of created on a board. She papers her cyanotype putting a pressed, dried, by her photogenic drawings specimen directly on a transparent and somewhat a small semi-transparent along with paper, coated paper specimenarrange label. She then weighed the and frame ment down with glass or put it in a contact would it to sunlight. The length of exposure exposed and according to the season, the time of the day, vary the print was exposure, the angle of the sun. After completing the forma- water, in cold running washed rinsing areas and tion of the blue color in the exposed areas. iron salt from the unexposed away column Lastroea Foenisecii Lastroea How To How by Anna Strickland by Cyanotypes Anna Atkins’s Invented in the early 1840s by noted astronomer Invented in the early 1840s by was produced using one of the earliest photographic photographic produced using one of the earliest was from To make a cyanotype processes, cyanotype. liquid ferric ammo- , a mixture of equal parts scratch is evenly ferricyanide and potassium nium citrate then left to dry in brushed or sponged onto paper, are kept in papers a darkened room. Dry coated light records to ultraviolet the dark until exposure and photographs photograms an image. Cyanotype blue color. share a characteristic is, due to cyanotype (1792–1871), John Herschel Sir one of the most permanent the presence of iron salts, processes. The technique, however, photographic proved other processes that soon eclipsed by was more sensitive to light, see immediate and it did not in adoption of the cyanotype popular use. Atkins’s 1843 would become to produce the images for what of Photographs publication her three-volume (completed Impressions British Algae: Cyanotype use during the early of its 1853) is the best example period. photographic Anna Atkins’s ca. 1854 photogram ca. 1854 photogram Anna Atkins’s Anna Atkins English, 1799–1871 Foenisecii, ca. 1854 Lastroea Cyanotype 33.3 × 22.9 cm. (13× 9 in.) ⅛ 1986.155 Museum purchase Manual Spring 2015 fugitive. Andso, eventually, ismemory. profile pages, the coloritself will eventually fade tonothing. At its core,blueis social mediaingeneral (andFacebook, inparticular). JustlikesomanyFacebook cyanotype andthe twenty-first-century colorthat hasbecome synonymous with and thespatial. Blue,inthiscontext, gestures at once tothenineteenth-century there isnothingbutimpliedmovement andgrowth,ashiftinboththetemporal Time stands stillinaphotograph, buttolookat series ofphotographs overtime, The Fugitive Project Blue Self-Portrait, Edward Steichen, 1917(83.168.1) Commissioned by theRISDMuseum,basedon cm.(11×10 Sheet: 28×25.5 Cyanotype The Fugitive, 2014 Project American b.1960 Jessica Helfand

⅛ in.) 61 Issue— 4

/ 64 Artist on Art Artist Manual Spring 2015 18.7 × highlights onpaper Watercolor appliedwithbrushscraped ca. 1819 Vineyard,, ofOstersprey andFeltzenbelowBosnart AView Rainbow: ontheRhinefromDunkholder English, 1775–1851 Joseph MallordWilliamTurner Gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr.57.192 ofMrs. WilliamRandolphHearst, Gift in.) Center backlength:139.7 cm.(55 Silk velvet 1955 Evening Dress, American, 1906–1978 designer James, Charles Society NewYork/ProLitteris,Zürich (ARS), © 2015 Fondation Oskar Kokoschka /Artists Rights ofMrs. GustavGift Radeke24.486.1 17.1 × watercolor,Ink, gold,andcutpaperonalbumpage late 16th–early17thcentury Cut-Paper LeaffromaPoetryAlbum, Turkish, 17thcentury active Fahri ofBursa 71.153.2 Anonymous gift Image: 23.8 × Image: 23.8 Color photolithograph onpaper Boys (Dieträumendenknaben),1908 Dreaming Frau)Sleeping Woman(Schlafende from The Austrian, 1886–1980 Oskar Kokoschka ofMrs. GustavGift Radeke11.768 Height: 4.8cm.(1 Height: Glass Patella Cup, 1stcentury BCE–1stcentury CE Roman © SueMcNally ofDr.JosephA.Chazan 2013.9.8Gift Museum purchase inhonorofJudithTannenbaum, 28.3 × Ink onpaper as. SelfPortrait From theseries Lips, 2010 American, b.1967 Sue McNally 17.490 Anonymous gift 10.5cm.(6 (1) (6) (2) (5) (4) (3) 29.2 cm.(7 29.2 38 cm.(11 38 21.9cm.(9 Portfolio

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