J.CAC VOLUME 32 (2007)
The Painting Materials and Techniques of Cornelius Krieghoff
A study of the painting materials and techniques of Cornelius Krieghoff, a 19th-century Canadian artist (1815-1872), was undertaken. The project was initiated in 1999 at the time of the exhibition “Krieghoff: Images of Canada,” which was curated and organized by Dennis Reid at the Art Gallery of Ontario. As part of the preliminary examination of the paintings, nine unlined canvases were examined and the signatures on 130 dated paintings were documented. In the second phase, 55 paintings were chosen that spanned Krieghoff’s career and that were representative of his major subject areas: autumn and winter landscapes, Aboriginal people, Quebec country scenes and portraits. Over 300 minute samples of paint and ground layers were taken from these paintings and were subjected to instrumental analysis. Samples were analysed by X-ray microanalysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), polarized light microscopy (PLM) and, to a limited extent, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Pigment mixtures were present in many paint samples. Pigments identified include lead white, vermilion/cinnabar, red lakes, iron oxides, Prussian blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, bone black, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow, Naples yellow, barium yellow and zinc yellow. Some pigments were used throughout his career; others appeared to be used during specific time periods. Also investigated were certain problems inherent in Krieghoff’s materials and their uses, such as colour fading due to fugitive pigments, wrinkled paint surfaces and drying cracks.
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