The Colorist
Archive

A living archive of how artists work with color across time. Each artist profile scans publicly available works to trace dominant colors, a chromatic fingerprint, and the arc of a palette across a lifetime.A living archive of how artists work with color across time, tracing palettes, fingerprints, and lifetime arcs from public works.

Begin with an artist, carry a palette into the drawing system, or read the wider project.Begin with an artist, carry a palette into the drawing system, or read the wider project.

Scanning works…

Jan Vermeer

Vermeer painted light itself — his interiors glow with pearlescent daylight filtered through leaded glass. Working with a palette of ultramarine, lead-tin yellow, and madder lake, he rendered ordinary domestic moments as meditations on stillness and luminosity.

Palette: #684B31 #1E1814 #43321C #9C7954 #C7AD8C #522A29 #717F8B #425166

  • A Maid Asleep (ca. 1656-57): #211813 #0A0A08 #3C2E24 #654934 #391B18 #4F2B21
  • Landschap Met Boerderij (1648): #A39963 #41371F #2E291A #675729 #817443
  • Girl with the Red Hat (ca. 1669): #493823 #121A23 #66482A #2E241B #360D17 #293E4B
  • Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1): #0F0C0B #1B160E #71665A #2C2415 #3A3933 #4E3A1A
  • A Maid Asleep (c. 1): #322A1E #47331A #7E572D #1D150A #B4884B #5F513E
  • The Art of Painting ((166): #382C19 #9E8767 #1F1E1A #2F3834 #C7BEA4 #6C5A3D
  • Conversation in Front of the Inn (ca. 1630): #734D2A #422C1B #C6B9A0 #593B22 #241E1B #A3855E
  • The Allegory of Painting -or- the Art of Painting: #2D1C28 #9B7156 #492930 #6F4A43 #C29C73 #E6CFAD
  • Oil Painting on Canvas Laid on Canvas (ca. 1630): #564432 #3E3123 #785D3F #9F6D38 #C88B3D #E9CCA1
  • Het Meisje Met de Parel (Girl with a Pearl Earring) (1632-75): #110B11 #71523B #95704C #533B2B #C7A475 #342721
  • The Art of Painting (Detail): #785038 #A67A53 #4B2C23 #231213 #D8AD76 #0F0709
  • Meisje Met de Parel (Johannes Vermeer, 1665) (1665): #342920 #221812 #9A7548 #CBA985 #694B2D #9BA0AB
  • The Art of Painting: #050D15 #A28564 #39382D #D1B192 #F6E6D7 #5E4D34

The Palette

The Works

How the palette changed

Chromatic Comparison

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