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…

Manierre Dawson

Dawson was among the first American painters to move decisively into abstraction. His color structures turn Cubist fracture into buoyant planes of rose, yellow, green, and blue.

Palette: #C28754 #7E5332 #CEB06F #2A2A2B #315D49 #D6B68E #9D562D #65311B

  • Figure in Pink and Yellow (1914): #C38557 #A47A2C #793014 #785525 #562714 #A04C38
  • Xdx: #D0955D #D2AE8B #DCBC68 #5A442A #B57D57 #D9C7B4
  • Brown Array, By: #4D2D20 #C27C4D #935F46 #2A2827 #664E3E #70402A
  • Figures in Orange (1915): #D89F47 #D4AD69 #E6BFB8 #E27620 #A97B34 #785735
  • Fourteen, By (1913): #BCA879 #D4A96B #C48D4F #865D3B #B27035 #A4885A
  • Xdx (1910): #D1945B #D3AA85 #AE7451 #DBBC67 #D4C2AE #5A432A
  • Mother and Child, By (1912): #623823 #40241D #30312F #44443C #7E5A34 #AE7557
  • Painted Wood Relief, By (1912): #975A2A #7B4B2B #936B1E #50392C #684921 #352921
  • Three Trees, By (1911): #7E7C74 #1F594C #2D4757 #43766C #37616D #25313C
  • Trees on Red Rocks, By (1918): #4F6E67 #91986D #456E4B #9E582E #215B39 #4A743A
  • Untitled, By (1913): #A9A58E #979893 #877775 #BCA779 #9A8C6F #635A59
  • Winter on the River, by Ernest Lawson (1907): #C7C1AC #A0987E #6F7964 #806A50 #F1E8D5 #D2BD96
  • Xdx (1910): #D1965F #DFC270 #B2764F #D4C1AC #54402A #D6B38C

The Palette

The Works

How the palette changed

Chromatic Comparison

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