Model Dressed as Rembrandt. Masha with Rose.
Oil painting. J Corsaut. Oil Painting. J. Corsaut
2010 2010
New York and California
portrait painter Jesse Corsaut claims the secret of the long lasting, translucent
painting medium of the Old Masters has been hiding in plain sight printed in
old manuscripts for three hundred years.
Artists and experts from Sir Joshua Reynolds, Charles Eastlake, Max
Doerner to Jacques Maroger all sought this lost formula to no avail. The answer was so simple that none of them
could see it.
Charles Eastlake, in his 1860
book, Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters,
printed recipes for various oils, but was under the misconception that the
amber color noted in the old texts meant actual amber was used. He also believed that the Old Masters painted
with a resin oil varnish. He was so set
on this idea that he overlooked the obvious answer in his own book, which
includes recipes from old sources describing how linseed or walnut oils were
heated with either powdered lamb bone or warm oak wood ashes.
Because of Eastlake’s
misunderstanding and his high regard in the art world, later artists and art
experts attempted to produce his resin oil varnish for over one hundred and
fifty years. Recent advanced scientific
testing of paint samples at the National Gallery of London have proven that
there is little or no resin varnish or wax in the 17ty century Dutch or Flemish
master’s works. The artists Peter Paul
Rubens and Rembrandt painted simply with linseed or walnut oil often heat
treated in some way.
Corsaut’s experiences as a
young artist at the Art Students’ League in the early 1950s, copying Old
Masters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art proved frustrating. Modern oil, paints just didn’t produce the
nearly translucent quality of the originals.
Like many other artists of his generation, Corsaut was influenced by
Jacques Maroger in his 1948 book, Formulas and Techniques of the Masters,
describing a process of heating linseed oil with lead oxide and mastic varnish
to form a gel paint. Maroger claimed to
have rediscovered Rubens’ lost painting medium.
It turned out that Maroger had simply resurrected a discredited 19th
century medium called Megilop. Over
time, this medium cracked and crazed,
ruining untold numbers of paintings. One
art restorer has said that his major business comes from efforts to restore
such paintings.
Corsaut cites two sources for
his rediscovery of the “lost” medium.
First of all, he read the Ernst Van de Wetering biography, Rembrandt:
the Painter and his Work which
discussed the results of the tests by the National Gallery of London chemists that proved there
was no resin varnish or wax in the paint.
It was just linseed oil, possibly heated to Stand oil. This left the question of what could cause
the linseed oil to form a gel.
It was while watching a WW II
TV documentary mentioning how Napalm was made that Corsaut had his “Aha”
moment. He found out that to gel
gasoline, a small percentage of palm or other vegetable oil soap was added. With that insight, Corsaut remembered some
old chemistry books that had various soap recipes and found one that used
linseed oil and wood ash. Calcined bone
works as well.
In 2010, it all came together
and Corsaut formulated the oil and has painted numerous portraits and still
lifes using it with highly successful results.
It seems to fit perfectly all the expected criteria for an Old Masters
painting medium. The oil gives the paint
a fluid, thixotropic quality so there is no running. It makes blending the colors easy without
smearing or muddying. It dries in two
days with a soft gloss. A painting can
be completed in half the time as with modern oils.
In dozens of accelerated
aging tests of the rediscovered medium in
comparison with other commonly used oil paints, Corsaut has found no
downside. It holds up as well as the
best with no cracking or darkening.
Perhaps the real secret of
the Masters was the time and place in which they lived. A demand for large, detailed paintings led
the Masters to develop a technology to meet it.
The painting medium was part of a highly developed system that evolved
during the three hundred years of the Renaissance. At the end of this era, the system was lost
and so was the medium. Yet it seems that
the secret was as simple as the Rembrandt’s leg of lamb, or his wood ashes from
roasting it.
Mr. Corsaut would like to acknowledge the assistance of
Olga Perry both in locating the Wetering book and in participating in painting
trials.
Mr. Corsaut doesn’t do email, but you may contact him at
986 Benito Court, Pacific Grove CA 93950
or at 831-375-4940.
The Jell Medium
J.Corsaut studying 1 of 100 of Painting medium tests from 1952-2013
FORMULATING THE PAINTING MEDIUM
1. Calcined lamb bone consists of a a form of
lime: Ca(OH)2.
2. Wood ash contains the alkali KOH.
3. Heating linseed or walnut oil with 3% of
either Ca(OH)2 or KOH for ten or fifteen minutes at 450 degrees F. causes the
fatty acid of the oil to react and dissolve the alkali. On cooling, the oil becomes a clear, varnish
like, amber colored gel.
4. Mixing a bit of this gel in each lump of paint
on the artist’s palette worked to give
the paint the alla Prima handling seen in Dutch and Flemish masters.
