Imprimatura

What's imprimatura?

After whitening the wooden board with gesso, I did the imprimatura with this lovely brush, using earth colours.💕

It is interesting to know that the preparation of the panels was sometimes made by specialised craftsmen and not only by the painters themselves. In 1631, the profession of primmuurder was recognized as an independent craft at the guild of St Luke in Haarlem. Haechts and Gabrons were important dynasties of panel-makers based in Antwerp.

But what's imprimatura?

Imprimatura is the first tone layer that we aplly on the painting support. It also reduces the absorbency of the ground and gives an overall tone and harmony to the painting. This colour layer could be a middle tone between highlights and shadows.

The imprimatura can be applied in so many different ways ... For example during the Dutch golden Age, we can frequently observe the use of opaque primings, which is described by Willem Beurs in his treatise.

In Andrien Brouwer and in Rembrandt’s early works, we observe the use of light brown imprimaturas. Rembrandt used different types of underlayers, but in the late 1650´s he started to use darker primings.

When Rubens lived in Italy, he worked primarily with red-brown priming canvases. After his return to the North he used grey imprimaturas over a white or earth coloured ground.

Jacob Jordaens and Frans Snyders also made grey imprimaturas.

The young Anthony van Dyck made some red-brown and grey primings but later in his life he preferred lighter underlayers.

Vermeer used light grey and light brown primings. Lighter imprimaturas were more protected to discolour over the time.

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