About Winsor & Newton and other brands

Winsor & Newton has a Chinese branch, too (here). However, for many paints they use different pigments classified as two star (very good). For instance, they have a Brilliant Red, which is vermillion (PR21, monoazo). Orange is PO13 (benzidine). Their Lemon Yellow and Yellow Medium are Hansa yellows (PY3 and PY1). So these are cheaper formulas, although several paints are the same, such as Ultramarine Blue. It is good that these unusual pigments are still in use, because they are fine. But I wonder why they are doing these paints. Are they even cheaper to manufacture than the Winton series? Or perhaps the Chinese have a tradition of using these pigments(?). The Swedish family business Lindéngruppen (here), today incorporates the following brands, through the subsidiary ColArt (here): Beckers "A", Winsor & Newton, Liquitex, Reeves, Lefranc & Bourgeois, Conté à Paris, Derwent, Snazaroo, etc., making it the world's leading supplier of artists' materials. ColArt is based in London. Beckers "A", when it was introduced in 1912, was the first industrially made artists' paint that had all the criteria of lightfastness, bleeding resistance, etc., according to the German colour scientist Keim, which I believe are now standard in artists' grade paint. Although Beckers "A" is today manufactured in England and France, it is only marketed in Scandinavia. Reeves oil paints is a popular student grade brand, which originated in England. In 1766 William Reeves opened his first shop near St Paul's Cathedral in Well Lane, Little Britain, where he manufactured and sold his own paints (here). However, it seems that they only provide box sets with small tubes, which are very cheap (£9.59 for 24x10ml at eBay). (Somebody ought to write a book about all the different brands.) Mats

I think they are meticulous about following the traditional formulas. Otherwise it would create an uproar among artists who would discover that the paints don't behave as before. However, one could expect that they use the same raw materials for the different lines, which is a drawback. Probably they don't use Swedish linseed oil for Beckers "A", anymore. I think Ottosson still does, however. On account of the chilly climate, it is the best linseed oil there is. (Linseed oil, flaxseed oil in English speaking countries, is sold in food shops. I use to eat a teaspoon a day, because it is very wholesome, recommended by dieticians.) Beckers "A" seems to have changed in one respect, however. Point seven in Keim's criteria has disappeared from the adverts, namely that the paint should be lime-fast, allowing for mural painting. As example of curious paint formulas, Lefranc & Bourgeois uses lithopone white (PW5) in their Louvre series. Their cobalt blue is a mix of ultramarine and lithophone white. It creates exactly the same hue as cobalt, although it is an opaque paint. Lithopone is an inert pigment, the predecessor of titanium white. However, it is more expensive to produce and overly opaque. It has been detected in a water colour by van Gogh and in several water colours by American artist John La Farge. Mats