Image: Collecting samples from painted leather © National Trust
The National Trust Paint Archive in Kent will be run by a new heritage scientist who will also set up new research projects based on the collection
The National Trust is establishing a new research laboratory to analyse its collection of historic paint samples, allowing for new insights into centuries of colour usage across their properties.
The lab will catalogue thousands of paint samples dating back to the Roman era, creating an archive.
The new research laboratory will be set up at the Trust’s Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Centre at Knole in Kent, and is funded for its first two years by £620,000 in funding from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The Trust’s paint samples run into the thousands, gathered across the country over decades and includes samples from paintings, buildings and decorative arts as well as interiors of historic buildings and even exterior woodwork, fences and gates.
As well as helping identify the colours used, the samples also reveal materials popular in decorating homes in the past, how tastes and choices of colour changed, and the global trade in pigments and materials used to brighten lives and homes.
In a recent example, an 1881 watercolour painted by William Jackson Browne, the owner of Townend, an historic farmhouse in Cumbria showed a different paint colour for the building’s woodwork. The house timbers had been painted a very dark green for many decades. But after paint sampling confirmed that a dark red shown in the painting was historically correct, the house has now been restored to its original colour scheme.
Another study has also revealed unusual ingredients in some paintings. Work on a painting by Italian artist Tintoretto from the Renaissance period. In his work The Wise and Foolish Virgins which is normally on show at Upton House. The paint sampling revealed layers of paint composed of real ground gold, partially overlaid with some transparent paint layers. The son of a dyer, Tintoretto frequently employed transparent paint with dye based pigments – known as lake pigments – to build up his complex paint surfaces.
John Orna-Ornstein, the Trust Director of Curation and Experience said: “Our collection of paint samples are thousands of tiny cultural assets currently hidden from view, but which we can now make accessible. From some of the earliest decorative schemes in frescoes at Chedworth Roman Villa to 18th century carriages and works by Constable our staff and facilities will have a huge impact on increasing knowledge, understanding and curiosity.”
The National Trust Paint Archive project will be run by a new heritage scientist who will also set up new research projects based on the collection. In addition, they will set standards for paint sampling and analysis, using the latest high quality techniques.”
The National Trust Paint Archive project is part of the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science (RICHeS) programme, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund.
