Sennelier: A New Watercolor

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Parisian paint maker Gustave Sennelier took advantage of the latest scientific discoveries to create a bolder, brighter, more portable paint.

By Courtney L. Jordan

Sennelier collaborated with ground- breaking artists such as Paul Cézanne, whose 1888 painting, Bathers (watercolor and graphite on wove paper, 5×8 1⁄8) embodies the innovative spirit of the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

|Sponsored| Strolling along the Left Bank in Paris today, an artist can stop in at 3 Quai Voltaire and walk through the doors of Maison Sennelier to satisfy all of their art material needs, just as the Impressionists did 134 years ago when the historic art supply store opened its doors in 1887.

A turn-of-the-century photo shows the Sennelier storefront in Paris. The shop continues to serve the art needs of 21st-century artists.

Sennelier: Artist and Innovator

Before founding the company that bears his name, Gustave Sennelier learned the artist’s trade firsthand as a catalog illustrator and later as a practitioner and student of chemistry — a science being fueled by industrial advancements and a steady discovery of new elements and compounds. These breakthrough discoveries were a boon for 19th-century artists, giving rise to cutting-edge possibilities in the manufacture of pigments.

When Sennelier stepped out on his own, he did so armed with an artist’s sensibility and all the innovations of modern chemistry at his command in order to fulfill his aim: to be the maker of “the finest colors available for artists.”

A New School of Paint

Sennelier began with the production of oil paints, but it was his formulas for watercolors that would excite the Impressionists with their new school of art. Across the Channel, in England, artists like J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851) and John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842) were pioneers in the creation of transparent watercolors, but the groundbreaking Impressionists of Paris were looking for more. They wanted luminous, vivid colors that they could transport easily when painting and sketching en plein air.

“The Impressionists were seeking paints that had not been invented,” says Pierre Guidetti, co-founder and president of Savoir-Faire, Inc. “This was a time of important discovery in chemistry. The arrival of the cobalts and the cadmiums transformed what was possible in the science of color. These developments would have been common knowledge to this group of artists — and for Sennelier, whose store was a gathering spot for artists of the day.”

Chemist and paint manufacturer Gustave Sennelier collaborated with many of the greatest artists of the age to create new and innovative materials to better meet their needs.

Cézanne as Collaborator

A key collaborator and creative co-conspirator of Sennelier’s in the creation of his new watercolor paints was none other than the influential artist Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906). He was a close family friend who often painted in Sennelier’s own gardens. “Cézanne was the first to discuss with Sennelier the making of watercolors with the same boldness and brightness as oils,” Pierre says.

Informed about the latest breakthroughs in pigment-making, and inspired by the urgings and conversations of the artists closest to him, Sennelier was able to answer the call. His new watercolors held all the luminous color that science could offer, packaged in convenient and portable paint tubes. It was a perfect pairing for Cézanne and the Impressionists, who now had the means to venture outdoors and capture the brilliant colors and light effects that would become synonymous with their name.


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