Artists’ Colourmen Database

Paintings conservators at the  National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia, have compiled a database of Artists’ Colourmen stamps, stencils, labels and marks found on artworks in the NGV Collection as a resource for study and interest.

The database can be viewed online at: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/conservation/artists-colourmen

Companies manufacturing and supplying artist’s materials, from the late Eighteenth Century onward, are known as Artists’ Colourmen. They marked their products, canvases, stretchers, and boards, for instance, with individual and characteristic stamps, stencils, labels and embossed marks. These often carry the company name and address, which can be used to indicate the source and general date of manufacture of the canvas, board or stretcher associated with an artwork.

This online resource has been made possible by the generous support of the Telematics Course Development Fund.  We are also indebted to Jacob Simon for allowing us to reference the rich on-line archive of historical information on artist’s colourmen provided by the National Portrait Gallery, London.