A set - Modern Zorn Limited Palette

Anders Zorn's 1896 Self-Portrait reveals his limited palette for creating figurative and portrait paintings in oil, a distinct variation on the Ancient Greek 4-color palette of Black, Red, Yellow and White.

Using colors available to 19th century painters, Zorn crafted his "limited" palette with Ivory Black, Vermilion, Yellow Ochre and Lead White to quickly build and adjust his flesh tones and provide neutral backgrounds with believable space. He shows the colors on his palette in the foreground of this self-portrait painting at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm:

Self-Portrait, 1896, by Anders Zorn, oil on canvas, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.

While simple in concept, limited palettes can test one's ability to create accurate mixtures of color, value and tone.

We are pleased to present our Modern Zorn Limited Palette set for endless mixing possibilities with our intensely pigmented Permanent Bright Red and Titanium White, along with our more nuanced Yellow Ochre and Night Black.

• In our modern version, the warmth and transparency of Yellow Ochre pairs beautifully with the semi-transparency of Permanent Bright Red to counter the cooler Titanium White in building believable flesh tones. Cooler notes of red are made with adding the Night Black to the Permanent Bright Red or just tinting it with the Titanium White.
• Mixing Yellow Ochre with the blue leaning Night Black first creates a green gold. Adding Permanent Bright Red to that mixture will result in a range of colorful browns that can be further adjusted with more of the Night Black and/or Yellow Ochre.
• Night Black can be easily warmed with the Permanent Bright Red to make a useful dark neutral and an endless variety of grays are possible by adding the Titanium White to the Night Black or any mixture that contains it.

Modern Zorn Limited Palette - Presented in protective boxes for safe and easy transport. Four colors, 40ml size tubes:

• Night Black - Distinctly blue and colorful, a lively rich black with blue gray tints. Ideal for adding a cool shadow, Night Black is a semi-transparent deep blue black that's easy to control.
• Permanent Bright Red - Rich in pigmentation, we handcraft our Permanent Bright Red using an intense warm Pyrrole, a very bright, non-toxic and lightfast modern permanent synthetic red that mixes cleanly to broaden the range of more bluish reds or violets.
• Yellow Ochre - Authentic natural ochre, golden, translucent, and warm. Ideal for mixing with other mineral colors for sensitive greens or the subtle warming of flesh tones without adding shadow.
• Titanium White - Containing only Titanium pigment, and no Zinc, our pure Titanium White offers total opacity and maximum color strength for a white, with a dense heavy consistency and robust tinting. Non-toxic.

On the Attic Stairs, 1898, by Anders Zorn, oil on canvas, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden.  - Here Zorn has added a blue, perhaps Cobalt, although our Prussian Blue will mix this same green with the Yellow Ochre. Adding a little of the Permanent Bright Red + Titanium White to the Prussian Blue warms it to resemble Cobalt or Cerulean.

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr., 1911, by Anders Zorn, oil on canvas, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA