Van Dyke brown
brown earth pigment
Van Dyke (Vandyke) brown, also known as Cassel earth or Cologne earth, is a deep, rich, and warm brown colour often used in photography, painting and printmaking. Early publications on the pigment refer to it as Cassel (or Kassel) earth or Cologne earth in reference to its city of origin; however, today it is typically called Van Dyke brown after the painter Anthony van Dyck.
The colour was originally made from peat or soil, and has been applied as both watercolour and oil paints. Today, the pigment is made by combining asphaltum-like black with iron oxide. This replicates the colour of the original iron oxide-rich earth found in Cassel and Cologne, Germany.
History
Although the color is named after Anthony van Dyck, the origins of the pigment predate the painter by several centuries. The first use of Van Dyke brown is thought to date from as early as the sixteenth century. Manuscripts from the early seventeenth century testify to its use. Inconsistent use of terminology in historical sources has caused uncertainly as to how extensively the color was used in the past. Van Dyke brown was initially used in watercolor, oil, and encaustic, but in the nineteenth century its use spread to miniatures, crayons, and wood stains.
The public source identifies “Van Dyke brown” as brown earth pigment. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dyke, brown and earth.
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This entry incorporates text from “Van Dyke brown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.