Hi! While researching, I have come across some interesting comming from Angel Academy of Art’s founder, Michael John Angel, about lead use in oil painting. I was interested in using a lead oil ground or lead alkyd ground on top of a surface prepared with acrilyc gesso as I have read lots of statements implying lead provides great strenght to the surface and further paint layers.
”This is great, but who would use dingy lead white these days? Over a short time, the lead combines with the sulfur in today’s air and forms lead sulfide (and lead sulfide is black). I am a huge fan of Michael Klein’s, but why not use titanium white (aka, the perfect white)? Titanium’s only defect is that it’s a slow drier, but mixed with an alkyd (such as Liquin), or bought in alkyd form, that defect goes away. It might be worth pointing out that there is a misapprehension about lead white: because it’s so heavy, the assumption is that it is opaque. This is simply not true; it is fairly transparent. Lead white, like so many other pigments, is composed of round crystals, which bump together but leave a bunch of gaps. Titanium, on the other hand, has needle like crystals, which mesh together and form an opaque and permanent layer with no gaps. The Old People (guys & gals) used lead white simply because it was all they had. Today, we have much better paints than they did.”
Although both his comment and the fact lead white provides a strong film are not exclusive, I would like to know some conservator’s opinion on this regard. Are the aforementioned drawbacks of lead (both ground and paint) sufficient to consider rulling it out, or its strength and other good properties make it still worth it? Specially when using it as a ground that will be fully covered.
Thank you so much for your time, kind regards.
I’m not a conservator, merely well read on the subject.
Sulphur (I’m not American.) is hardly a risk to lead white in most locations nowadays, and even when it was back in the smokey 19th century, it was mostly in the outdoors and open doored churches. Some places with hot pools with rotten egg smell (that the locals become blind to.) have shown a recent effect with unvarnished or unglazed paint, but the effect is generally overstated with oil paint. Watercolour lead white is another matter. Without the binding oil this discolours more freely so no one, as much as I’m aware, makes it anymore.
As a completely covered ground layer it should be as close as one can get to being completely risk free.
Titanium is much more opaque than lead white, it is true, but not as strong a paint film as lead white.
Marc.
Thank you so much for your comment, Marc.
Indeed, his statement seemed kinda strange, hence my interest in checking out the information in this forum. My idea then would be to apply one or two thin coats of lead ground on top of Lascaux Acrylic primer. It is slightly absorbent, good for preventing excessive sinking in, but I will have to test how well oil ground adheres to it.
Apart from that, do you have any thoughts on using either a lead oil ground or a lead alkyd ground? I am looking for the most archival option, I don’t know if one of the two is more desirable.
Thank you again for your time.
I haven’t tried the Lascaux acrylic primer, but if it’s intended as a universal primer it SHOULD be good for what you intend.
I believe the smithsonian did some paint film tests on lead oil paints. I should state the study date and number and if I can found it easily I will quote it later. I recall that the lead white alkyd was too hard after many years of aging, as was lead white made solely with litharge black oil. Both prone to cracking, while the normal lead white in standard refined linseed was in what might be called a Goldilocks zone of not too hard, not too soft. So without having personally tested the lead alkyd ground. I’d go with the lead oil ground.
Marc.
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