Michael Harding : Oil Paint : 40ml : Alizarin Crimson

PR 83. Slow Drying. Transparent. Good Lightfastness. High Oil Content.

The oldest synthetic organic lake, introduced in 1868, and the only one of the coal-tar lake range to have survived in use until the present, the others having been found to be too impermanent for artistic use before the end of the 19th century. Itself a replacement for the somewhat unreliable organic Natural Madder (a dye made from a crushed plant root), Alizarin is frowned upon by certain Americans because its lightfastness (II-III on the ASTM scale), does not match that attained in the more recent organic pigments. But its clarity and subtly beautiful bluish undertones are unique, and, since its introduction, portraitists have greatly prized its range of cool, rather smoky hues, so well suited for rendering facial flesh.