Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?

More than two centuries before Pantone divided the visible spectrum into six-digit colour codes, a mysterious Dutch artist crafted this extraordinary guide to painting in watercolor. Hundreds of subtly varying colours were mixed by hand for this one-of-a-kind, encyclopedic volume.

As Colossal has pointed out, the 800-page book resembles a comprehensive Pantone’s colour guide from 1692. Dutch book historian Erik Kwakkel recently rediscovered Klaer lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst in the online archives of the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence, France. There’s only one recorded copy of the handwritten and handpainted book — thanks to the internet, its readership has probably grown exponentially after Kwakkel posted it on his blog.

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?

Details about the book’s origins are scant. The author is known only as A. Boogert, and the introduction suggest the book was written has an instruction manual. Painted swatches illustrate the instructions that describe how to alter a colour by adding “one, two or three portions of water.” Who could have written such a comprehensive guide to colour in the 17th century?

For art historians, readers of Dutch script, and anyone else who wants to ogle pretty colours, the entire book is available here and its record here. Find anything interesting in the 800 pages? We’d love to hear from you in the comments. [Erik Kwakkel via This Is Colossal]

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?

Who Painted This 300-Year-Old Guidebook To Every Imaginable Colour?


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.