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Let it Snow

by Bruce Petrie, Chair, Board of Trustees

12/16/2025

pigments, winter, landscapes

A painter of snow learns there’s no such thing as white. Our paints, oil paints with pigments—as well as snow itself—reflect or absorb light in countless ways, none of which is actually the one and only thing we call white.

Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Analyzing Vouet’s Venus

by Serena Urry, Chief Conservator

7/4/2024

CAMConservation, Vouet, pigments, pigment analysis, pigment identification

A few weeks ago, two scientists from the Center for Archaeometry & Art Research Palatinate (CAAP) in Germany spent the morning in one of our European galleries to analyze Toilette of Venus, a painting by French artist Simon Vouet (1590–1649).

Behind the Scenes in Conservation: Striped pigments?

by Conservation

11/3/2021

paintings conservation, inpainting, conservation paints, pigments

No, it’s just the morning sun hitting our jars of dry pigments through the blinds, a brief exposure that does no harm.