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The Forbes’ Pigment Collection contains over 1000 colorants assembled by the late Edward Waldo Forbes, former Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University (1909-1945). Currently, the core collection of pigments is housed in the Straus Center for Conservation at Harvard University while Forbes’ private collection of pigments resides at the Institute for Fine Arts Conservation Center at New York University. Known subsets of these two collections exist in nineteen additional laboratories around the world. These colorants have been analyzed widely by most of the labs and thus the goal of this database is to provide one central, searchable, readily-accessible location for the compilation of any available information from all sources. The combination of this information will document the materials and aid in the determination of their compositions.
Many institutions further developed their collections with additional materials. One significant set is a collection of Asian pigments produced by Rutherford Gettens, Fogg Art Museum, and Richard Buck, Intermuseum Conservation Laboratory. This collection now resides at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and small subsets exist in other labs.
Database setup:
Inventory lists and analysis results for the pigments are being added to the database as they are received. The pigment sets have varying numerical designations and limited bottle labeling. Where it appears that more than one lab has portions of the same sample (based on the number or label), the records are combined. The most common numbering systems are: 1) the 'new' system devised by Richard Buck based on the pigment’s color and chemical composition and 2) the 'old' or original numbers from the NYU collection. All numbers associated with a particular sample are included in the Pigment number field for searching purposes. |
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Present collection locations:
Forbes' core collection:
• Straus Center for Conservation (formerly the Fogg Art Museum) Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge MA
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
• Balboa Art Conservation Center, San Diego CA
• Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC
• Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center, New York University, New York, NY
• Intermuseum Conservation Laboratory, Cleveland OH (formerly Oberlin)
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven CT
Forbes' private collection:
• Institute of Fine Arts, Conservation Center, New York University, New York NY
• Art Conservation Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• Buffalo State College Art Conservation Department (formerly the Cooperstown Graduate Program), Buffalo NY
• Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada
• Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit MI
• Doerner Institute, Munich, Germany
• Intermuseum Conservation Laboratory, Cleveland OH (formerly Oberlin)
• Library of Congress Restoration Office, Washington DC
• McCrone Research Institute, Chicago, IL
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• National Research Laboratory for Conservation, New Delhi, India
• University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa
• Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore MD
• Winterthur Museum, Winterthur DE
Asian Pigment Collection
• Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA
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Credits:
Lab lists updated from originals found in:
• Gary W. Carriveau and Diana Omecinsky, ‘Identification of the Forbes Collection Pigments: 1. Whites, JAIC 22(2), pp 68-81, 1983.
• Gary W. Carriveau, Diana Omecinsky; Cecelia Wolyniak; Linda Maccracken; Susan Dook; Pamela England; and Lambert van Zelst. Identification of the Forbes Collection Pigments. in ICOM Committee for Conservation 7th Triennial meeting preprints, Copenhagen, 1984.
The following people have assisted in the collection, production, and submission of information for this database:
Albert Albano, Richard Buck, Jan Carlson, Gary Carriveau, Michele Derrick, Katherine Eremin, Eugene Farrell, Glenn Gates, Rutherford John Gettens, Jennifer Giacci, Barbara Heller, Katherine Holbrow, Narayan Khandekhar, Meggan King, Gary Laughlin, Michele Marincola, Kevin Martin, Carole Namowicz, Richard Newman, Diana Omecinsky, Toni Owen, Shiho Sasaki, Greg Smith, Amy Snodgrass, Jens Stenger, Karen Trentleman, Terry Weiser, Paul Whitmore.
All rights to images and spectra are retained by their submitting institution. Please contact them directly prior to reprinting.
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For instructions on submitting information from your lab, please request the Forbes information packet via the CAMEO submit information window.
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