paint-by-number or paint by number - Refers to a painting
made on a prepared canvas,
which was commercially printed
with a blue-line picture,
each area of which bears a number code of a color
from a palette of up to 90 colors.
Renaissance painter Leonardo
da Vinci is known to have directed his assistants to fill in numbered
sections of his paintings. The modern version of the idea for
paint-by-number originated in 1951 with Americans Dan Robbins,
who was working for the auto industry, and Max Klein, who manufactured paint. "Actors
act in plays written by somebody else," Mr. Robbins said
(article by William L. Hamilton, New York Times, April
3, 2001). "Singers cover songs. This is just an artistic
version of singalong." In America's post-WWII rapidly expanding
suburbs, paint-by-number sets became a common sort of folk
art. By 1953, 30 companies were producing paint-by-number
sets, each typically sold for $2.50. Sales in 1953 were over $80
million.Thousands of images were available. Common subjects
were picturesque landscapes,
portraits of clowns, kittens, ballerinas,
and reproductions of famous paintings. Today paint-by-number
paintings are collected seriously,
although prices for them remain quite low (see eBay). Some artists have taken paint-by-number
as a subject of their own work, including Pop
artist Andy Warhol. His Do-It-Yourself (Landscape)
of 1962 is an homage to
paint-by-number.
Examples:
Unsigned, Lighthouse at Inspiration Point, 1951,
paint-by-number, 16 x 20 inches, painted from an early set published
by Palmer. See details 1
and 2.
Unsigned, French Cathedral and Market, paint-by-number, 11 x 15 inches (frame 15 x 18 inches).
Unsigned, After Pinkie by Sir Thomas Lawrence (British,
1769-1830), paint-by-number, 16 x 20 inches. See a detail. The original version of this
"reproduction"
painting is in the collection of the Huntington Gallery, CA.
See Romanticism.
C. E. Gries, Jr., A European coach being
pulled by four horses going through a forest with a castle in
the background, undated, paint-by-number, 18 x 24 inches.
See a detail.
It is signed by Mr. Gries —
"the painter" — in the lower left corner.
Andy Warhol (American, 1928?1930?-1987),
Do-It-Yourself
Seascape J, 1963, oil
on canvas. By the 1960s
the popularity of paint-by-numbers had thoroughly dismayed art critics — just the
thing to tempt Andy Warhol to embrace it as Pop Art subject
matter. To produce this picture, Warhol projected
the line art from a paint-by-numbers
kit onto a large canvas
before painting.
American, Paint-by-Numbers Plan for
Vermeer's The Artist's Studio.
The major advertising company
of Young and Rubicam used this drawing
for a magazine advertisement
in promoting their own firm, 18 x 28 cms, October 1964. Jan Vermeer
(Dutch, Delft, 1632-1675). Below is the original
from which this drawing
was derived.
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632-1675), Allegory
of Painting (The Painter in His Studio), c. 1666, oil on canvas,
130 x 110 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The model personifies
Clio, Muse of History,
holding the trumpet of fame in her right hand and the chronicle
of world events in her left. Attributes
of other muses, including a mask,
lie on the table. These make the painter a narrator of stories.
See studio.
Also see after, analogy, appropriation, bad art, buckeye, calendar painting, copyright, droit moral, ersatz, kitsch, likeness, low art, obsession, originality, popular culture, print, simile, and simulacrum.
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