Chapter 5 : The famous helios red

For Cézanne, an analysis of his palette revealed regular use of several different reds, notably Vermillion, that he employed to such good effect to illustrate the velvety skin of peaches! But the use of true Vermilions, still on the palettes of the Impressionists, was threatened, because of their lack of stability, and they began to be supplanted by the new synthetic pigments. However the new pigments were expensive and one wonders if the painters did not find, for example, that the new Cadmium Red – designed to replace true Vermilion and which had been patented by a German manufacturer in 1892. From the day of the famous 1886 Impressionist show in Paris, that preceded the one in New York, Cézanne left the capital and sought exile in his Aix studio where he strove, in the overwhelming light of the Midi, to represent visual emotions through the medium of painting. Any future communication with the Quai Voltaire now had to be made by post. 20 years later, Gustave Sennelier created a toluidine based red, that he christened “Helios Red” , from the family of organic reds, a lively red, very intense and luminous. It had the power to “lift” a color. One of the tones much used by the post- impressionists.Gustave Sennelier rapidly established an ex- ceptional client base. Sisley came to think of Sennelier as “his” color merchant; Van Gogh asked his brother to buy his colors from Sennelier; Gaughin bought primed canvases whose stamp bear witness to the fact that they were purchased at Sennelier. That these artists chose Sennelier was a great boost to his reputation. And his fame was not just based on colors: board quality was also important as on this depended the long term survival of a work of art. If it absorbed too much oil, (the binder), the paint would not dry on the board. Fantin-Latour, Maurice Denis, Vuillard, Gustave Moreau, Henri Laurens, Odilon Redon – all of them appreciated the colors they found at the store on Quai Voltaire and depended on the consistency, the texture, the quality of the products from Sennelier.According to the P.Richard's Book