Datering en notities 1895

This is a page from a notebook, created by Willem Cornelis Rip around 1895. It's not a finished artwork, but a record of materials and costs, written in ink on paper. Rip lists various pigments: Cremnitz white, yellows made with zinc and barium, ochres from different locations – even ultramarine, made from lapis lazuli, and costly even then. Each is carefully priced, reflecting the artist's concerns with value and economy. The notebook reveals the economic realities underlying artistic creation. Paint wasn't just magically available; it had to be purchased, carefully used, and accounted for. Rip's approach embodies the culture of craft, where materials are understood intimately and valued accordingly. These lists prompt us to consider the labor, trade, and industrial processes that made these colors available to Rip, connecting his artistic practice to a wider world of production and consumption. By attending to the specifics of materials and making, we get a richer sense of the working life of an artist, and how that existence was intertwined with social and economic forces.