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Roger Rossi Visiting the Old Holland Factory and Cruising on the Rhine

Manitou painter Roger Rossi recently cruised down the Rhine River with his fellow Salmagundi Club painters. A highlight of the trip was a tour of the world famous Old Holland paint factory. Read below to learn more about Old Holland and see pictures from Roger's tour. We're excited to see Roger's upcoming paintings!

The history of Old Holland Classic Colours goes back to the seventeenth century, the golden age of the Dutch masters.In this era, the training of painters was organised under the guild system. The painters' guilds were called Saint Lucas Guilds, after their patron saint Lucas. Traditional knowledge and skills in the area of the manufacture of paint were passed on from generation to generation in these guilds. In the guild, the master taught the mate and the apprentice. The apprentice learned to rub the pigments with the binders, the mate learned to mix the colours and make underpaintings. Once the mate was deemed to be skilled enough, he in turn became a master, started his own studio and gained standing.

Around 1664, a Saint Lucas guild in The Hague started the preparations for the establishment of 'Pictura Brotherhood of Painters and its Academy for the Visual Arts of The Hague' (1682-1882). An association of master painters which organised art reviews and where artists drew from dressed models: the first academy. The correct manufacture of paints formed an important part of the education. The Pictura Brotherhood of Painters remained in existence until the nineteenth century.

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