Olive Beside Turquoise

Two stoppered flasks, one holding a cloudy olive green and the other a turquoise threaded with brown.

Work: Von der Universal Tinctur (author's holograph manuscript)
Artist / creator: Christian Wilhelm von Krohnemann (d. 1686)
Origin & date: Bayreuth, 1677
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London

Format

The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.

Size

Sized to protect print quality — this scan’s resolution supports sizes up to 30x40 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

Two stoppered flasks stand on a creamy page. One holds a cloudy olive green; the other a turquoise shot through with fine threads of brown, as if something were growing in it. The necks rise far above the liquid, drawn long so the vapour had room to move. Krohnemann made these drawings himself for the book he dedicated to the Princess of Brandenburg, signed at Bayreuth on 10 August 1677, and the Wellcome holds it as his holograph, the author's own copy. Greens like these were the colours alchemists hoped to see as a mixture began to change. He painted them without a single label, trusting the colour to speak.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
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Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ