Gentleman in a red coat

Benjamin Arlaud painted this portrait of a young man using the technique common in the 17th century of water colours on vellum (a fine sheet of parchment). He continued using vellum as a painting support even for works he painted in the 18th century – when ivory was being introduced instead. This trend spread from Venice, where Rosalba Carriera introduced the fine material into miniature painting around 1700. The new technique rapidly reached England and was already adopted by the miniature painter Bernard Lens at the beginning of the 18th century. Arlaud appears not to have seen any advantage in the new material. Watercolours were actually more difficult to apply to ivory than to parchment, because it was slightly greasy and the paint adhered only to the surface. But because flesh painted transparently on ivory looked more realistic, it ultimately replaced parchment as painting support.¹