Sennelier

Sennelier

Gustave Sennelier opened his colour shop at 3 Quai Voltaire in Paris in 1887, directly across the river from the Louvre. Cézanne, Monet, Degas and later Picasso bought their materials there. The house still grinds pigment to formulations built for those painters, which is why the palettes carry so many Impressionist colours other manufacturers dropped decades ago.

Oil pastels

Created in 1949, when the painter Henri Goetz asked Henri Sennelier for a wax stick Picasso could use on any surface without cracking or fading. The result is unusually soft and heavily pigmented, bound in mineral wax and a non-drying synthetic medium, so the sticks never harden and stay workable for layering, scraping back or dissolving with solvent. Available here from 24-stick sets through to the complete 120 Universal range, along with themed Portrait and Still Life selections.

l'Aquarelle watercolour

Sennelier's honey-based watercolour. Honey is added to the Kordofan gum arabic binder in a carefully judged proportion, acting as a preservative and giving the paint its brilliance, its smooth release and its habit of rewetting instantly. Stocked as metal pan boxes from 8 to 48 half pans, tube sets, a six-pan test pack and open-stock 10 ml and 21 ml tubes for replacing single colours.

Extra soft pastels

Pure pigment ground with a natural transparent binder, uncompressed and air dried, which is what makes them deposit colour under almost no pressure. The brightness comes from natural mineral fines Sennelier identified in 1905. Available as full stick and half stick sets, including themed Portrait, Landscape and Seaside palettes.

Studio materials

Acrylique gesso for priming canvas, board and paper, and masking fluid for reserving highlights through watercolour washes.

Sennelier is stocked at Stationerie in Kolkata and shipped across India.