India Rubber Painting Grounds in Britain and France in the Nineteenth Century

The use of rubber as a component of the grounds of artists' canvases appeared simultaneously in Britain and France, and such primed canvases became commercially available from around 1835 to the beginning of the 1850s. India rubber (so called as it first came from the 'India' discovered by Columbus) or elastic gum was at the time a new material in the visual arts. More generally, this product found vogue in many fields of manufacturing. The addition of rubber to grounds applied to artists' canvas was an extension of the process of waterproofing utilitarian fabrics then common in Britain and France. Rubber-based grounds were first mentioned in the conservation literature in 1981 by Byrne. The present paper seeks to identify manufacturers and individuals involved in the development of rubber-based artists' grounds. The study is based on textual sources and the few material sources which remain: handwritten recipes, patents, press releases, catalogues, marks on fabrics, and rare paintings on manufactured French and British fabrics. The deterioration aspects of grounds containing rubber are illustrated.