Old Master recipes in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s: Curry, Marsh, Doerner, and Maroger

Many American painters of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s were fascinated by historic painting techniques and by the supposedly lost 'secrets' of the Old Masters. Among the most important influences on American artists at that time were Max Doerner's book The Materials of the Artist and the theories and recipes of Jacques Maroger. John Steuart Curry and Reginald Marsh stand out among the artists who absorbed lessons from Doerner and Maroger in that they left behind a large body of material that documents their use of these methods. By studying notebooks, recipes, and letters, as well as test canvases and actual paintings,the authors have been able to establish detailed technical chronologies for Curry and Marsh. The research also provides insights into how these kinds of experimental methods have affected the state of preservation of paintings, not only by Curry and Marsh but by other painters whose techniques are less well documented.