Left – Pure Bohemian Green Earth mixed with linseed
Middle – Pure Holbein Silver White
Right – Exact beads of each color mixed together
Working with historical colors is consistently challenging, especially when considering the natural green earth pigments. Their characteristics are vastly different in all aspects including handling properties, covering power, texture, and hue. Shown here is Kremer’s Bohemian Green Earth which, as you can see is a rather brownish, muted, color. It has a medium color saturation, meaning covering power, and is somewhat gritty. When mixed with yellow ochre, it retains its muted grayish tone but is slightly warmer.
To me, the grittiness is desirable because it adds texture to the surface of the canvas. However, some people might find this quality unappealing. It just depends on the look you want. This particular color is great for very neutral backgrounds and needs very little adjusting if you want your foreground objects to pop.
It is important to read the content information because some manufacturers add synthetic modern pigments to historical ones. As far as I can tell, Kremer’s Bohemian Green Earth is pure. It also has excellent lightfast permanency.