Materials & Techniques

Introduction  |  Easel  |  Brushes  |  Canvas and Ground  |  Oil Paints and Bladders
Ready Made Paint and Medium  |  Varnish  |  Porcelain Palette  |  Frame

Porcelain Palette

Millais used a porcelain palette rather than a wooden palette because it was smoother and easier to clean and he could keep his colours pure. He also chose an oval shaped palette rather than a rectangular one. Oval palettes were designed to be held and rectangular palettes would have been placed on a table.

Detail of Millais's palette by Sir Thomas Brock, 1904 © Tate, London 2003