Quinacridone Rose - Pigment Violet 19 (PV19)

PV19 is one of the most important pigments for the watercolour artist and seems to feature in an increasing number of manufacturers paints, mostly as single pigments, but also in quite a few mixtures. This is an interesting pigment which is available in two major versions, Rose and Violet, but things become complicated in that there is also a `red' form not far removed from the Rose, all covered by the same PV19 designation. However a study of the palette choices of several well-known professional artists indicated it has certainly not replaced (for example) the fugitive  Alazarin Crimson (PR83) which is still widely used and only partially replaced by the `Permanent' version. Probably the best known PV19 paint is Winsor & Newton's Permanent Rose, a favourite of many flower painters. Winsor & Newton recommend Permanent Rose as the red  in a  three colour primary palette, although some other manufacturers tend to favour a magenta shade.

 Above are nine different versions of PV19 which include both the Rose and Red shades and Violet. The only violet shade is the Rowney Permanent Magenta which is obviously different to the rest. Permanent Rose from W & N is the Rose shade, Primary Magenta from Maimeri is also the same shade, while Maimeri's Rose Lake is the Red shade. Schminke say, when describing their Ruby Red version that `different colour layers have a strong influence on character'.

In this instance I'll cover the Rose and Red versions, which are very similar and the Violet in another post. Quinacridone Violet (Gamma Quinacridone 1958) comes in deep red to violet-red shades depending on manufacturer. There are at least 20 pigment suppliers Worldwide and small variations may exist in the raw pigments they sell, while differences in the various manufacturing processes  also affect the final product. The red shade is warmer and darker than the Rose but I doubt most of us can tell the difference, more likely those between different makers. Although considered lightfast and semi-transparent Bruce McEvoy detected some fading after 800 hours exposure and suggests that variations may exist between the different makes on offer. He always says it is safer to carry out ones own lightfastness tests but I suggest only a few are prepared to go to such lengths. However it is rated, even by Bruce `Excellent to Very Good'.

To see what is on offer I looked at 14 leading manufacturers. The Australian company Art Spectrum and the American Da Vinci have the most paints with  five single pigment PV19's. Art Spectrums names vary from Spectrum Crimson to Rose Madder with four (or is it three?) Rose or Red versions. Da Vinci, possibly the most recent company to reformulate their paints have Alazarin Crimson (!), Carmine, Red Rose Deep, Permanent Rose and Quinacridone Violet as well as several mixtures including PV19. Of the 35 paints I identified only seven were called either Quinacridone Rose or Violet (mostly violet) with some pure marketing hype, `Genuine Rose', `Rose Pale Lake', `Thio Violet', ` Ruby red' etc.  The only company that calls it like it is  Daniel Smith with respectively Quinacridone Rose, Red and Violet. Surprisingly Holbein only market one colour Primary Magenta and so do Sennelier. I also note that Van Gogh offer Quinacridone Rose and Permanent Red Violet, Cotman Permanent Rose while Maimeri have Venezia versions of both Primary Magenta and Rose Lake. All this seems to confirm Bruce McEvoys assertion that paints should be selected by pigments not colours. There are two sources of pigment information, the manufacturer's website (usually) and that printed on the tubes. The latter is usually so small you almost need a magnifying glass.

If you wish to go deeper I always suggest the Handprint website www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html Look under paints where very extensive information is available. If that is not enough try www.artiscreation.com. I would imagine these two sources are enough for most artists. I once again pay tribute to Bruce McEvoy of Handprint for his wonderful resource for the watercolour artist which I have leaned heavily on..