[Garth Herrick]

Scott,

Hi, I'm relatively new to the forum, so I missed the last round of posts in January. I hope you have found some real burnt sienna, but in case you are still searching, here is some rare earth I just dug up:

I found four tube remnants of Grumbacher's P023, ranging in age from circa 1960 to 1977. The newest one dates from my first ever purchase of oils. The older ones belonged to the man who employed me to sculpt Leonardo da Vinci's Horse a while back.

You made me curious so I made a test chart to compare all my tubes of burnt sienna. There is a difference between W+N synthetic and Grumbacher P023. However, being a natural product, all four tubes of P023 are subtly different from each other as well. The newest one has a lighter body color, but can make a similar tint and glaze as the others. The modern W+N product is more yellow in hue, but I guess you know that.

The other tubes I compared, are: A forty+ year old tube from Permanant Pigments (very close to Grumbacher P023, but slightly redder), Old Holland (natural calcined sienna, but clearly a different pigment source), and Pebeo Fragonard, which I understand is no longer available, but is very much a different standard for burnt sienna, because it is made from burnt umber (go figure)!

With each swatch, I added some Blockx Mixte White (flake and zinc) to test the tint hues.

I didn't realize there were so many different standards for Burnt Sienna! Here are some pictures of test swatches. I hope this helps.