Rembrandt Artist Watercolours by Royal Talens

I have just returned home from Amsterdam, home of the Urban Sketchers Symposium for 2019. It was a pleasure and an honour to be part of the faculty, and we were treated to a tour of the Royal Talens factory. It was an hour outside of the city but well worth visiting. Of course, no photos were allowed. We saw parts of the processes of many of their large range of paints and colours. We were also able to try the Van Gogh (student range) watercolours and the pencils and other tools.

I've posted a blog about the previous 80 colour Rembrandt watercolour range here, but it has been updated this year to celebrate the 120th anniversary of these professional watercolour paints. Is is now a range of 120 colours. 18 colours have been reformulated and 40 new ones added in this complete overhaul. I was able to try many of the new colours at the factory experience centre, but they were not able to find all the colours so there are still some missing.

Having tried to work out all that had been done, I then found a very useful brochure here.

I'll make a note of the discontinued colours in case you particularly love any and want to stock up before they are gone.

Once again, they painted out very nicely. They tend to be on the runny side straight from the tube but dry smoothly and rewet with ease.


The number of cadmium colours has been reduced so Cadmium Yellow Light is discontinued.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Chinese White, Transparent Titanium White (not shown), Opaque White (new - not shown), Cadmium Yellow Lemon (improved formula), Permanent Lemon Yellow (not shown).

The yellows are almost all single pigment now.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Transparent Yellow Medium (new), Azo Yellow Light (changed in number from 268), Cadmium Yellow (new name and was 271), Azo Yellow Medium (new formula and number - was 269),
Azo Yellow Deep (not shown - new number and new formula was 270)

Rembrandt Watercolours - Indian yellow (not shown), Aureoline, Gamboge, Naples Yellow Deep (not shown),
Titanium Buff (new).

Three new oranges have been added, with the mixed pigment 266 Permanent Orange removed and replaced with Brilliant Orange. I've used a photo here and for the next reds, rather than a scan, to try to show the brilliance of these oranges and reds. I just love the oranges made with PO71 and PO72.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Naples Yellow Red (not shown), Benzimidazolone Orange (new), Pyrrole Orange (new),
Brilliant Orange (new). 

303 Cadmium Red Light and 370 Permanent Red Light were removed and a number of single pigment reds added.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Vermilion, Permanent Red Medium (not shown, but a lovely warm red pigment).

Cadmium Red (replaces 413 Cadmium Red Medium), Permanent Red Deep, Perylene Red Deep (new).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Cadmium Red Deep, Quinacridone Red (new), Perylene Red (new),
Naphtol Red Bluish (new). Alizarin Crimson (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Madder Lake Deep (not shown), Permanent Madder Lake (new formula),
Carmine (new formula), Permanent Madder Brown, Permanent Madder Purple (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Venetian Red, Indian red, Permanent Madder Light (not shown), Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Rose Reddish (new)

Many new rose reds have been added.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Quinacridone Rose Magenta (new), Rose (new), Permanent Red Violet,
Quinacridone Red Violet (new), Benzimiazolone Violet (new)

568 Permanent Blue Violet has been removed, a number of other purples added.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Mauve, Quinacridone Purple bluish (new), Manganese Violet (new), Blue Violet (new),
Ultramarine Violet (not shown)

Rembrandt Watercolours - cobalt Violet, Lavender (new), Ultramarine Deep, French Ultramarine
(now from a new source so very granulating), Cobalt Blue (Ultramarine) (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Blue Red, Phthalo Blue Green, Prussian Blue,
Indanthrene Blue.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Indigo (not shown), Cerulean Blue, Cerulean Blue Greenish (new - with PB36),
Crerulean Blue (Phthalo) (improved), Cobalt Turquoise Blue (new).

 Cobalt Green has been removed and replaced with a more brilliant pigment.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Turquoise Blue, Cerulean Blue Deep (new), Cobalt Turquoise Green (new),
Bluish Green (not shown), Viridian.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Phthalo Green, Emerald Green, Phthalo Green Yellow (new), Permanent Green.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Permanent Yellow Green (not shown), Sap Green, Hooker Green Light (not shown),
Hooker Green Deep, Chromium Oxide Green.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Green Earth (not shown), Olive Green (not shown), Azomethine Green Yellow (new),
Yellow Ochre, Gold Ochre (improved).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Transparent Oxide Yellow, Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Orange (new), Transparent Red Oxide,
Burnt Sienna.

 408 Raw Umber was removed, as was 426 Transparent Oxide Brown.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Burnt Umber, Greenish Umber (new), Transparent Oxide Umber (new), Sepia,
Vandyke Brown.

The Spinal Grey is made with a newly developed synthetic grey pigment - I'll be interested in exploring this further.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Spinal Grey (new), Neutral Tint, Payne's Grey, Davy's Grey (new), Oxide Black (new).

Rembrandt Watercolours - Ivory Black (improved), Lamp Black (improved), Dusk Yellow (new), Dusk Pink (new),
Dusk Green (new).

 The new Metallic colours are best seen on black watercolour paper or over dark pigments.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Silver (new), Light Gold (new), Copper (new), Graphite (new).

 The subtle sparkle of Interference colours doesn't show up in a scan but I'll include them for reference.

Rembrandt Watercolours - Interference White, Blue, Violet and Green. Chameleon Gold/Red/Violet,
Chameleon Red/ Violet/Blue

Rembrandt Watercolours - Chameleon Violet/Blue/Green, Chameleon Blue/Green/Gold, Spark Green, Spark Blue,
Spark Violet, Spark Pink.

Index to symbols used:

+++ means will last for at least 100 years under museum conditions.

++ 25 - 100 years under museum conditions.

+ 10 - 25 years under museum conditions.

G = granulation

Empty box = transparent

Diagonal line in box is semi-transparent

Half filled box = semi opaque

Filled box = opaque

These lovely Dutch watercolours are available in half pans, 10ml tubes, 20ml tubes and a range of sets.

Happy painting!

Rembrandt Watercolours

Rembrandt watercolours are the professional range made by Royal Talens of Holland. I had only tried about 15 of the 80 colours shown on the colour chart until I was generously lent a brand new set of 48 by one of my students. Consequently most of these 53 colours shown are painted out from pan colours.

I love the Rembrandt soft pastels, which I have used for many years, so it was good to paint a large number of the professional watercolours at once. The student range is called Van Gogh.

They painted out nicely and I think it's a very no-fuss range. Great colours, a good choice of pigments, excellent earth colours and plenty of single pigment colours. While my plan was to show the full range of all brands, even though I am missing 27 from this range I decided to post them up anyway since there is not much available showing the Rembrandt colours. 

(updated June 2017)

September 2019 - I've created a new blog about Rembrandt watercolours here, based on their updated range.

Rembrandt set of 48 half pans.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Chinese White, Transparent titanium White (not shown), Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Permanent Lemon Yellow (not shown), Cadmium Yellow Light.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Azo Yellow Light (not shown), Cadmium Yellow Medium (not shown), Azo Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Azo Yellow Deep (not shown)

Rembrandt Watercolour - Aureoline, Indian Yellow (not shown), Gamboge, Naples Yellow Deep (not shown), Naples Yellow Red (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolour - Cadmium Orange, Permanent Orange (not shown), Vermilion, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Red Light (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolour - Cadmium Red Medium, Permanent Red Medium (not shown), Cadmium Red Deep, Permanent Red Deep, Permanent Red Light (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolour - Madder Lake Deep (not shown, but PR83 so not recommended), Alizarin Crimson (not shown but also PR83 so not recommended), Permanent Madder Lake, Carmine, Quinacridone Rose.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Permanent Red Violet, Permanent Madder Purple (not shown), Cobalt Violet, Mauve, Permanent Blue Violet.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Ultramarine Violet (not shown), French Ultramarine, Ultramarine Deep, Cobalt Blue (Ultramarine) (not shown), Cobalt blue.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Cerulean Blue, Cerulean Blue (Phthalo) (not shown), Phthalo Blue Red, Phthalo Blue Green, Prussian Blue.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Indanthrene Blue, Indigo (not shown), Turquoise Blue, Bluish Green (not shown), Permanent Yellow Green (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolour - Permanent Green, Emerald Green, Cobalt Green (I think this is actually made from PG19 but my sample was mis-labelled), Viridian, Phthalo Green.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Hooker Green Deep, Hooker Green Light (not shown), Sap Green, Olive Green (not shown), Green Earth (not shown).

Rembrandt Watercolour - Chromium Oxide Green, Yellow Ochre, Gold Ochre (not shown), Transparent Oxide Yellow, Raw Sienna.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Burnt Sienna, Transparent Red Oxide, Permanent Madder Brown, Light Oxide Red, Venetian Red.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Indian Red, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Transparent Oxide Brown, Sepia.

Rembrandt Watercolour - Vandyck Brown, Payne's Grey, Neutral Tine, Ivory Black, Lamp Black (not shown).

If you happen to have some of the missing Rembrandt colours and would like to send me a sample, please get in touch :-)

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