Johannes Vermeer · c. 1660
The Milkmaid
Warm domestic neutrals, and then a blue that stops the room.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Tap any swatch to copy. Ground colours are the three largest areas of the canvas; accent colours are chosen for intensity and may cover very little — which is exactly why they carry the painting. Percentages are each colour's share of the whole canvas, so these six will not add up to 100%: they are six of the 26 distinct colour regions measured, not a division of the surface. How these were sampled
The bulk of this palette is cream, tan and shadow — the ordinary colours of a plain interior. Vermeer then places natural ultramarine, the most expensive pigment available to him, on a kitchen servant's apron. The extravagance is the point, and the resulting contrast is why the figure holds the space so completely.
The structure is the same as Girl with a Pearl Earring: a broad warm field, one small cool accent, and an almost complete absence of mid-tone competition.
What the artist actually used
- Natural ultramarine (from lapis lazuli)
- The apron.
- Lead-tin yellow, ochres, lead white
- The bodice, bread and wall.
Sources
Accessibility
WCAG contrast ratios between every color pair. Use the strongest combinations for text; the weakest ones make good decorative backgrounds.
Strongest pair: #D7D1BF on #0F1317 — 12.22:1 (AAA)
- #D7D1BF·#C6BDA9
- #D7D1BF·#C89D7A
- #D7D1BF·#254D83
- #D7D1BF·#3C1914
- #D7D1BF·#0F1317
- #C6BDA9·#C89D7A
- #C6BDA9·#254D83
- #C6BDA9·#3C1914
- #C6BDA9·#0F1317
- #C89D7A·#254D83
- #C89D7A·#3C1914
- #C89D7A·#0F1317
- #254D83·#3C1914
- #254D83·#0F1317
- #3C1914·#0F1317
How to read this
- AAA
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AAA for normal text — the highest accessibility bar.
- AA
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for normal text. Standard production requirement.
- AA Large
- Passes WCAG 2.1 AA for large text only (18pt+ or 14pt+ bold). Avoid for body copy.
- Fail
- Below WCAG 2.1 AA. Fine for decorative use — not for text.
Export
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Studio
Paint this palette
These are the materials a colour study actually gets made with.
-
Kuretake
Gansai Tambi 36
The larger pan set. More range means mixing toward a specific plate rather than approximating it from six colours.
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Strathmore
300 Series watercolour pad, 140 lb cold press
140 lb cold press is the weight that takes a wet wash without buckling — the paper most colour studies end up on.
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Pentel
Fude Touch brush sign pen
A felt brush tip for the labelling and linework around a swatch study — the annotation half of a colour notebook.
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Pantone
Formula Guide — coated & uncoated
When a palette leaves the screen, this is the shared vocabulary between you and the press. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both.
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Kuretake
Gansai Tambi 24 — Art Nouveau
Gansai are traditional Japanese watercolour pans — dense, matte and easy to mix, the closest everyday medium to the flat printed colour Wada's plates were made in. This is the Art Nouveau-themed 'II' edition, a different 24 to the standard set.
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Library
Further reading
Torn between the two Wada dictionaries? Vol 1 vs Vol 2, compared plate by plate →
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