In 1915 a London pigment dealer commented that one mummy would produce enough pigment to last him and his customers 20 years.
From the 16th to the 19th century many painters favored the pigment, and it remained available into the 20th century, even as supplies dwindled.
Scholars believe he relied heavily on a popular pigment of his time-mummy brown-a concoction made from ground-up Egyptian mummies. If art historians and conservators are right about Interior of a Kitchen, Martin Drölling’s painting from 1815, the artist had help from a surprising source-the grave. Interior of a Kitchen, oil on canvas by Martin Drolling, 1815.
