A 19th Century "Ideal" Oil Paint Medium: A Complex Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Gel.

British 19th century painters such as J. M. W. Turner, commonly modified the properties of their paint by using gels called "gumtions". These gels allowed them to easily tune the paint handling and drying properties. The fascinating properties of these "gumtions" were obtained by adding lead acetate to a ternary system based on mastic resin, linseed oil and turpentine. Herein, we report and investigate in depth the rheological properties of these gels as well as their structure at a molecular and supra-molecular scale.