Our Story
Born in 1882 in the province of Milan, Carlo Ferrario made painting the centre of his life. He studied and graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, and later founded Ferrario in 1919.
As a painter, he drew his inspiration from the currents of the Lombard nineteenth century. His inspiration was firmly rooted in the conservatism of a post-romantic vision and distant, if not for vague hints, from the developments of the 20th-century avant-garde that never touched him.
Throughout his studies, he researched raw materials and analysed their manufacturing processes whilst also studying lighting engineering. As a scholar, he published the manual "The technique of oil and pastel painting", printed for the first time in 1930 and re-edited six times. The book was not an assembly of formulas copied from previous texts, but a scientific publication based on his direct research and experience.
“… It was said that the duration of an artist's glory is related to the duration of his works. The artist painter must be convinced that it is absolutely impossible to separate the intellectual part of his works from the technical part.
A great ignorance about the nature of the materials used is sometimes found even in artists of genius and therefore it happens to see in the art galleries, next to paintings that after several centuries of life gloriously preserve the vivacity of colours in the perfect mixture, paintings of ten or twenty years show signs of collapse.
(…) In the industry I created, I was replaced for a certain period of time by an engineering chemist. This chemist, having no competence in the field of Fine Arts, did not even know how to make use of my formulas.
Carlo Ferrario, The technique of oil and pastel painting, Rovereto, 1930.
Present Day
Today, Ferrario continues on the path marked by its founder. The love for colour and the deep knowledge of its use is combined with research and innovation to propose quality products.
Deep research into raw materials, meticulous study of recipes and formulations, as well as attention to technological developments, have led over time to a heritage of over 2,200 active colour formulas, continuously updated, growing and evolving.
Our products are designed and made for both artists and enthusiasts, who want to communicate their personality through the creative form of artistic expression and decoration of their world.
Today, Ferrario is owned by Daler-Rowney Ltd in the UK, part of the FILA Group. Daler-Rowney manufactures the colours in their Bracknell factory keeping Carlos’ love of Ferrario’s colours and gilding pastes & mediums alive. The Ferrario products continue to be sold across Europe and the UK.
