Vintage Paint By Number paintings are an ironic — and iconic — midcentury modern art form. They are really “low brow” — anyone can do one… But, they also fascinate us — there is something “elemental” about their beauty and “democratic” about the fact they even exist. Simple, graphic — and rendered by a normal person, like us!, back in the day when mass prosperity was emerging across America. They were… lovingly crafted… and as a result, they are easy to love, 50 years later. Over the past several years, I’ve seen vintage PBNs become more and more collectible. And on occasion, we see folks get epic with the art form and create their own Paint By Number murals, which are pretty darn groovy. For this story, I found several great resources detailing the history of Paint By Number paintings — including important social history… and we’ll talk about how best to display paint by number art. Actually, display tip #1 and only, IMHO: As Troy has done with PBN dog collection (above) — group your PBNs for maximum impact.
Read on for the fascinating history of Paint by Number kits –>
The history of Paint By Number Kits:
Paint By Number kits were so common, so popular, such a part of the American decorating scheme, that the Smithsonian created a whole exhibit around them in 2001. Their accompanying educational website, still online today, is an awesome resource for Paint By Number history. Their introduction gets right to the point and says that, while Americans loved their PBNs, critics had a snit fit:
Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s revisits the hobby from the vantage point of the artists and entrepreneurs who created the popular paint kits, the cultural critics who reviled them, and the hobbyists who happily completed them and hung them in their homes. Although many critics saw “number painting” as a symbol of the mindless conformity gripping 1950s America, paint by number had a peculiarly American virtue. It invited people who had never before held a paintbrush to enter a world of art and creativity.
The Smithsonian explains who invented the kits — go, Detroit! — and how quickly the phenomenon took hold:
The making of the fad is attributed to Max S. Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan, and to artist Dan Robbins, who conceived the idea and created many of the initial paintings. Palmer Paint began distributing paint-by-number kits under the Craft Master label in 1951. By 1954, Palmer had sold some twelve million kits. Popular subjects ranged from landscapes, seascapes, and pets to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Paint-kit box tops proclaimed, “Every man a Rembrandt!”
Interestingly — and not surprising to me, at all — the Smithsonian says that Dan Robbins wanted the first kits to be exploration of modern art, cubism and the like. No way, said America! Folks wanted cozy landscapes and such. Yes: Colonial and Early American, not those hi-falutin modernist things.
The Smithsonian exhibit also explored the growth of leisure and how that helped fuel pursuits like PBN painting. Paint By Number gets “deep” when considered in the context of the continuing growth of democracy and meritocracy in America. I love this aspect of American culture. Love love love it. The Smithsonian says:
Writing in Life magazine in the late 1950s, cultural critic Russell Lynes set out to describe the popular pastimes of the “new leisure.” He observed that the usual markers of class-education, wealth, and breeding-no longer applied. The one thing that mattered was something that everyone had. That something, Lynes explained, was free time. In postwar America, class had become a matter of how one spent his or her free time.
Over the decades, the Smithsonian curators say, the Paint By Number aesthetic became so ingrained in our culture that other artists began to use it as a political launching point for their work. Kind of Andy Warhol-esque stuff. By around the year 2000, vintage PBNs started become collectible. Today in 2012, I’d say they are super collectible — although prices are still “affordable”, especially if you find these at estate sales where I live, because everyone did PBNs! There are 12 million Craft Master PBNs out there!
According to Wikipedia:
Following the death of Max Klein in 1993, his daughter, Jacquelyn Schiffman, donated the Palmer Paint Co. archives to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
The Palmer Paint Co. is still in business, and in 2011, they introduced two, 60th anniversary prints, which are still available for sale today. Update: In 2021 I could no longer find Palmer Paint Co. online.
Read the entire Smithsonian history here. It’s a quick read, very entertaining, and lots of photos you can click on and see bigger.
Yes, there is even a book (affiliate link above) written to go with the Smithsonian exhibit.
Dan Robbins website
Update: When I originally wrote this story, Dan Robbins has his own website, book and video. Now I can’t find them; the url I previously had now goes to paintbynumbersonline.com, and I can’t see any association with Robbins on it. Dan Robbins also used to sell giclee prints of important PBNs — including the first Paint By Number design he ever created, Abstract #1. Very cool.
The Chicago Tribune interviewed Robbins in 2005. He explained the genesis of the idea for PBNs:
“The idea was an evolution,” Robbins said. “It was a gradual process of exposing this idea, then that idea, then another. I recalled reading about Leonardo da Vinci, and when he got large and complicated commissions, he would give numbered patterns to his apprentices to block in areas for him that he’d go back and finish himself. From there, it was a matter of proving the concept to see if it could be done.”
In the Tribune article, I learned that the company Craft Master was sold in 1959, and over the years passed through a number of hands. Today, the brand and designs are owned by Craft House, the 1995 article said, and indeed, I found some Paint by Number kits — including some vintage-y looking ones for sale at CraftHouse.
The Paint by Numbers Online Museum
AND, woah Nelly: There is even an online Paint By Number Museum — an amazing archive created by a collector in Massachusetts who wiki says has assembled some 6,000 PBNs. The PBN Museum is darn impressive — you can search and see all the kits and catalogs. There’s a great library. And, there’s a page on artist Dan Robbins with more history, pointing out:
Who is the most exhibited artist in the world? The work of paint by number designer Dan Robbins has been displayed on more walls than that of any other artist. This was true in the past, is still true today and is most likely a record that will stand in the future.
Collecting and displaying vintage Paint by Number paintings
As I mentioned at the top of this article, I am a 100% believer in grouping small painting collections like this, for maximum decorative impact. When Todd lived in his first place, he had the dogs in a grid on one wall. When he moved to his Eichler, Troy came up with another variation on the “grouping” idea: Arranging the collection of dog paint-by-number paintings as a gallery along the hall.
Above: Crown Prince of Kitsch Cullen‘s kitchen — I’m not sure if he really has a many PBNs up on that wall, but this is a great shot to illustrate two ideas. (1) Again, the effectivess of creating tight groupings to display your collections of like-pieces. And (2) While Troy collects just dog PBNs — which makes for a fun collection, Cullen collects pieces according to a theme that includes other varieties of art and collectibles.
Above: Collect cowboy stuff? Add a cowboy PBN. That Betty Crafter knows how to stage a photo…
Finally, how is this for “some therapy”: Apartment Therapy profiled two people who created paint by number wall murals onto their walls — entire walls. The stories are now gone, but Wow. Atomic Ranch also had a story in a recent issue about someone doing this. Seems like the basic how-to is: (1) Find a PBN you like, (2) Scan it in very high resolution, (3) Print onto a transparency, (4) Project the transparency onto the wall, (5) Outline the colors and as you go, write in the color numbers, (6) Figure out which colors go where, (7) Drop out of civil society as we collectively know it and paint until your eyes bug out of your head, (8) ta da, celebrate your epic achievement, but don’t look too closely at your errors. Not Perfect is the New Perfect.
Cara says
I have started a few but it’s just so much easier to pick them up for $1 all ready to hang. Plus it’s funny because anyone who visits always asks if I’ve painted all of them…yeah…sure!
Intentionally or not, each artist has added their own personal touch so I love the quirkiness of each of them. My new favorites are my street scene pair which I paid $2 for at a church sale a few weeks ago. The lady at the check out said “oh good, someone was looking at frames. Frames are so expensive and no one ever looks past the pictures and sees usable frames.” I just nodded, paid and went on my way 🙂
Jean Gough says
I would love Palmer to reissue the old ones. Also, remember how inexpensive they were? My siblings and I always got a new one for Christmas!!
Michael says
I’ve been wanting to collect these for a few years. I thought a whole wall of them would look great in our basement rec-room. Now that I’ve filled up the largest blank wall with vintage felt pennants, I’ll have to just enjoy looking at them here. Great story and photos, Pam!
Jan says
I love paint-by-number! I can’t believe the ones I painted as a pre-teen so many years ago, and the ones my mom painted and hung in our living room are so special today! But I understand it!
JKaye says
My sister and I painted a set of PBN wooden Christmas ornaments in the early 1970s. There were about two dozen ornaments, in shapes such as Santa and Mrs. Santa, reinbdeers, bells, and candy canes. My mom still hangs them on her tree, and when I see them I have happy memories of festive painting sessions at the dining table. My mom looks at them and remembers how much she had to nag my sister and me to get them finished so we could get them on the tree before that holiday season was over and done with!
RetroGal says
I live right by Pamer Paints hq here in the ‘burbs of Detroit (Troy, MI to be exact)…. their marquee sign in the front of their building even reads “Inventors of Paint By Number”… I always thought how cool is that?!
RetroGal says
Oops, meant “Palmer”
Dana says
Pam,
Thanks for this wonderful story, but now I have another HUGE distraction from the work I am supposed to be doing today! I will have to bookmark the museum so I can visit it whenever I want! I do collect PBN’s and find them to be the most charming accents to my den. I like the blues/greens/pinks in the swan and bridge style compositions, but have a perfectly beautiful framed collie in a place of honor, along with some winterscapes, a seascape, and a fantastic parrot. I like to change them around with the seasons. I love these because they are so humble. I have tried some of the newer ones and finished a few, but I like the graphics of the older oils better than the newer acrylics. I just love the colors, the themes, and the orderliness of the finished paintings.
What a great article! AND I love to see other readers’ collections too. What fun! Thanks again. Will try to haul myself back to the task at hand here and not peek at the museum until I’m finished ….. sigh.
TappanTrailerTami says
Alas, I have no family members who ever did PBN’s….but I now own 3, compliments of eBay. They are one of my favorite art forms, and still relatively affordable – especially when compared to other artwork!
Thank you for posting this Pam, and I *really* can’t wait to see the uploader filled with everyone’s PBN’s!
Becky P S says
I have 3 PBN that my Great Aunt painted. A set of sailboats and a Chinese boat which she signed on the back as a gift to her brother in 1957.
And for some reason I have only one that I painted in the 60’s – a Panda!
Thanks for all the cool resources and history Pam.
pam kueber says
These are all great stories! Wonderful memories!
Carole says
I still have the paint-by-numbers horse head that my mother painted back in the early 1970s. She added extra highlighting and shading to her piece, something that I don’t believe was a part of the instructions. I only ever did one paint-by-number myself (as a kid), and I don’t know what ever happened to it. I thought my mother had painted several of them, but the horse is the only one I have, and I treasure it because my mother passed away when I was fifteen and I am now an artist. My piece isn’t framed (something I should do), but it sits in my studio, not only as a reminder of my childhood, but of her. 🙂
Thanks for this article, and the link to the museum. I’ve bookmarked it. 🙂
I must be visiting the wrong places because I’ve never seen any for sale in person. lol
pam kueber says
🙂