Content and structure of the painting technique notebook
Hans Emmenegger's painting technique notebook is an olive green, thread-stitched linen volume measuring 19.5×13.2 cm with floral printed endpapers and 188 lined pages. Its contents can be classified into three themes. First, it contains a thirty-page list that Emmenegger began on February 18, 1901, under the title "Verzeichniss der in diesem Heft angeführten Leinwände" (list of the canvases listed in this booklet), in which he documented and numbered his picture supports; he kept this list until 1924. At the same time, he opened a logbook in which he noted under the respective date how and with what he painted on these picture supports; he abandoned this logbook in June 1905. Thirdly, the booklet contains various painting-related notes and conclusions, which Emmenegger titled "Verschiedenes" (miscellaneous notes). On the very last page of the notebook, he also included, in February 1901, a list of the abbreviations he used in his notes for the artists’ materials and products he used ("Abkürzungen"). A few loose sheets of notes are inserted at the very end of the notebook.
The order of the contents of the painting technique notebook is confusing at first glance (see diagram): Emmenegger began his list of canvases on the fourth to last page, but it quickly became apparent that he had significantly underestimated, with only three pages, the space it would take up. After ten months, he continued it further forward on still blank pages until space ran out here as well. As the same thing was repeated two more times, the list begins on pages 185–187, continues on pages 169–177, jumps from here to pages 159–166, and ends on the then last remaining blank pages 1–8. While his logbook fills 150 consecutive notebook pages (9–159), his miscellaneous notes fared similarly to the list of canvases: they begin on pages 178–182, continue on pages 167 and 168, and end on pages 183 and 184. In the online edition of the painting technique notebook, the pages belonging to his list of canvases and to his miscellaneous notes are displayed in their chronological order for the sake of a better overview.
