Patination
One of a variety of finishes used by sculptors on metal, it is a technique involving naturally or artificially created surface alterations. It also includes coatings applied such as drying oils and paint. Bronzes may be coloured by patination with chemicals; colours can vary from deep brown, through gold, to greens and blues resembling the natural corrosion of the metal. A chemically patinated surface could then be coated with a drying oil and a lacquer to give a gloss or more colour.
Colley Cibber
possibly from the studio of Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Bt
circa 1740
NPG 1045
Carlo Marochetti
by Gabriele Ambrosio
1888
NPG 1038
Robert Louis Stevenson
by Allen Hutchinson
1893
NPG 2454
Joseph Lister, Baron Lister
by Sir Thomas Brock
circa 1912-1913
NPG 1958
Sir William Turner Walton
by Maurice Lambert
circa 1925
NPG 5913
Ramsay MacDonald
by Jacob Epstein
1934
NPG 2934
Ralph Vaughan Williams
by Jacob Epstein
1950
NPG 4762
Lynn Seymour
by Andrew Logan
1987-1993
NPG 6222