Good News for Art, Bad News for Bladders: The 1841 Invention of the Paint Tube

Farewell, Pig Bladders!

When we think of great historical breakthroughs, we often imagine steam engines or electricity. But on September 11, 1841, an American portrait painter named John Goffe Rand filed a patent that completely transformed the art world—and greatly relieved barnyard animals everywhere.

Rand patented the collapsible tin paint tube, the very same squeeze-tube mechanism that toothpaste and acrylic paints still use today (as documented by HISTORY).

The Scent of Inspiration (and Other Things)

Before Rand's clever gadget arrived on September 11:

• Artists had to grind their own pigments and mix paints by hand every single day.
• To preserve leftover oil paint, artists squeezed it into prepared pig bladders tied off with string.
• When ready to paint, an artist pricked the bladder with a bone pin, squeezed out a dab, and plugged the hole back up.

Naturally, the bladders were messy, prone to bursting open unexpectedly, and—worst of all—had an awful habit of going rancid in hot studios.

Unleashing Impressionism

Thanks to Rand's simple tin cylinder with a screw cap, paint became cleanly portable for the first time. Years later, Pierre-Auguste Renoir famously remarked:

"Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism."

So here’s to John Goffe Rand, who made sure the Impressionists could paint en plein air without carrying pockets full of fermented animal organs!