Caran d'Ache

Caran d'Ache
Tradition, Quality & Innovation from a Great Swiss Company

Emmanuel Poiré (1859-1909), the prominent Russian-born, French caricaturist, signed his work “Caran d’Ache”, a “French” styling of the Russian word for pencil, karandash. Poiré is considered a seminal figure in the history of comics art. Arnold Schweitzer was so taken with his work that in 1924, he named his new company after him-- Caran d’Ache.

It’s about time we got around to talking about Caran d’Ache, the great Swiss company that makes the excellent Pablo Colored Pencils, the beautiful Neopastel oil pastels, and the Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, as well as NeoArt crayons, artist’s drawing tools and fine writing instruments.

Our customers have recognized the quality of these materials and have placed Caran d’Ache among the most popular lines at Wet Paint.

When Arnold Schweitzer purchased the nine-year old Ecridor Pencil Co. in 1924, he began a company and career that revolutionized the fine art world, particularly in the realm of drawing. According to the company’s official history, just five years later, Caran d’Ache introduced the world’s first mechanical pencil, the Fixpencil. (It’s still being produced; you can find the Fixpencil here at Wet Paint in all its current sizes.) In 1931, the company introduced the world’s first water-soluble color pencil, the Prismalo, a true innovation that changed the course of color drawing. Wet Paint has just introduced their current artist-grade watercolor pencil, Supracolor II in sets.

The newest innovation by Caran d’Ache that we’re excited about here is the Museum line of water-soluble 4mm color leads. This line offers the option of highly pigmented and exceptionally lightfast color without a wood casing to watercolor pencil users and combines Caran d’Ache’s historical commitment to both watercolor and mechanical pencils. A beautiful set of 18 professional watercolor leads, plus three leadholders and many extras, is available. The leads are available in open stock!

You can buy many of these products right here at our Online Store by clicking on the links above. You can read more about Caran d'Ache products offered at Wet Paint, and download product brochures by clicking on these links:

Fixpencil / Graphite Line / Museum / NeoArt / Neocolor II / Neopastel / Pablo / Supracolor II

Alber Elbaz Supracolor II Set

Unless otherwise noted, all sale prices on this page valid October 15th thru December 31st, 2003

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Museum by Caran d'Ache