Ripolin

Ripolin is a brand of paint. It was the first commercially available brand of enamel paint.

Ripolin, a brand of commercial ready-mixed paints formulated for architectural, marine and other applications, originated in the Netherlands where it was developed by the chemist Carl Julius Ferdinand Riep.^[1] In 1897, the Briegleb paint company, as it was then known, formed a partnership with the French firm Lefranc, a manufacturer of artists’ materials. The merged company was named Ripolin, in honor of Riep, and a Ripolin factory was established in France.^[2] Ripolin paints became sufficiently renowned during the period that “ripolin” became synonymous with enamel paints in general and entered the French dictionary as early as 1907.^[2] Today Ripolin is the property of PPG Industries.

Picasso and Le Corbusier both used Ripolin in their works.^[3] The latter's argument against ornamentation and the promotion of the use of white enamel ripolin was famously documented in his Law of Ripolin.^[4][5] In this, he imagined covering the world in the paint: "Imagine the results of the Law of Ripolin. Every citizen is required to replace his hangings, his damasks, his wall-papers, his stencils, with a plain coat of white ripolin. His home is made clean. There are no more dirty, dark corners. Everything is shown as it is."^[6]

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