Old Holland

Old Holland genuinly has one of the most remarkable histories of any brand I've ever written about on this site — the company traces its roots back to 1664, founded by the Guild of Saint Luke in The Hague, right at the height of the Dutch Golden Age of painting. That's genuinly the same period and the same artistic world that produced Vermeer, and Old Holland's own marketing points out, with some justification, that the colours in those centuries-old museum paintings are still recognisably the same pigments and recipes the company uses today.

The company's more recent history is genuinly just as interesting. Around 1905, Albert Roelofs took over from his father and renamed the business Oudt Hollandse Olieverwen Makerij, moving production to Scheveningen, a district of The Hague — and "Scheveningen paint" became a genuine byword for quality among artists of the era. In a detail I genuinly love, Albert Roelofs personally gave painting lessons to Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, which tells you something about the reputation the brand carried even then. The company was revived and modernised in 1982 by Theo de Beer, working alongside master colour maker Wim van der Zwan, who'd learned the craft directly from the Roelofs family — a genuine, unbroken chain of traditional knowledge passed down through generations of colourmakers rather than a marketing story invented after the fact.

What genuinly sets Old Holland apart on the shelf, beyond the history, is how the paint is actually made. Pigments are stone-ground rather than processed through metal rollers, mixed at an exceptionally high concentration with no fillers or artificial additives, and bound with pure cold-pressed linseed oil. Artists who've used it consistently describe a genuinly different experience from most other professional ranges — richer covering power, more intense colour, and a thick consistency that's genuinly excellent for impasto work specifically. Every tube in the 168-colour range even carries a silk-screened undertone sample, a small but genuinly thoughtful detail that helps you judge true colour before opening it. It's not a brand aimed at beginners, and the price reflects that, but for painters who've genuinly outgrown mid-range paint and want to feel the difference pigment concentration actually makes, it's hard to overstate how significant that difference is.

Given Old Holland's premium positioning and relatively specialist UK stockist network compared to more mainstream brands, checking prices properly before buying genuinly matters more here than with most paints — the cost per tube makes shopping around a real, worthwhile saving rather than a marginal one. That's exactly the situation our price comparison tool exists to solve, pulling current prices together from UK retailers in one place so you can see the best available deal without checking each one individually.

A few honest questions worth answering directly. Is Old Holland actually worth the premium price? For professional and serious painters who've used a genuine range of brands, the consensus is genuinly yes — the pigment concentration and handmade quality are real, measurable differences, not just marketing. Is it suitable for beginners? Honestly, probably not as a first paint — the cost doesn't make sense until you've developed enough technique to genuinly benefit from what it offers over a good mid-range range. Where should you buy from? Check our price comparison above for the full current range and the best available UK deals before you buy.