Montblanc LE Gustav Klimt Blue

[Todor]

 

Here is also a first impression of the LE ink Gustav Klimt:

 

It is a dark ultramarine, which is not the dark version of IKB (International Klein Blue), as the box suggests. MB boxes never were reliable on inks. This tone is not pure ultramarine like the IKB because it has slight nuances and is not that pure. I am somehow focused on IKB and its variations, it is a very special colour for me. This tone however fits quite well into Klimt's palette of blue, gold, pink, white, etc.

 

I'm not sure about the nuances. In wet condition and while writing, the ink certainly has a petroleum etching that disappears after drying. (Reminds me a bit of MB Glacier, something that made me mad at the time, but in a way for the Glacier ink it was consistent: greenish glacier water...)

 

With the Klimt LE, this is a light green-black nuance, which largely evaporates due to drying and, above all, the black remains next to the ultramarine. This is difficult to capture with the camera, but if you write with a B nib, you can see this nuance of petroleum even in the dry handwriting at lighter spots. Take a look below..

 

I made 3 series with the camera to get as close to a WYSIWYG as possible. My camera was a little hypnotized by the colour and delivered false results most of the time. The paper is Clairefontaine velouté white, but I did not pay attention to reproduce its colour precisely as well.

 

Enjoy,

 

Todor

 

[yazeh]

Thanks for sharing your impression of this new ink.  It seems that Montblanc is cashing on famous artists to create more or less different variations of blue. This is not a colour I would associate with Klimt. Not by any margin

 

[LizEF]

Thank you, @Todor, for this review!  I like the color I see here.  I also wouldn't associate it with Klimt, but when I did a google image search, I could find one or two images where there was a color that could be a dark version of this...   Anywho, I love the shading you got from this ink!  Thanks for the introduction!

 

@yazeh - perhaps it's just like the various other artist inks we've discussed - maybe the ink makers have two jars - one with artist names on little slips of paper, the other with color swatches, and they draw one from each jar and call it good...

[Uncial]

Google 'Klimt blue' and look at the images and you will see why they chose this distinct blue.

[LizEF]

4 minutes ago, Uncial said:

Google 'Klimt blue' and look at the images and you will see why they chose this distinct blue.

Thanks!  Apparently these just don't get as much attention.

[yazeh]

34 minutes ago, LizEF said:

@yazeh - perhaps it's just like the various other artist inks we've discussed - maybe the ink makers have two jars - one with artist names on little slips of paper, the other with color swatches, and they draw one from each jar and call it good...

Montblanc seems to be focused on many shades of blue. Lazy ink making. 

@Uncial yes I googled before commenting.  They did the same thing with Napoleon. It's sort of lazy/ conservative ink making IMHO. Next they can do a blue Monet, Manet etc. 

[InesF]

Thank you, @Todor, for introducing this MB ink.  I also like the colour and how the ink shades!  

 

Gustav Klimt is very well known and his art is almost omnipresent in Vienna. Similar to what others already replied, the dark blue is not the instant association with the artist. However, MB did already release a gold glitter ink together with the Gold Leaf 146 Solitär fountain pen. But, MB released also already several saturated and unsaturated blue inks of almost all shades. Not many options left, not many news to expect.

If I like an ink, I may buy it, if not, then not.

[chromantic]

Thanks for the review. This is a really nice blue that I could get behind, more so than many of the recent blues.

[Todor]

Personally, I am happy with some focus on blue shades as blue is my favourite colour. It‘s been a while I picked a MB blue ink, it was JFK Navy Blue, which is a very classy tone. 
In my eyes the best blue inks come from J. Herbin and from Scribo.

 

16 hours ago, yazeh said:

Montblanc seems to be focused on many shades of blue. Lazy ink making. 

@Uncial yes I googled before commenting.  They did the same thing with Napoleon. It's sort of lazy/ conservative ink making IMHO.

In the end, Montblanc is a German brand and you can hardly blame them for not making greens with pink shimmering or focusing on mango 😄
It‘s a matter of choice and, fortunately, today we have several choices from different pallets. Unlike in earlier times while the only option was to choke a sepia for its body fluids…

[Uncial]

To my eye blue (and that off sage green) are pretty much standard to Klimt's palate 

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, Todor said:

Personally, I am happy with some focus on blue shades as blue is my favourite colour. 

 

1 hour ago, Todor said:

In the end, Montblanc is a German brand and you can hardly blame them for not making greens with pink shimmering or focusing on mango 😄

[gmax]

On my screen it looks similar to MB Tolstoy Sky Blue. Thanks for the review 

[inkstainedruth]

I was just thinking the same thing as gmax!  I'm just trying to remember how much shading I got with Tolstoy.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TimeWalker]

I have both colors and did a comparison they are basically identical.

 

Here on a 1817 Leuchturm Notebook both written with an M nib with different lightings

 

 

[Todor]

A dear friend from the German pen forum made a good comparison of Klimt and Tolstoy here, including chromatography:

https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?p=436049#p436049

[inkstainedruth]

I had to plug some of the text into Google Translate (my command of the German language is nearly half a century out of date).  But thanks for posting the link to your friend's comparison of Klimt and Tolstoy -- I gather that Klimt doesn't have the "black" component that Tolstoy did.  But it might be close enough a match for me (someone on FPN had recommended KWZI Walks over Vistula, but that wasn't nearly as close to Tolstoy as I had hoped...).  Whereas, I might be tempted to get a sample of the Klimt ink -- depending on where I can find it and what else has to go into the shopping cart to get free shipping....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Uncial]

The new formulation of Parker blue black is the closest ink to Tolstoy blue, if not a true doppleganger.

[PithyProlix]

Thanks for the review. I like this color though maybe too dark for what I'd use, though I do prefer what it looks like in @TimeWalker's images. MB Glacier Blue is more my speed.

 

Might this also be similar to MB Petrol Blue? I don't pay much attention to MB ink (only because of cost) but they sure do seem to have a disproportionate number of green-leaning blues, correct?

 

  

On 5/12/2024 at 5:20 AM, Todor said:

A dear friend from the German pen forum made a good comparison of Klimt and Tolstoy here, including chromatography:

https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?p=436049#p436049

 

Please pardon me for correcting your link: https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?p=436205#p436205 

 

8 hours ago, Uncial said:

The new formulation of Parker blue black is the closest ink to Tolstoy blue, if not a true doppleganger.

 

My most recent Quink blue black looks much more blue and less turquoise, though an earlier formulation looks very close, maybe. I wonder if Parker is back to the earlier color?

 

Callifolio Equinoxe #6 might also be very close. (?)

[SashK]

Blue Blue Blue and more blues. MB, you can do better, we've seen you do it!

 

They really do seem to just be singing the same tune lately. 

[Todor]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:56 AM, inkstainedruth said:

I had to plug some of the text into Google Translate (my command of the German language is nearly half a century out of date).

Hehe, this reminds me what Mark Twain said about the German language  😉

If you are using Apple devices you can also click the URL bar in your browser to get the page translated. The browsers have a built-in translation engine. 
 

On 5/13/2024 at 12:45 AM, Uncial said:

The new formulation of Parker blue black is the closest ink to Tolstoy blue, if not a true doppleganger.

Smile, I wasn’t aware such a word like Doppelgänger is in use in English language 😄