«*-?< S3S&S5 !'*• •J?**-.«i.V-t ^SSSfc . f W9VM*i\ »F>" ywM .^'■■^ ?&J*4gg fuMM yjrjMrA K^J^'f '™»i ! ^HW ^5?ll ?jmil v ll ' ill cil "-"l^Mr^w I (CM b^arJrS'r^.t-qttfrt. Wt^Mi is vw I^A^ii^iV, L/i ,.', &I&& «WMm»6 '®C : W ^WWWv- 'VWW.H' 0» t# v/ , -.■ ft ykkc Dms /.yv-:^'iW &w&ZMm, ViU^ -yv^w^vo liSil o ^'iwr ism"'!' ■JlW w«yj; U4J *tt$ Ivi M$0ty&W H S*»! MjM w,y:'y &V9Mk /^Fi atSH® J ' M MM L/ j \j \ - ,-v / v / \J - ;\jV\jy mmmm siQsJi 'MUU $88v ^ I ■ 50 i^v iw TO u m ££p« Vvwv H vafpiii W W V yWuM^ wfey |v3*>-A®iVl ^wr, WWW mvwm WiV , M MWM. .^u-i> i fyMiiiftlS» V',V ;'» w Wfl Mm© S* Vv \J5 wwu M M KvW ! WUU^V tl iM&W ^'' ,.;.Jik AJ1> wwwyi- BP _• 1 . . - ■-■■■-■ Fiq.l Experiment I. ri.i. ''Mtwubfay (bi /f//£j, Fig.2.Exp.XKML. ///////'/- oi . /////<■//////('////■// ,_/ra is or (jtrwuU Fiq. 3 Prim "'If I Tertiary E. Turr, CHROMATOGRAPHY ; OR, A TREATISE ■ * ■ ... ON COLOURS AND PIGMENTS, AND OF THEIR POWERS IN PAINTING, &c< BY GEORGE FIELD, AUTHOR OF "CHROMATICS; OR, AN ESSAY ON THE ANALOGY AND HARMONY OF COLOURS;" AND OTHER WORKS. " Nostrates juvet artifices, doceatque Iaborem ; Nee qui Chromatices nobis, hoc tempore, partes Restituat, quales Zeuxis tractaverat olim, Hujus quando maga velut arte aequavit Apellem Pictorum archigraphum, meruitque coloribus altam Nominis teterni femam, toto orbe sonantem. " Du Fresnoy, v. 257. LONDON: CHARLES TILT, FLEET STREET. SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS, PRINTSELLERS, AND ARTISTS' COLOURMEN. 1835. I 10 K6£> I85S C ! / V PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. TO SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE, PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY, AND TO THE ARTISTS OF BRITAIN. Gentlemen, The subject of the following Treatise is so essentially your own, that this address would be vain and uncalled-for, were it not due as a mark of respect and grateful attachment to your- selves, and an acknowledgment of the constant approbation and friendly attention with which you have encouraged the author, and identified him with yourselves and your pursuits. You, Gentlemen, have attained imperishable honour, by achiev- ing for your country the only requisite to her transcendent repu- tation— preeminence in Art ; and it needs not inspiration to foretell, that, by engrafting a refined taste on the prescripts of nature and science, you will consummate a school of colouring which is already celebrated and followed throughout Europe ; and IV DEDICATION. as the Greeks of old gave to succeeding ages models of perfect form, so you will bequeath to posterity standards of perfect! colour. tion in To become humbly instrumental to your progress by the improvement of your palette, is the de S ign of this work, and the constant study of, Gentlemen, Your much obliged and faithful Servant, THE AUTHOR. Cottage, Syon Hill Park, 1834. i\ n-iV. NAMES OF THE SUBSCRIBERS. Abraham, Henry R., Esq., John Street, St. James's Square Ackermann, Mr. Rudolph, Regent Street, 6 copies Aders, Mrs., Savage Gardens, Trinity Square Ainsley, Mr. Samuel James Allnutt, Zachary, Esq., Henley, Oxon Alsop, Mr. Robert, Sloane Square Ambrose, Charles, Esq., Newman Street Andre, James P., Jun., Esq., Colebrook Ter- race, Islington Applegath, Augustus, Esq., Crayford, Kent A maid, George, Esq., A.R.A., Weston Street, Pentonville Arzone, Mr. J., Dean Street, Soho B. Beechey, Sir William, R. A., Principal Painter to the King, Harley Street Baker, Mrs. Frances, Asylum, Lambeth Ballard, Mr., Bookseller, Maiden Lane, 3 copies Ballingall, Joseph, Esq., Bermudas Barker, Benjamin, Esq., Smallcombe Villa, Bath Bartholomew, Valentine, Esq., Foley Place Beale, James, Esq., Cork Bennet, Mr., Derby Berger, Capel B., Esq., Hackney Blunt, Charles J., Esq. Bond, John, Esq., Newman Street Bond, William, Esq. Boxall, W., Esq., Rome Brett, T. W., Esq., New York Briggs, Mr. Brockedon, William, Esq., F.R.S. Devonshire Street, Queen Square Brown, Mrs., Liverpool Brown, Miss Mary Ann, Ditto Bulwer, The Rev. James, Burlington Street Burnet, John, Esq., Whitehead's Grove, Chel- sea Burnett, Professor, King's College, F.L.S; C. Callcott, Augustus Wall, Esq., R.A., Ken- sington Gravel Pits Callcott, Mrs. A. W., Ditto Calrow, Joseph, Esq., St. Mary-at-Hill Campbell, James Drummond, Esq., of Margate Carpenter, Mrs. W., Nottingham Terrace Carpenter and Co., Messrs., Old Bond Street, 6 copies Cerf, Henry, Jun., Esq., Brussels Chalon, John James, Esq., A.R.A., Great Marlborough Street Chambers, George, Esq., Park Village Chinn, Samuel, Esq., Wilmot Street, Derby Clover, Joseph, Esq., Newman Street Clutterbuck, Thomas, Esq., F.S.A. Collins, William, Esq., R.A., Porchester Ter- race, Bayswaler Constable, John, R.A., Charlotte Street, Fitz- roy Square Cooke, William B., Esq., Charlotte Street, Bedford Square Cooper, Abraham, Esq., R.A., New Milman Street, Foundling Hospital Cope, C. West, Esq., Rome Cowen, William, Esq., Newman Street Cregan, Martin, Esq., P.R.H.A., Dublin Creighton, John, Esq., Lavenham, Suffolk Creswick, Thomas, Esq., Hatfield, Herts Cruikshanks, F., Esq., GreatMarlboroughStreet Curtis, William, Esq. D. Dagley, Richard, Esq., Earl's Court, Kensington Dahmen, John, Esq., Meadow Cottage, Felt- hani, Middlesex 1 p VI subscribers' names. Daker, Francis, Esq., Whitecross Street Daniel, Mr. A. K., Maple Grove, State of Ohio Davis, William Henry, Esq. Davy, Messrs. Robert, and Son, Newman Street Day, William, Esq., Isleworth De la Eons, John Palmer, Regent's Park Denley, Mr. J., Jun., Old Compton Street, Soho Square, 2 copies Derby, Mr. William, Osnaburg Street Dingley, Miss, Highgate, Middlesex Dixcee, Mr. Thomas, Gloster Place, Chelsea Doo, George T., Esq., Camden Town Durham, Cornelius, Esq., Arundel Street Durlasher, Lewis, Esq., Old Burlington Street Dyson, George, Esq., Kennington E. Eastlake, Charles Lock, Esq., R.A., Upper Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square Edmonstone, R., Esq., Greek Street, Soho Square Etty, William, Esq., R.A., Buckingham Street Eyre, James, Esq., Derby F. Froude, John Spedding, Esq., Lincoln's Inn Fields Freedel, Baron A., Greek Street, Soho Field, Miss Catherine W., Hurley House, Berks Field, William, Esq., Temple, Berks Fletcher, Joseph, Esq., Chiswick, Middlesex Foggo, James and George, Esqrs., Warren Street, Fitzroy Square Foy, William, Esq., Newman Street Frearson, John, Esq., Royal Academy Frost, William Edward, Esq. Fuller, Messrs. S. and J., Rathbone Place G. Gee, Miss, Isleworth, Middlesex Glossop, The Rev. Henry, M.A., Corp. Chr. Coll., Cambridge; Vicarage, Isleworth Green, Mr., Bookseller, Castle Green, Bristol H. Hall, James, Esq. Hancock, Charles, Esq., Grosvenor Place Harding, J. D., Esq., Gordon Square Hargreaves, Thomas, Esq., Liverpool Harrison, Cornelius, Esq., Naples Hart, S. A., Esq., Gerrard Street, Soho Square Heaphy, T., Esq., St. John's Wood Road Hewlett, James, Esq., Isleworth Holland, T. C, Esq., Pembroke Square, Ken- sington Howel, Samuel, Esq., Foley Street Hughes, Miss Louisa, York Street, Gloster Place Hughes, Mr. W., Wharton Street, Pentonville I. Ireland, Mrs., Kew Road, Richmond J. Jennings, W. George, Esq. Jewell, Joseph, Esq., Clock House, Ashford, Middlesex Johns, A. B., Esq., Plymouth Johnson, Henry, Esq., Balham, Surry Jones, George, Esq., R.A., Duke Street Joseph, George Francis, Esq., A.R.A., Char- lotte Street, Fitzroy Square Joseph, Samuel, Esq., Charlotte Street, Fitz- roy Square Joseph, Miss Priscilla K. Knowles, Sir Francis C, Bart., M.A. F.R.S. F.R.A.S., Park Street, Grosvenor Square King, John, Esq., Soho Square L. Lawrence, Sir Thomas, late P. R. A. Lamb, Miss, of Bolton, Lancashire Lance, George, Esq., Upper Seymour Street, Euston Square Landmann, Colonel, United Service Club Landseer, Edwin, Esq., R. A., St. John's Wood wa^ftasgfflgfli'w subscribers' names. Vll Lane, S., Esq., Greek Street, Soho Square Peyton, Richard, Esq., Cook's Court, Lin Law, Mr., Charlotte Street, Blackfriars' Road coin's Inn Leslie, Charles Robert, Esq., R. A., Edgeware Phelps, P., Esq., Gt. Marlborough Street Road Lincoln, John, Esq., South Street, Grosvenor Square Longman, Rees, and Co., Messrs., Paternoster Row Lovatt, Mr., Green Heys, Manchester Lovegrove, Henry, Esq., Brook Lodge, Wy- combe Lynch, Daniel, Esq., Bath Place, New Road M. Phillips, Thomas, Esq., R. A., George Street, Hanover Square Pickersgill, Henry William, Esq., R.A., Soho Square Potter, Henry, Esq. Preston, Thomas, Esq., R. N., Norwich Purton, William, Esq., Hampstead Pyne, J. B., Esq., Bristol R. Mulready, Wm., Esq., R. A., Linden Grove, Rainier, Peter, Esq., Albany Bayswater Maw, John Hornby, Esq., Aldersgate Street Macpherson, Melville, Esq. Marsden, Richard, Esq. Martin, John, Esq., Alsop's Terrace, Padding- ton Mathews, C. J., Esq., Great Russell Street Mathews, Charles, Esq., Great Russell Street Mosses, Alexander, Esq., Liverpool Muller, Martin Charles, Esq., Bermudas Munsey, The Rev. William, M. A., Hereford N. Northumberland, His Grace the Duke of, K.G. Reeves and Sons, Messrs., Cheapside, 2 copies Reinagle, Ramsay Richard, Esq., R. A., Fitz- roy Square Renton, J., Esq., West Street, Finsbury Cir- cus Richmond, George, Esq., Beaumont Street Richter, Henry, Esq., Cadogan Place Rickets, F., Esq., Northcote, Westbury, Glou- cestershire Roberson and Miller, Messrs., Long Acre, 30 copies Robertson, Andrew, Esq., Berners Street Robertson, Charles John, Esq., Worton House, Middlesex F. R. S., F. S. A., F. L. S. 2 copies RogerS) W P-) Esq>) Regent's Park, 2 copies Northumberland, Her Grace the Duchess of RollSj Tho mas, Esq., Marlow Needham, Colonel Roods, Thomas, Esq., Newman Street Nesfield, W. A., Esq. Rosenberg, Mr. Charles, jun., Bath Newberry, Mr. George John Rothwell, Richard, Esq., R.H. A., Rome Newman, Mr. James, Soho Square, 12 copies RouW) p Esq #> Norton street, Portland Place Nicolay, Mrs. General, Upper Berkeley Street Row i inson> Frederick, Esq., Liverpool „ Rowbotham, Thomas, Esq., Bristol Rowney and Co., Messrs. George, Rathbone Ogle, Lady Letitia piace> 2 copies P. Peat, The Rev. Sir Robert, D.D., Parsonage, § Brentford Parker, Samuel, Esq., Argyle Place Shee, Sir Martin Archer, P. R. A. Parris, E. T., Esq., Historical Painter to the Strange, Sir Thos., Harrow-on-the-Hill, Mid- Queen, Grafton Street, Bond Street dlesex V11I subscribers' names. u Strange, Lady, Ditto Salaman, Miss Julia Sass, Henry, Esq., Charlotte Street, Blooms- bury Square Say, F. R., Esq., Weymouth Street Sellers, Leonard Bezer, Esq., Kensall Green, Middlesex Severn, Joseph, Esq., Rome, 2 copies Sims, George, Esq., Kensington Simson, George, Esq., S. A., Edinburgh Sintzenich, Gustav., Esq., John Street, Fitzroy Square Smith, Charles, Esq. Smith, Mr. Henry Smith, Caterton, Esq. Smith, Thomas, Esq., Dover Road Smith, Mr. Charles, Mary le Bone Street, Regent's Quadrant, 2 copies Solly, Richard Horsman, Esq., F. R. S., F.S.A., F.H.S., M.R.I. A., &c. Stanfield, Clarkson, Esq., R.A., Mornington Crescent Stothard, Thomas, Esq., R. A. Stratford, Wm. Samuel, Lieut. R. N., F. R. S., F. R. A. S., Superintendent of the Nauti- cal Almanac Stump, S. J., Esq., Cork Street - Sutherland, Miss, Grange Walk, Surrey Syme, John, Esq., S. A., Edinburgh Trotter, Sir Coutts, Bart., Grosvenor Square Tabart, George, Esq. Taylor, Mr. Henry, Charlotte Street, Blooms- bury Thorn, Miss S. E. Thwaites, Major, National Gallery Tomkins, Charles, Esq., Walcot Place Townend, William, Esq., Liverpool Trimmer, The Rev. Henry Scott, Vicarage, Heston, Middlesex Turmeau, John, Esq., Liverpool Turner, Joseph Mallord William, Esq., U.A., Sandicombe Lodge, Richmond Turrell, Edmond, Esq., Clarendon Street, Cla- rendon Square TJ. Ubsdell, R. H. C, Esq., Portsea, Hants Uwins, Thomas, Esq., A.R. A., Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square Valpy, A. J., Esq., M. A. Varley, Cornelius, Mr., Charles Street, Cla- rendon Square W. Williams, Thomas Peers, Esq., M.P., Temple House, Berks Wright, Thomas, Esq., Upton Hall, Newark, JN otts, 2 copies Wright, Mrs. T., Do. Wallace, Mrs., Smallcombe Villa, Bath Walter, George, Esq., East Dulwich Ward, James, Esq., R. A., Roundcroft Cot- tage, Cheshunt, Herts Ward, William Henry, Esq., Brixton Hill Warren, Ambrose W., Eaton Street, Pimlico Watts, Walter Henry, Esq., Hampstead Road Weale, Mr., Architectural Library, Holborn Westall, Richard, Esq., R.A., Russell Place, Fitzroy Square Wheelwright, J. H., Esq. Wilkie, David, Esq., R. A., S. A., Kensington Wilkin, Francis W., Esq., Newman Street Windsor, J. W., Esq., Bath Williams, Mr. J., Library of the Fine Arts, Charles Street, Soho Square 2 copies Winn, Miss, of Nostell Priory, Yorkshire Winsor, Mr. William, Rathbone Place Wirgman, Thomas, Esq., Timberham Lodge, Surrey Withers, Edward R., Esq. PREFACE. The progress of the Art of Painting under the happy auspices of this favoured country, the refinement of taste which it has so universally diffused, and the predilection which prevails for its study and practice as a necessary branch of polite education, render acceptable whatever can facilitate the acquisition, or advance the ends, of this useful, elegant, and enlightening accomplishment. Nor are the concerns of this art uninteresting in a still higher view, since whatever refines the taste, enhances the powers and improves the disposition and morals of a people, — and whatever improves the morals, promotes the happiness of man, individual and social. Hence the high moral and political value of this art, to say nothing of its commer- cial and religious uses, upon which so much stress has been justly laid. Among the means essential to proficiency in Painting, none is more important than a just knowledge of Colours and Pigments — their qualities, powers, and effects ; and there is none to which the press has hitherto afforded fewer helps. There have appeared, it is true, at different times, several works professing this object, and most of our encyclopaedias and c . .- PREFACE. books of painting treat cursorily on this branch of the art ; but not only are these for the most part transcripts of the same obsolete originals, unsuited to the present state of the art, but they are inadequate, irrelevant, and often erroneous or untrue, as every one acquainted with the subject is aware. Hence have arisen several inducements of the author to attempt a guide to the knowledge of colours and pigments generally, and with reference to the Art of Painting in particular. Most technical readers are fond of recipes and devices communicated as secrets of art, which are accordingly liberally supplied by the caterers to this taste, who compile them in general upon very vague authority ; hence the author anticipates some dissatisfaction from those who are in search of royal roads to knowledge, or stratagems and secrets of art : but one prin- ciple is worth a hundred processes, — nor was it by prescription, but by the spirit of philosophy, that the Greeks carried the arts to sublime perfection. Hence it is not a detail of the processes for producing pigments that is here intended, which belongs to another extensive art not to be learnt from brief recipes, and upon which the author has a distinct work in hand ; * and it is a pursuit accidental and subordinate to painting, in which the pictorial artist can never attain the skill of the chemical colourist without a propor- tionate sacrifice of his own art, if not, unhappily, of his fortune also, — as was the case with Parmegiano, and has been with others in our own day, who Their time in curious search of colours lose, Which, when they find, they want the skill to use ! Shee. However imperative such sacrifice might have been to the earlier pain- * Which will complete his original intention, expressed in his " Chromatics," of treating on the relations, the nature, and the preparation of colours, &c. fl PREFACE. XI ters, there is no want in the present day of furniture for the palette,— since pigments, and fine ones too, so abound, that nearly as much expe- rience is requisite to a judicious selection of them as was formerly required for their acquisition or production ; to which also there is little temptation, since the expence of the palette, which was immense to the antient masters, is comparatively trifling to our contemporaries. The principal object of the present Treatise is, therefore, by pointing out the true character and powers of colours and pigments, to enable the student to choose and employ judi- ciously those which are best adapted to his purpose, and thereby to prevent the too frequent disappointment of his hopes and endeavours by a failure at the very foundation of his work. Such failures are often attributed to bad materials ; but whatever practices may have formerly prevailed for imposing false and adulterate articles upon the artist, either through ignorance or fraud, it is due to the respectable colourmen of the present day to bear tes- timony to the laudable anxiety and emulation with which they purvey, regardless of necessary expence, the choicest and most perfect materials for the painter's use ; so that the odium of employing bad articles attaches to the artist, if he resort to vicious sources or employ his means improperly. As, however, perfection in all art is a vanishing point, there will be always something to desire in colours, vehicles, and in all the materials of painting ; and since the necessity for, and the practice of, the artist in preparing his own materials has ceased, it is the more essential that he should be enabled by precept to select, appreciate, and understand the pigments and colours he employs. As colours or pigments * refer to the various modes in which painting is practised, and as these modes differ most essentially m the mechanical * The term colour being used synonymously for pigment, is the cause of much ambiguity, particularly when speaking of colours as sensible or in the abstract ; it would be well therefore if the term pigment were alone used to denote the material colours of the palette. I HBMHK AU PREFACE. application of colours, in their chemical combinations, and in the purposes to which they are applied,— the chemical and mechanical properties of pig- ments have been indicated herein, and the appropriate application of each pointed out, so far as to enable the student in each mode to make his own selection ; and, with a view to the same end, Lists or Tables of Reference are subjoined, in which pigments are classed according to their uses, pro- perties, and propensities. A due selection and employment of colours materially is not alone suf- ficient,-^ adequate knowledge of their reciprocal, sensible, and moral influences in painting, is essential to the production of their full effects on the eye and the mind ; and, notwithstanding these effects and influences, belong to the higher aims of the colourist, and are of a theoretical bearing, the subject is so connected with the primary object of the work, that it forms also a feature thereof, in subordination nevertheless to practice ;— for colouring, like every other art that has its foundation in nature, refers to a whole, and cannot be rightly comprehended, nor perfectly practised, without some attention to all its parts j— hence also the physical causes, relations, and expression of colours have been briefly investigated therein. To those who choose to study colours philosophically, or to amuse themselves in the ample field of the colourist, even independently of the art of painting, some details of the author's experience have been appended, interesting for their own sake, and not without reference to the cultivated mind of the painter, who exercises his art with an intelligence beyond mere instinct and imitation. Nor is this department of his work devoted to mere rational amusement or mental satisfaction, but aims at fixing some of the principles of colouring upon the ground of science,— at establishing a metral standard of colours, which may be of general practical utility ; and contributing toward a new and improved theory of vision, light, and colours. So much for the design of this performance, which might have been PREFACE. Xlll augmented with much additional matter, had the limits of the work per- mitted : some few things not included in the above, but in useful con- nexion therewith, have, however, been touched on, for which the reader is referred to the Index. As to the peculiar form this attempt has taken, it is to be attributed to the request of an eminent publisher of works of art, that the author should render a subject, which might be dry to many readers, more popular than scientific : he may, nevertheless, have failed in this particular, since he is unconscious of any talent for popularity. Whe- ther or not the author will, upon the whole, have succeeded in the accom- plishment of a useful purpose, he professes his intention to have done so, and the foundation of his attempt throughout upon truth, actual observa- tion, and experiment, — principally in the view of the artist, — partly in that of the chemist and natural philosopher, and divested, as much as might well be, of the technicalities which keep these arts asunder. Should the artist, as he will, find herein matters of his previous know- ledge and observation, he will reflect that every reader has not the skill and experience of an artist ; and if he meet with things erro- neous, the author courts correction and improvement; while in return he tenders his own experience to the inquirer in any way connected with the art. With respect to the application of colours in painting, recourse must be had to practice under the direction of an able master, several of whom have published valuable works of instruction in the various branches of the art* — for of this the student may be assured, that, however useful recipes may be in cookery and pharmacy, the skill of colouring is not * Such are Dagley's Compendium of the Theory and Practice of Painting, in which the elements of the art are treated with classical simplicity and method ; — Mr. Harding's inge- nious and admirable Treatise on the Use of the Black Lead Pencil, &c. ; Mr. Burnett's elegant performances on Composition, Chiaroscuro, and Colouring ; and various others on different de- partments of the art. XIV PREFACE. to be acquired by any such off-hand processes ; and that perfect success therein will require— what no literary work can supply— the constant and united efforts of an able hand, a good eye, and a cultivated judgment- directed in the first instance to the works of good colourists, and perfected by an assiduous application to nature. But though the records of literature and science cannot alone produce a colourist, nor form the practical painter in other respects, they may become most important auxiliaries,— not merely byrecreating his faculties, instructing his hand, and extending the sphere of his art, by endless analogies through- out the field of history and philosophy, and the vast regions of poetic fancy ; but also by exciting a just enthusiasm, and stimulating his invention, while they enlarge his judgment and refine his taste ; supporting at the same time that connexion with learning which gives dignity to fine art, and raises it above mere manipulation. Indeed there never was a truly great artist who did not unite with his ability somewhat of literary talent, incli- nation, or acquirement ; nor is there a surer mark of a low and groveling genius than a contempt of theory or science, and an over-devotion to the mechanical and practical in art; for the connexion of art with science, theory, and practice, and of these with literature, is most intimate and indissoluble; nor is it likely the artist should paint the worse for being acquainted with the philosophy of his art. "We derive hence an excuse for having, even in this lowly performance, attempted to draw philosophy on the one hand, and poetry and harmonics on the other, into intimate connexion with colours and colouring, by a variety of natural analogies and poetical instances. To his Subscribers the author's acknowledgements are due, and his satisfaction will be much augmented if he find in the end that he has not entirely disappointed their expectations. In tendering such acknowledge- PREFACE. XV ments he cannot suppress his sentiment of deep regret, that several imme- diate disciples of the illustrious Reynolds, and other encouragers of this work, have been called from the career of art. Among these are his favour- ite pupil, the shrewd and amiable Northcote, — the tasteful and admirable Stothard, whose last signature in behalf of art was given to this work with peculiar grace and urbanity, — and the late elegant and courteous President of the Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who was the first to desire his name to be placed on the list of its subscribers. No praise of the author could do adequate honour to these eminent men : they will receive from posterity the meed of reputation which is due to their various and exalted merits. ■HM&_ CONTENTS. CHAP. I. ON COLOURING ;— of the Antients and Moderns ■ • On the Expression of Colour On the Relations of Colours CHAP. II. CHAP. III. PAGE 1 11 20 CHAP. IV. On the Physical Causes of Colours, &c. CHAP. V. On the Durability and Fugacity of Colours On the General Qualities of Pigments CHAP. VI. CHAP. VII. On Colours and Pigments individually CHAP. VIII. On the Neutral, WHITE, and White Pigments d 34 44 OS 08 . 61 xvm CONTENTS. CHAP. IX. OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS.— Of Yellow, and Yellow Pigments Of Red, and Red Pigments . Of Blue, and Blue Pigments CHAP. X. CHAP. XT. CHAP. XII. OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS.— Of Orange, and Orange Pigments CHAP. XIII. Of Green, and Green Pigments CHAP. XIV Of Purple, and Purple Pigments * • CHAP. XV. OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS.— Of Citrine, and Citrine Pigments CHAP. XVI. Of Russet, and Russet Pigments Of Olive, and Olive Pigments • • . . CHAP. XVII. • • • • CHAP. XVIII. OF THE SEMINEUTRAL COLOURS.— Of Brown, and Brown Pigments CHAP. XIX. Of Marrone, and Marrone Pigments • • CHAP. XX. Of Gray, and Gray Pigments page 72 85 102 . 115 . 121 132 139 . 144 148 . 154 164 . 166 ***Afc. —.^ CONTENTS. XiX CHAP. XXI. Of the Neutral, Black, and Black Pigments ..... CHAP. XXII. TABLES "OF PIGMENTS, indicating their powers, properties, and affections CHAP. XXIII. On Vehicles and Varnishes PAGE . 172 . 183 196 On Grounds CHAP. XXIV. 212 On Picture- Cleaning and Restoring CHAP. XXV 216 CHAP. XXVI. NEW OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS, and Experiments therewith on Light and Colours .......... Lensic Prism or Prismatic Lens described 222— The Chromascope 223 — Primary Colours developed from Shade 224 — Primary Colours developed from Light, — their num- ber 225 — Primary Colours developed from Colours— their indivisible Triunity 227 — Beautiful Prismatic Spectra 228 — The Rainbow 233 — Metamorphosis of Colours 234 — New Ocular Spectra 236 — The Eye not cognisant of colours, — phenomena of single vision 236 — Colour in the Sensorium 237 — Equivalence of Colours 238 — Colours of Shadows 239 — New Prismatic Spectra 240 — Metrochrome or Standard of Colours 244 — Simple Colours measured 245 — Compound Colours measured 246 — Doctrine of Con- trasts 247 — Tables and Scale of Equivalents 249 — Monochrome 252. 221 NOTES. On Styles of Painting 255 — Colouring 256 — Newton's Primaries 257 — Semineutral Colours 258 — Illustrative Diagrams 259 — Elements of Colours 259 — Defects of Vision — Eye for Colours 260 — Influences of Colours, &c. 261 ,,! CHROMATOGRAPHY; OR, A TREATISE ON COLOURS AND PIGMENTS, &c. CHAPTER I. ON COLOURING. II " Colouring is the sunshine of the art, that clothes poverty in smiles, and renders the prospect of barrenness itself agreeable, while it heightens the interest and doubles the charms of beauty." — Opie's Lect. iv. p. 138. How early, and to what extent, colouring may have attained the rank of science among the antients, is a question not easily set at rest; but that some progress toward it had obtained, even among the early Egyptians, is a fact proved by the late researches of the Messrs. Salt, Beechey, and Belzoni, who have again opened to us the magnificent tombs of the Egyp- tian kings at Thebes. The former of these gentlemen has described the walls of the royal mausoleum as covered with paintings in fresco, so fresh and perfect as to require neither restoration nor improvement : so far from it, that neither of those artists, with all their talents and attention in copying them, found it possible to equal the brilliancy of the originals ; which, according to the literal expression of Mr. Salt, " as far as colours go, throw all others completely in the back-ground : " he adds, " the most minute attention and painful labour are not equal to give a faithful idea of the fasci- nating objects of these designs. The scale of colours in which they are A Z ON COLOURING. painted is that of using pure vermilion, ochres, and indigo ; and yet they are not gaudy, owing to the judicious balance of the colours and the artful management of the black. It is quite obvious that they are worked on a regular system, which had for its basis, as Mr. West would say, the colours of the rainbow, as there is not an ornament throughout the dresses where the red, yellow, and blue are not alternately mingled, which pro- duces a harmony that in some of the designs is really delicious." It may however be remarked, that as these paintings were viewed by torch-light, it is probable the blue and yellows, which looked like indigo and ochres, suffered in appearance from the colour of the light, and were perhaps painted with a yellow brighter than ochre, and with the celebrated Armenian blue, of a livelier character than indigo ; and, if not identical with our ultra-marine, was even of greater pecuniary value and esteem among the antients : and, with respect to the harmony of these paintings, it is ob- vious that it was of the simplest kind, — a first step that extended only to the crude accordances of the primary colours, and precisely that of the native Mexicans, South Sea islanders, and the North American Indians at this day.* So late indeed as Van Eyck, and the earlier masters of the German school, the practice of colouring had in it much of the same primeval cha- racter.f The above account of the ancient Egyptian painting is fully borne out by the testimony formerly given by Diodorus Siculus, Norden, Dr. Perry, and, recently by M. Champollion and others. Norden remarks, " that the manner of painting is so totally different from any thing in practice at this time, as to make it necessary for me to give you some slight idea of it. A painting eighty feet high, and proportionably broad, is divided into two ranges of gigantic figures in bas-relief, and covered with most exquisite colours, suited to the drapery and naked parts of the figures. But what is still more wonderful is this — that the azure, the yellow, the green, and the other colours made use of, are as well preserved as if they had been laid on but yester- * Since writing the above, we have been favoured with some beautiful Indian work from Nova Scotia by the lamented lady of the noble admiral, late chief on the North American station, in which the combinations of the primary colours, and management of black and white, are per- fectly illustrative of the remarks of Salt, Norden, and others, respecting the colouring of the ancient Egyptians. *j- Examples of which maybe seen in the admirable collection of Charles Aders, Esq., to whom, and to whose talented lady, the author is indebted for frequent opportunities of con- firming this observation. I ON COLOURING. • 3 day, and so strongly fixed to the stone that I was never able to separate them in the least degree." — Tempiemans Nordens Travels, p. 33. Dr. Perry, who visited Upper Egypt about the beginning of the last cen- tury, describes, among the stupendous ruins at Carnac, on the site of antient Thebes, an apartment " one hundred paces wide, and sixty deep; perfectly crowded with pillars twelve feet in diameter, and seventy-two high : all these columns, as well as the ceiling, roof, and walls of the apart- ment, are quite covered or crowded with figures in basso-relievo and hiero- glyphics; all exquisitely beautiful, and finely painted all over; and, which may seem very extraordinary, all these things look as fresh, splendid, and glorious, after so many ages, as if they were but just finished." — Perry's View of the Levant, p. 341. M. Champollion, jun. has given a similar account ; and all agree in de- scribing these colourings of the Egyptians in the most glowing terms of admiration. From Philocles, the Egyptian, we have historical evidence that the Greeks obtained the seed of their Ars Chromatica, which the latter are said to have carried by gradual advances of the art during several centuries from the monochromatic of their earlier painters, to the perfection of colouring under Zeuxis and Apelles. Thus the principles of light, shade, and colours in painting appear to have been understood by the antient Greeks to have been lost with their valuable treatises on the art, including that of " Eu- phranor on Colours," ever since the time of the Romans, and not to have been recovered at the restoration of learning in Europe. Accordingly M. Angelo, RafTael, and all the early Roman and Florentine painters, so eminent in other respects, were almost destitute of those principles, and of all truly refined feeling of the effects of colouring. The partial restoration of this branch of the art of Painting, if not even its invention, seems to have been coeval with oil-painting ; and the glory of it belongs to the Venetians, to whom the art passed with the last re- mains of the Grecian schools and their productions, after the capture of Constantinople at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and among whom Giovanni Bellini laid its foundation, and Titian carried it to its highest perfection. From the Venetian it passed to the Lombard, Fle- mish, and Spanish schools. It is to be doubted, notwithstanding, whether there was not as much of instinct as principle in the practice of these 4 ON COLOURING. schools, and that colouring remains yet to be established in its perfection as a science. The historical distribution of Painting according to the schools is not per- haps exactly coincident with its true, natural, and philosophical classification, according to which there are but three principal classes or schools ; viz. the gross and material, which aims at mere nature, to which belong the Dutch and Flemish schools ; the sensible, which aims at refined and select nature, which accords with the Venetian school; and the 'intellectual, which corresponds with the Greek, Roman, and Florentine schools, and aims at the ideal in beauty, grandeur, and sublimity : and it is somewhat remarkable, in a scientific view, that these schools should have retro- graded. If the excellence of the Roman and Florentine schools in the high de- partments of figure, composition, and expression, must be admitted, they fail, nevertheless, in the just effect of an art which addresses itself to the mind through the sight. Their works, accordingly, have often as little effect upon the eye, as the finest poetry badly set to music has upon the ear; and as this would be better without the music, so those would often be better without their colour. True, natural, and unaffected taste, which admits no unresolved discordance among its objects, will therefore prefer generally the Venetian, to the Roman and Florentine schools, because it ex- cels in that which is the essential basis of the art and its end of pleasing, by the medium of sensible impression. Upon the same principle, the sublimest sentiments delivered, however accurately, in language unmeasured and inharmonious, will never redeem the performance of the poet, nor raise it above more ordinary thoughts de- livered in the true measure and melody of speech ; for these are the first essential,— the constituent matter, — the very colour of the poet's art. Poets are Painters; Words are their paint by which their thoughts are shown, And Nature is their object. Granville. Or, as Horace thus briefly expresses it : — *' Ut Pictura Poesis erit." So also, according to a correct analogy, colouring may be called the elo- ■ ON COLOURING. quence of painting, — the animating principle, which gives life and action to the fine thoughts of the painter. " Among the several kinds of beauty," says Addison, " the eye takes most delight in colour. We no where meet a more glorious or pleasing show in nature, than what appears in the heavens at the rising and setting of the sun, which is wholly made up of those different stains of light, that show themselves in clouds of a different situation. For this reason we find the Poets, who are always addressing themselves to the imagination, borrowing more of their epithets from colour, than from any other topic." — If then the purpose of painting be analogous to that of poetry, how much more power- ful and important must the expression of colour be to the painter than to the poet ; and how absurd the affectation of the artist or critic who under- values colouring, — the sole object of sight, — the sole matter of Painting, whose mistress is Nature, and to her only we need appeal for evidence of its powerful effects in grandeur, as well as in sublimity and beauty. In the practice of the individual in Painting, as well as in all the revo- lutions of pictorial art, in ancient Greece as in modern Italy, colouring has been the last attainment of excellence in every school ;* thus Zeuxis succeeded and excelled Apelles in colouring, as Titian did Raffael. There is hence just reason to hope the artists of Britain will transcend all pre- ceding schools in the chromatic department of Painting, if even in their progress they should not surpass them in all other departments, and in every mode and application of the art, as they have already done in an original and unrivalled use of water-colours in particular, in the perfec- tion of landscape, in the new and beautiful device of panoramic perspec- tive, and in engraving. Happily too, a school of colouring has arisen, that confirms this expecta- tion, strengthened also by the suitableness of our climate to perfect vision, — by that mean degree of light which is best adapted to the distinguishing of colours, — by that boundless diversity of hue in nature, relieved by those fine effects of light and shade which are denied to more vertical suns, — and by those beauties of complexion and feature in our females, by which we * And that also of rarest occurrence, if not of greatest difficulty; — hence Du Pile justly remarks, " that for near three hundred years since Painting was revived, we could hardly reckon six Painters that had been good colourists." He might have added — " among thou- sands who had laboured to become such." — Du Pile's Dialogue, p. 28. I b ON COLOURING. are perpetually surrounded ; — respects in which at least our country is not unfavourable to art. In many obvious references too, this country resem- bles Venice of old, the greatest of whose antient glories is still her Titian, her Giorgione, and her school of colouring ; and England has had her Reynolds, and Wilson, and still has living colourists, of whom we will not offend the modesty, nor distinguish invidiously. It has, however, been urged to the disparagement of the British school, that it excels in colour- ing ; as if it were incompatible with any other excellence, or as if nature, the great prototype of art, ever dispensed with it. This appeal from the decisions of criticism,* in behalf of colouring, is not intended to militate against the necessity the Painter is under, of study- ing the other branches of his art, nor to assert the redeeming power, or the exclusive excellence, of colouring. f For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich ; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So Honour 'peareth in the meanest habit. What ! is the jay more precious than the lark Because his feathers are more beautiful ? Or is the adder better than the eel, Because the painted skin contents the eye ? Shaksp., Taming of the Shrew. Colouring alone will not therefore constitute a picture ; still colour is the flesh and blood of the art,— and if it be wanting, the finest per- formances will remain lifeless skeletons, and fail to please ; and as the proper end of painting is to please, and there is a higher and more effectual medium for addressing mind, the most intellectual performances of the painter, and the grandest efforts of his invention, will fall short of their true purpose, if they pass not to the mind by the medium of pleasurable effect through their appropriate sense of sight, of which colour — and colour alone — is the immediate object; and what is Painting altogether but the art of re- presenting visible things by light, shade, and colours ? Colouring is therefore the first requisite, the matter and medium of the Painter's art : it is indeed * See Note A. f As music relates to sound simply, and poetry, or figurative speech, to signification ; and as these when uuited become sound significant, so it is with colouring in respect to Figure, Sfc. ; the first belongs principally to the harmony of Painting, the latter to its sentiment or poetry, while in the perfect picture they are united. I ON COLOURING. 7 the first quality which engages attention and regard — the best introduction to a picture, and that. which continues to give it value so long as it is regarded. In the grosser matters of taste a food or medicine may be both salutary and nutritious, but we nauseate it if it be not also palatable or well- tasted: such is Painting without colouring, and so it is with all objects of sense ; nor did the first and greatest critic that ever lived assign any higher end than pleasure to even Poetry itself.* It was the deficiency of colouring in the great works of the Roman and Florentine schools which occasioned Sir Joshua Reynolds, with such admirable candour, to confess a want of attraction in their works, and to declare the necessity of a forced and often- repeated attention, with previous cultivation and profound investigation of their other excellences, to a just relish and estimation of their greatness, which hundreds have affected to admire upon authority, without feeling or comprehending.'!' For this deficiency in the colouring of these great masters, apologies more ingenious than just liave been offered by eminent critics, to the perversion of taste and truth ; while some, through false admiration or want of sense, have attributed fine colouring to these masters. It is the consecration of great names which blinds, betrays, and ruins their followers ; and it is no less true than lamentable, that the modern Italian schools have fallen a sacrifice to the greatness of their models. And so it is in all sciences when great human authorities have subverted the authority of nature — the master of masters ! Nature is made better by no mean, But Nature makes that mean. So o'er that art Which you say adds to Nature, is an art That Nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race. This is an art Which does mend Nature — change it rather, — but The art itself is Nature. Shaksp., Winter's Tale. With respect to those departments of Painting which have been ranked above, and represented as inconsistent with colouring, it may be questioned whether this is not to be attributed to a proneness, common enough in all cases, to consider the greatest difficulties as the highest attainments of art ; : I r * Aristotle's Poetics. t See Note B. 8 ON COLOURING. | ■: , that which is most rare as of highest esteem, and to the mistaking of novelty or singularity for beauty and excellence ; — but we have to remember that that which is most beautiful, like that which is most useful, is least rare in nature ; nay, it is beautiful abstractly, because it is not rare. Thus the most common form of any thing is the most general or middle form, and such the Greeks have taught us is also the most beautiful and natural. We have to consider also, that colour individually gives finish or final value to all the productions of nature, not excepting the diamond ; — and that he who has attained colouring in its complex and higher relations, has rivalled Nature in her chief beauty, whatever we may determine it to be in art. Indeed the greatest masters of design in every school have given ready testimony to the claims of colouring; and, according to Vasari, even Michael Angelo himself, the greatest of them all, conceded to Titian, on viewing his Danae, that he wanted nothing but the correctness of the Roman school to have rendered him the greatest painter that ever lived. There never was, indeed, is not, nor ever will be, any painter who does not colour well, for any other reason than because he is not able; and he, who should teach neglect of colouring as a doctrine, will find no disciple of true feeling and ability who would follow him. No master individually, nor school collec- tively, can be regarded as perfect without this first and last accomplish- ment of the art ; nor did Painting attain its immortal reputation in Greece until Zeuxis and Apelles had conjoined colouring to the climax of its excellences, nor will such high repute ever attach itself to any modern school without it. Every one knows the false taste and absurdity which have sprung from the admiration of difficulty and novelty, in place of the natural and expres- sive, in the sister art of music ; and it behoves the true lovers of art to guard against similar degeneracy in Painting, that she may not sink in like manner by quitting the charms of nature for those of artifice and false refinement, nor even abstract herself in those sublimities or excellences exclusively, which the artist alone can appreciate. Considering that the evidence of the eye is superior to that of the ear, and that the science of colours should be naturally easier than that of sounds, it is remarkable that music should have taken the advance of other sciences, and that colouring, as a science, remains yet in the rear. This precedence the former may perhaps owe to its more sensual character, as well as to its connexion with poetry : — since, however, these arts are intimately related ON COLOURING. and analogous, the colourist may justly trust to advance and perfect his science by following wherever the others lead, and particularly so by adopting, as far as possible, the harmonic principles of the musician. We must not quit our subject without remarking, that there is a vicious extreme in this branch of Painting, and it is that in which colouring is rendered so principal, as by the splendour of its effects on the eye to diminish all other powers of a work upon the mind, or by want of subor- dination in the general design to overlay the subject; — no excellence of the mere colouring can in this case redeem from censure the performance of the painter. Add to which, there is a negative excellence which belongs to colouring, whence the painter is not always to employ pleasing and harmo- nious colours, but to take advantage of the powerful effects to be derived from impure hues, or the absence of all colour, as Poussin did in his ' Deluge, ' thus well commented on by Opie : — " In this work there appears neither black nor white, neither blue, nor red, nor yellow ; the whole mass is, with little variation, of a sombre gray, the true resemblance of a dark and humid atmosphere, by which every object is rendered indis- tinct and almost colourless. This is both a faithful and a poetical concep- tion of the subject. Nature seems faint, half-dissolved, and verging on annihilation — — ." But this want of colour is a merit of colouring, and not its reproach. Vandyke employed it with admirable effect in the back- ground of a Crucifixion, and in his Pieta; and the Phaeton of Giulio Romano is celebrated for a suffusion of smothered red, which powerfully excites the idea of a world on fire, although this artist, like his school, was deficient in the more subtile graces of colouring. In no case, however, is any thing legitimate in art that has not an authority in nature; and in Painting, as in Poetry, the imaginative must be founded on the true. With- out this basis, effect falls into extravagance — grace into affectation — beauty into deformity — and the sublime into the ridiculous. Where truth and nature end, vice and absurdity begin ; hence the moral influence of pure art, in which the habits of truth and honesty conduce to success, and are essen- tial in a high degree to all the attainments of genius. The painter may, notwithstanding, deviate from the real into the ideal or abstract, even so far as in some instances to violate probability, but never to transcend possi- bility. To deviate successfully from objective truth presupposes, neverthe- less, both judgment and genius in the painter; that is, the power of justly imagining and generalizing. ■f i 10 ON COLOURING. To conclude — it is not in painting and decorating, — in the sentiments it excites, nor in the allusions of poetry that the value of colouring is com- prised ; it has an intrinsic value which, by augmenting the sources of inno- cent and enlightened pleasure, entitles it to moral esteem. We all know the delight with which music gratifies the ear of the musically inclined. — The lover of art would not for worlds forego the emotion which arises from regarding nature with an artist's eye ; — but he who can regard nature with the intelligent eye of the colourist, has a boundless source of never-ceasing gratification, arising from harmonies and accordances which are lost to the untutored eye; — rocks and caves, — every stone he treads on, mineral, vege- tal, and animal nature, — the heavens, the sea, and the earth, are full of them ; wherever eye can reach or optical powers can conduct, their beau- ties abound in rule and order, unconfounded by infinite variety; and to assert that colouring permeates and clothes the whole visible universe, in- curs no hyperbole. ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. 11 I! I CHAP. II. ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. «' Every passion and affection of the mind has its appropriate tint; and colouring, if properly adapted, lends its aid, with powerful effect, in the just discrimination and forcible expression of them ; it heightens joy, warms love, inflames anger, deepens sadness, and adds coldness to the cheek of death itself." — Opie's Lect. iv. p. 147. Assured as we must be of the importance of colouring as a branch of painting, colours in all their bearings become interesting to the artist. This subject, considered in the whole breadth of its survey, appears to refer to the material principles of colours, to their sensible relations, and to their intel- lectual effects, or highest purpose. We will first discuss the latter of these, which is the prime object of colouring, comprehending the effects of colours and colouring on the pas- sions, sentiment, and affections of the mind, and may therefore be termed the Expression of Colour ; a subject which, if it has not been totally without light, has been involved in much obscurity : and if philosophers have hitherto argued respecting the causes and harmony of colours with little of the con- fidence of science, they have spoken of their expression and moral effects with more imperfect apprehension, or even with confusion. There may indeed be some who, from natural organic defect or uncultivated sense, will question these latter effects altogether. Yea, The man Whose eye ne'er open'd on the light of heaven Might smile with scorn, while raptured vision tells Of the gay-colour'd radiance flushing bright O'er all creation . Akenside. Yet the enlightened artist acknowledges these effects from having seen and felt them ; and having felt them, it becomes a purpose of his art to produce I 12 ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. them to the feelings of others gifted by nature or attainment to enjoy them. This alone is sufficient to render these powers of colours the subject of his serious inquiry, and to give value to hints and suggestions which may assist in realizing them in his practice, when, according to the expression of Addi- son, he is " obliged to put a virtue into colours, or to find out a proper dress for a. passion," &c. — Treatise on Medals, Dial. i. For evidence of the natural expression of colours, we need not look beyond the human countenance, that masterpiece of expression, in which are acknowledged — the redness indicative of anger and the ardent passions, and the blush of bashfulness and shame betraying a variety of conscious- ness, — the sallowness or yellowness of grief, envy, resentment, and the jealous passions, — the cold, pallid blueness of hate, fear, terror, agony, de- spair, and death ; with a thousand other hues and tints accompanied by expressions readily felt, but difficultly described or understood.* If we turn our view from the face of man to that of nature in the sky, we find colour equally efficient in giving character, sentiment, and expression to the landscape, indicating the calm and the storm, and in infinite ways betraying the latent emotions of the spirit of nature. It is by this influence that the greenness of spring indicates the youth, vigour, and freshness of the season ; that the light, bright, warm, yellow hues of summer express its powers ; that the glowing redness of fruits and foliage denote the richness of autumn, — Yon hanging woods that, touch 'd by autumn, seem As they were blossoming hues of fire and gold. Coleridge. and that blue, dark gray, and white tints express the gloom and wintry coldness of nature. The analogy of the natural series of colours, with the course of the day and the seasons, coincides with the ages of man or the seasons of life, and adapts it to express them in the hues and shades of draperies and effects; from the white or light of the morn or dawn of innocuous infancy, * Whether these colours of the human countenance are to be variously ascribed to the agency of nerves, blood-vessels, or lymphatics ; — whether the loarmth and redness expressing active feeling be not attributable to arterial action, and the cold hues of passive suffering to venous re-action ; — and whether the passions denoted by the sallow or yellow hue are not biliary affections — are questions we leave to the anatomist. . . . _. ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. 13 through all the colours, ages, and stages of human life, to the black or dark night of guilt, age, despair, and death. Throughout all seasons, and in all countries, it is by the colour of his crops that the hopes, fears, acts, and judgments of the husbandman are excited ; nor are the colours of the ocean and the sky less indicative to the mariner ; nor the colours of his merchandise to the merchant,— so universal is this language of colour, the sole immediate sign to the eye, which is the chief organ of external expression and intelligence. Whether it be the face of nature or of man that is tinged with the varied expression of the gloomy and the gay, it reciprocates corresponding senti- ments in the spectator, and we even form judgments of the disposition, temperament, and intentions, as well as of the youth, vigour, age, and race of individuals by colour and complexion ; hence colours have been made symbols of the passions and affections, denoting by a sort of tacit consent their connexion with moral feeling, all of which is transferable to the canvas. Of these popular symbols, black denotes mourning or sorrow ; gray, fear, &c. ; red is the colour of joy and love ; blue, of constancy ; yellow, of jea- lousy ; green, by a physical analogy, of youth and hope ; and white, by a moral analogy, of innocence and purity. These remarks do not apply merely to the more positive colours indivi- dually, but extend with even greater force to the more neutral or broken compounds, every hue and shade having its corresponding shade of expres- sion and reciprocation, affording materials for the cultivation of feeling and taste ; the sublimest expression vibrating in all cases to the most delicate touch. The subject is fertile, but enough has been said to confirm the fact, if it can be disputed, of the general, moral, sentimental, and natural expression of colours, analogous to that of musical sounds; and of the expression of colours individually we shall take further occasion to speak under their distinct heads. By what mysterious power colours and sounds thus vibrate and reflect these affections, is beyond our present inquiry ; if the fact be established, by investigating its instances we may induce or generalogize a theory, or advance our practice, in which we already acknowledge the powers of colours to soothe and delight by gradation of hue and shade, to excite and animate by their various contrasts, and to distract and repel by infraction and discordance. I 14 ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. ill!'! i! It may be doubted indeed whether the expression of colour is not naturally more powerful than that of form or figure ; for, though form has also its natural expression, it owes its chief force to the auxiliaries of custom, association, and consent; whence lines and forms have almost usurped the office of expression with the painter, but, aided by the influence of colour, they become irresistible. Perhaps colour and form have pecu- liarities of expression which ought to be distinguished ; and, if we might venture an opinion on this head, the expression of form is more powerful in figuring the passions; and that of colour, in representing and exciting the more delicate perceptions of internal feeling and sentiment : the one is the rhythmus of expression, and, like those of poetry and music, strikes every eye ; the other is the harmony that touches certain natural chords, which vibrate to an eye gifted or cultivated to perceive and feel it. The choice of colours then which the artist infuses into, and with which he clothes and surrounds his figures, or his scenes and compositions, is by no means arbitrary, nor merely an affair of conformity to the natural object, or of sensible satisfaction to the eye ; but has, in its highest view, a rational and moral reference to the mind, dependent on the subject, and the sentiment or moral he means to excite or convey : and our common habits of thinking and speaking coincide herein when we attribute moral and sensible qualities to colours, by denominating them faint or strong, true or false, foul or fair, harmonious or discordant, dead or lively, sedate, fresh, good and bad, modest and meretricious, solemn, gloomy and gay, &c. ; and it is hence by tone and colouring that the artist is able to aid and excite the ruling and subordinate sentiments of his performance in the manner of the musician ; and that, although he should copy nature in his colouring, he will not do so servilely, but with taste, discrimination, and reference to these ends. There is the ideal in colouring, as well as in forms, which belongs to the perfection of beauty and sentiment, which it is the highest office of the painter to attain ; and it is that in all these arts to which the philosophic minds of the Greeks aspired : " Is not painting, Parrhasius, a represen- tation of what we see ? By the help of canvas and a few colours you can easily set before us hills and caves, light and shade, straight and crooked, rough and plain, and bestow youth and age where and when it best pleaseth you ; and when you would give us perfect beauty (not being able to find in any one person what answers your idea) you copy from many what is beautiful in each, in order to produce this perfect form."— Xenoph. Mem. ON - THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. 15 c. x. p. 167. It is the same in colouring, it must be induced or generalized. But of ideal beauty, in every case, nature must supply the means,— not individually, but in the way of selection, generalization, and refinement ; for there is no other source of fine ideas in science or in art. It is in the election of his colours, not less than in their use and arrange- ment, that the artist merits the reputation of a colourist ; and he may per- haps borrow from, as well as contribute something to, the poet, who has not failed to avail himself of the powers of colours on the imagination in exciting, heightening, and extending ideas and sentiments, — in the construc- tion of epithets, the decoration of figures natural and rhetorical, and in all the imagery and witchery of his art. We may indeed truly remark, with respect to the poets, that many of the most exquisite passages of their works are indebted to colours principally for their beauty and effect. The expression of colour in poetry must of course be limited to the signi- fication of terms, which, with respect to colours, is hitherto confined to their simple names and relations: poetry, therefore, falls far short of nature and painting in this respect ; it is nevertheless open to all the refinements of language and art, on which point much remains to be done by the poet, and herein the painter may refund part of the obligation he owes to the bard : Blend the fair tints, and wake the vocal string. Collins. Poets, like painters, are comparatively good or bad colourists ; and it is remarkable that the poets of nature are invariably the best, while the poets of art, and imitators, are as indifferent colourists as those painters and copyists are who have studied colouring in pictures only. Hence some of the earlier poets, who probably drew their images more immediately from nature, have availed themselves more, and more truly, of the powers of colours than later poets ; whence Spenser, and Shakspeare in particular, are painter poets. This remark is not quite applicable to the schools of painting in which, as before observed, colouring has been the latest attain- ment of the art, although not without exception, nor without traces of na- tural colouring in early examples of the art. The latitude and licence of the poet with regard to the use and expression of colour is even wider than that of the painter, and hardly bounded by the usage of nature herself when it suits his sentiment to deviate in this respect ; hence with the poet, the sea becomes ' the black ocean,' ' the green ocean,' < the purple main,' ' the azure deep,' ' the white waves,' &c. ; and so it is with in ,: ... ■!|J i : 16 ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. the sky, the land, the forest, or other natural objects. Such also are the coloured garbs in which he clothes the animate figures of gods and god- desses, &c. whereby the various parts of nature, &c. are poetically designated and expressed. In collating the poets for instances of this poetical painting, none appears to our view to have had juster conception of the beauties and powers of colours than our great dramatist, whose genius seems to have been almost universal. Sometimes he harmonizes with the primary colours, as thus — Thou shalt not lack The flower that 's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor The azured harebell, like thy veins. Cymeeline. Sometimes he employs the secondaries, as in the order of Titania to the Fairies to honour her Love, — so much admired by Dryden for its poetic beauty : — Feed him with apricots, and dewberries, With, purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. — And pluck the wings from painted butterflies To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes : — Nod to him, Elves, and do him curtesies. Midsum. Night's Dream. In both these instances one of the three colours is kept back, inferred but unexpressed or subdued, as it is generally in nature, particularly in flowers, and even in their species ; e. g. we have roses, red, yellow, and compounds only, for nature does not produce a blue rose, but in its place roses inclined to purple, in which blue is subdued by red and black; the same may be observed of the hollyhock and other flowers. Colours nevertheless, it is true, are sometimes given to flowers, &c. in pictures which nature never dared to give ; and though the colours may be required in the picture, yet when they are so given, it is an offence to truth, which makes its impression upon the mind of the observer. This adherence to nature and truth' — this best policy of honesty in all things, is one of Shakspeare's greatest charms, and belongs to excellence in every intellectual art. How natural, tender, expressive, beautiful, and true, is the following inquiry concerning an occasion of grief : What's the matter, That this distemper'd messenger of wet, The many-colour 'd Iris, rounds thine eye ? m. - ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. 17 That Shakspeare discriminated nicely in colours is apparent from the following : — If you will see a pageant truly play'd, Between the pale complexion of true love And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain, Go hence a little. And again : — There was a pretty redness in his lip ; A little riper and more lusty red Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask. With what truth and effect he avails himself of the chromatic discord of green and yellow, which he uses metaphorically for freshness and jealousy, by natural feeling or discernment, as if he theorized in colours, in the fol- lowing hackneyed passage : — She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek : she pined in thought ; And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. The discord therein resolves itself in " damask," which is the perfect con- trast or equivalent of " green and yellow." Of this species of contrast in colouring, Shakspeare is a great master; witness the blood of Duncan on the hand of Macbeth, contrasted or opposed by the colour of the ocean : — Macbeth. Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnardine, Making the green one red ! * Lady M. My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white. Numberless instances might be adduced of the correctness of his judgment and feeling, in employing the beautiful and peculiar relations and effects of * Making the green « ocean' red ? C II 18 ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. red and white when mingled or opposed ; but the latter and following quotations may suffice : — I have mark'd A thousand blushing apparitions start Into her face ; a thousand innocent shames In angel whiteness bear away those blushes. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily -liver d boy ! Not to fatigue by multiplying instances, we refer the inquirer to the sec- tions under which each colour is treated of, for examples more particularly in point from the poets, having preferred here a general illustration from a single authority ; of which we have found none equal to Shakspeare, who often produces these chromatic effects by mere allusion, clothing immaterial things in imaginary colours : — • Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought ! He does not deem it necessary to tell us that " the native hue of resolu- tion" is hot and fiery red, nor that it is subdued or " sicklied o'er" by the cold, dull, livid " cast of thought ; " — the very means the painter would have taken to lower such " native hue." Indeed Shakspeare in the employment of colours always evinces a refined feeling of our art ; but in what feeling or sentiment could he be wanting who drew all his resources from the foun- tains of nature and truth ? — And he the Man whom Nature's self had made To mock herself, and truth to imitate With kindly counter under mimic shade, — Our pleasant Willy, — ah ! is dead of late. Spenser's Tears of the Muses. Milton and other poets abound with fine examples of colouring, but they have not always the natural truth and simplicity of Shakspeare's. Byron's palette is principally set with black and red ; but in this there is something not less characteristic than is the purple and gold of Homer. Ere we close this sketch we will subjoin one more illustration, an excep- tion to our intention with regard to the Bard of Avon, from a genuine pupil ON THE EXPRESSION OF COLOUR. 19 * of nature — a genius of bright and early promise — in this poetical painting, who, in the following stanzas, has unconsciously, but with just feeling, brought together the entire scale of primary and secondary colours accu- rately arranged and contrasted, in all the glow of natural imagery : 'Twas in a glorious eastern isle, — Where the acacias lightly move Their snowy wreaths ; where sunbeams smile Brightly, but scorchingly, like love, — Round which the ocean lies so clear, The deep red coral blushes through The waves that catch its crimson hue, While the soft roseate tints appear Mix'd with the sky's reflected blue ! Where, brilliant as the golden rays That shine when day gives place to night, The shells, that are as rainbows bright, Glow through the waters in a blaze Of glorious gold and purple light ! Where roses blossom through the year, And palms their green-plumed branches rear. Mary Ann Brown's Ada. It may be added, that the female eye seems to be particularly receptive and perceptive of the tender, beautiful, and expressive relations of colours ; and we have repeatedly heard it remarked by that graceful painter and colourist, the late lamented President of the Royal Academy, whose sub- jects were from the high and refined classes of the sex, that in no instance whatever had he occasion to request or desire any change of the colours in which they presented themselves, so judicious and natural was their taste and feeling as to what best suited their peculiarities of character, complexion, and expression. From the foregoing, it may be concluded that the sentiments effected in the mind by hues, shades, and colours can, next to nature and painting, be nowhere better studied than among the poets ; we shall accordingly, as occasion offers, make free use of their productions. * At sixteen years of age. :iv ;;;m i r 1 1 1 ii 20 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. CHAP. III. ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. " I know not if lessons of colouring have ever been given, notwithstanding it is a part so principal in painting that it has its rules founded on science and reason. Without such study it is impossible that youth can acquire a good taste in colouring, or understand harmony." Mengs on the Academy at Madrid. " He that would excel in colouring must study it in several points of view ; in respect to the whole and in respect to the parts of a picture, in respect to mind and in respect to body, and in regard to itself alone." — Opie's Lect. iv. p. 138. Having treated of the relations of colours, and exemplified them in a distinct essay,* we may speak more briefly on this important branch of our subject, upon which the expression of colours discussed in the preceding section rests, and their right application in practice depends. Black and white are extreme colours, comprehending all other colours synthetically, and affording them all by analysis. The truth of this position is illustrated by our first and second Experiments, Chap, xxiv., wherein the fundamental fact upon which the true natural relations of colours rests is demonstrated by the eduction of an aureola of the three primary colours from a black spot upon a white ground, or, vice versa, of a white spot upon a black ground, as represented Plate i. fig. 1. The Primary Colours are such as yield others by being compounded, but are not themselves capable of being produced by composition of other colours. They are three only, yellow, red, and hlue;\ and are sometimes, by way of distinction, called entire colours. * See " Chromatics, or, an Essay on the Analogy and Harmony of Colours," wherein the relations of each colour to every other colour, and to light and shade, is shown by examples. t See Note C. '' mm . ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 21 The Secondary Colours are such only as can be composed of, or resolved into, two primaries, and are also three only ; namely, orange, composed of red and yellow ; green, composed of yellow and blue ; and purple, composed of blue and red. The Tertiary Colours are such only as can be composed of, or resolved into, two secondary colours, or the three primaries ; and these are also three : namely, citrine, composed of green and orange, or of a predominant yellow with blue and red ; russet, composed of orange and purple, or of a predominant red with blue and yellow ; and olive, composed of purple and green, or of a predominating blue with yellow and red.* These three genera of colours comprehend in an orderly gradation all the colours which are positive or defijiite ; and the three colours of each genus, united or compounded in such subordination that neither predominate to the eye, constitute the negative or Neutral Colours, of which black and •white are the opposed extremes, and greys are their intermediates. Thus black and white are constituted of, and comprehend latently, the principles of all colours, and accompany them in their depth and brilliancy as shade and light ; of which more hereafter, j - Colours thus generally denned are exemplified in the definitive scale of colours, PI. i. fig. 3, in which their relations to each other, and to light and shade, are distinctly and in an orderly manner discriminated from white to black. It is to be noted, however, that the above denominations of colours do not merely express the individual hues or tints by which they are exemplified in this diagram, but denote classes or genera of colours, each colour comprehending an indefinite series of shades between the ex- tremes of light and dark, as each compound colour also does a similar series of hues between the extremes of the colours which compose it. As each class or genus of colours, primary, secondary, and tertiary, has the property of combining in a neutral or achromatic state, when duly sub- ordinated or compounded, it follows that each secondary colour, being com- pounded of two primaries, is neutralized and contrasted by the remaining primary, alternately ; and that each tertiary colour, being a like binary compound of secondaries, is also neutralized or contrasted by the remaining secondary alternately. These relations of colours will be readily understood by an attentive * See Note D. f See Exp. I. n. in. Chap. xxvi. ■■^■■■^^M li'.ii'" i'.j.f»j :i ! 1H 22 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. reference to the diagram or Scale of Chromatic Equivalents, PI. i. fig. 2, in which each denomination of colours is opposed to its contrasting denomination reciprocally. By the term equivalent we here denote such a relation of quantities in the combination of antagonist or opposite colours, as produces achromatic or neutral shades, in which the two constituent colours disappear. Such antagonists or opposites of colours have received different denomi- nations according to circumstances : — thus the spectral antagonist, called an ocular spectrum, which arises after long viewing a colour, has been variously denominated adventitious, accidental, &c. and is always its true opposite, but never its equivalent : such colours simply opposed in juxta-position are called contrasts, and may be either equivalent or unequal contrasts. All these correspondent colours have also been called complementary, although to be properly complementary they ought to be equivalent. This Scale of Chromatic Equivalents is constituted of six circles, compre- hending the primary blue, red, and yellow, and secondary colours, orange, green, and purple, alternately within a larger graduated circle, — the com- pound denominations appearing within the intersections or crossings of the circles : firstly, the binary, or secondary compounds, red-purple, red-orange, yellow-orange, &c. comprising the star formed by the alternate crossings of two circles ; and secondly, the ternary, or tertiary compounds, russet, &c. comprehended in the smaller central star formed within the crossings of three of the circles alternately.* The graduated scale by which the whole is circumscribed, is divided round the inward edge by numerals diame- trically opposed, denoting the proportions in which colours lying on any radius of the circle neutralize and contrast any colour, simple or compound, on the opposite radius ; while the mediating colours, which subdue without neutralizing or contrasting, succeed each other side by side all round the scheme : e. g., red subdues and is subdued, or melodized, by the orange and purple contiguous to it, and so on. The eye is quiet, and the mind soothed and complacent, when colours are opposed to each other in equivalent proportions chromatically, or in such proportions as neutralize their individual activities. This is perfect harmony, or union of colours. But the eye and the mind are agreeably moved, also, when the mathematical proportions of opposed or conjoined * See Note E. ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 23 colours are such as to produce agreeable combinations to sense ; and this is the occasion of the variety of harmony, and the powers of composition in colouring. Thus colours in the abstract are a mere variation of relations of the same thing. Black and white are the same colour ; and, since colours are mere relations, if there were only one colour in the world there would be no colour at all, however strange, offensive, or paradoxical such asser- tions may appear. The neutralizing powers of colours, called compensating, have also been improperly denominated antipathies, since they are the foundation of all harmony and agreement in colours ; too much of any colour in a painting- being invariably reconciled to the eye by the due introduction of its opposite or equivalent, either in the way of compounding, by glazing or mingling, or by contrast, — in the first manner with neutralizing and sub- dued effect, and in the last with heightened effect and brilliancy,— in the- one case by overpowering the colour, in the other by overpowering the organ ; while in each the equilibrium or due subordination of colours is restored. It is not sufficient, however, that the artist is informed what colours neutralize and contrast, if he remain unacquainted with their various powers in these respects. If he imagine them of equal force, he will be led into errors in practice from which nothing but a fine eye and re- peated attempts can relieve him ; but if he know beforehand the powers with which colours act on and harmonize each other,, the eye and the mind will go in concert with the hand, and save him much disappointment and loss of time, to say nothing of the advantage and gratification of such fore- knowledge in realizing their beauties with intention. We have been enabled to demonstrate the proportional powers of colours numerically, as given in our Scale of Chromatic Equivalents, by means of the Metrochrome,* whereby it is ascertained that certain proportions of the primary colours, which reduced to their simplest terms are as 3 yellow, 5 red, and 8 blue, of equal intensities, neutralize each other, integrally, as 16 ; consequently, red 5 is equivalent to green U, yellow 3 to 13 purple, and blue 8 to 8 orange. The intermediate proportions all round the scale may be obtained by adding any number thereon to that preceding or fol- lowing it, and the like compounded number diametrically opposite it will be its proportional for the colours on the same diameter. Some of these may * For the principle and mechanism by which we have effected this, see Chap. xxv. Exp. xxvii. 'Nh lulji 'I I;!! ■ ■ 24 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. be reduced to simpler terms : thus the equal proportionals 8, to both which the two ends of the needle or index point on the scale, are as unity, 1 = 1, — the simplest of all ratios, that of equality ; and its colours are orange and blue, — literally the points of extreme hot and cold, which are, so to call them, the poles of harmony in colouring. This result is accidental, but it is a coincidence which evinces the truth of our process, and singularly com- ports with the rule of harmony in painting, which has been founded on sense or feeling, and requires that equality or balance of warm and cool colouring in a picture upon which tone so essentially depends.* These are the only two contrasting colours which, like black and white, are equal powers : all other contrasts are perfect only when one of the anta- gonist colours predominates according to the proportions marked upon the scale. A line diagonally across the needle, or index, indicates the po- sitions of the scale at which colours become most advancing and most retiring; and a like line perpendicularly across the scale points out all the middle colours. These three lines divide the entire scale into equal por- tions throughout. Again, by the Scale of Chromatic Equivalents may be determined the proportions in which any three colours neutralize and harmonize each other : thus, as 3, 5, and 8, are these proportions of the primaries, yellow, red, and blue, — so 8, 11, and 13, are those of the secondaries, orange, green, and purple. For the more readily finding the proportions of any three harmo- nizing colours on the scale, it is graduated all round, and divided into three equal parts, which are each subdivided into 32 degrees, numbered accord- ingly on the outward edge of the scale, and trisecting it all round, so that each colour of the scheme with its two harmonics are indicated by the same number, and the numbers corresponding on the inward edge show their proportions. In like manner may be found the proportions of six or nine harmonizing colours, &c. By causing this external circle of figures to move round the scale, it may be made to indicate the proportions of any number and variety of hues which harmonize ; but this is unimportant for practice. This scheme is also a key to the whole science of nature in the painting of * This balance and insensible union of hues and shades in painting, and of tones in music, the Greeks denominated by the same term, tonos. " Tandem se ars ipsa distinxit, et invenit lu- men atque umbras, differentia colorum alterna vice sese excitante : postea deinde adjectus est splendor, alius hie quam lumen ; quem, quia inter hoc et umbram esset, appellaverunt tovov :" says Pliny, 1. xxxv. c. 5. ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 25 flowers, and it coincides therewith that the archetype of all floreal forms is triadic, consisting of the involution of triangles variously irradiated ; the numbers of their rays or leaves being invariably 3, 4, or 5, or multiples thereof; — of which only by the by.* By attention to these relations the student may approximate to a just conception of the powers of colours, and, assisted by a good eye, and a knowledge of his materials, may attain to a perfect application of them ; by a like attention to these powers of colours the engraver too will be enabled to estimate those due additions of light or shade which may be necessary to compensate for the absence of colours in his performance ; or, in other words, to represent them by their exact equivalents of light and shade. It has been remarked as a common deficiency of young painters, that their figures, though well drawn, have wanted relief, and that the early works of Vandyke, Titian, and other great masters, have had the same deficiency ; for the perfect management of light, shade, and colour, upon which relief depends, is ever of latest attainment, and some there are who never attain it. Yet others, unacquainted with the relations and powers of colours, and even wanting natural feeling therein, colour well by creating for themselves an artificial eye for colouring, and building on the taste and science of other masters, by constantly having a finely-coloured picture as a model while painting. This is nevertheless to be approved where science and nature are wanting, and has by persevering practice established both in the same person ; for habit is art and second nature. We may learn farther from these relations of colours, why dapplings of two or more colours produce effects in painting so much more clear and brilliant, than uniform tints produced by compounding the same colours; — why also, as justly remarked by Sir Joshua Reynolds, colours mixed dete- riorate each other, which they do more by imperfectly neutralizing or sub- duing each other chromatically, than by any chemical action or discordance, though the latter is sometimes also to be taken into the account ; — they impress too, on the good colourist, not only the necessity of using his co- lours pure, but that also of using pure colours ; nevertheless, pure colour- ing and brilliancy differ as much from crudeness and harshness, as tone and harmony do from murkiness and monotony, though both these have been confounded by the injudicious. * See farther, Exp. xxviii. Chap. xxvi. P 26 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. li III I The power of colours in contrasting each other agrees with their cor- relative powers of light and shade, and is to be distinguished from their power individually on the eye, which is one of light alone : thus, although orange and blue are equal powers as respects each other, — as respects the eye they are totally different and opposed ; for orange is a luminous co- lour, and acts powerfully in irritating, while blue is a shadowy colour, and acts much less powerfully, or contrarily, in soothing that organ, — it is the same in various degrees with other colours ; these powers resolve, therefore, ultimately into the same principles of light and shade in a sensible or latent state. There are yet other modes of contrast or antagonism in colouring, which claim the attention, and engage the skill of the colourist. That of which we have spoken is the contrast of hues, upon which depends the brilliancy, force, and harmony of colouring ; — there is also the contrast of shades, to which belong all the powers of the chiar'-oscuro, which, though it is a part, and the simplest part of colouring only, and ought not to be separated from it, ranks as a distinct and is an important branch of painting, yet is the regimen of opposition in colours coincident with that of light and shade, or black and white ; all that can be said of the latter may be said of the former, and he who excels in the one is in a considerable degree qualified to surpass in the other : indeed a just practice of light and shade might carry with it the reputation of good colouring, as it did in Rembrandt, while considerable knowledge of colouring, without the chiar'-oscuro, could not obtain the name of colourists for some eminent masters of the Italian schools. A third mode of contrast in colouring is that of warmth and cool- ness, upon which depends the toneing and general effect of a picture ; be- sides which there is the contrast of colour and neutrality, the chromatic and achromatic, or of hue and shade, by the right management of which local colours acquire value, gradation, keeping, and connexion ; whence comes breadth, aerial perspective, and the due distribution of grays and shadows in a picture. This principle of contrast applies even to individual colours, and conduces greatly to good colouring, when it is carried into the variety of hue and tint in the same colour, not only as respects their light and shade, but also in regard to warmth and coolness, and likewise to colour and neutrality. Hence the judicious landscape-painter knows how to avail himself of warmth and coolness in the juxtaposition of his greens, as well as of their lightness ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 27 and darkness, or their brilliancy or brokenness, in producing the most beau- tiful and varied effects, which spring in other cases from a like manage- ment of blue, white, and other colours. These powers of a colour upon itself are highly important to the painter, and conduce to that gratification from fine colouring, by which a good eye is so mysteriously affected. If we inspect the works of Nature closely, we shall find that they have no uniform tints, whether it be in the animal, vegetal, or mineral creation ; — be it flesh or foliage, the earth or the sky, a flower or a stone, — however uniform its colour may appear at a distance, it will when examined nearly, or even microscopically, be found constituted of a variety of hues and shades compounded with harmony and intelligence. Transparency and opacity constitute another contrast of colouring, the first of which belongs to shade and blackness, the latter to light and white- ness; — even contrast has its contrast, for gradations, or intermedia, are anta- gonists to contrasts or extremes ; and upon the right management of contrasts and gradation depends the harmony and melody, the breaks and cadences, the tone, effect, and expression of a picture ; so that painting is an affair of judicious contrasting so far as it regards colour, if even it be not such altogether. These contrasts may also be variously or totally conjoined ; thus, in con- trasting any colour, if we wish it to have light or brilliancy, we degrade, or cast its opposite into shade ; — if we would have it warm, we cool its anta- gonist ; — and if transparent, we oppose it by an opaque contrary, and vice versa, &c. : indeed, in practice, all these must be in some measure com- bined. Such are some of the powers of contrast in colouring alone, and such the diversity of art upon which skill in colouring depends. It must not be for- gotten, however, that contrasts or extremes, whether of light and shade, or of colours, become violent and offensive when they are not reconciled by the interposition bf their media, or a mean which partakes of both extremes of a contrast ; thus blue and orange in contrast become reconciled, softened in effect, and harmonized when a broken colour composed of the two is interposed ; the same of other colours, shades, and contrasts. Another important rule which belongs to the consideration of contrasts is, that that which holds of the one species, holds also of the others : hence the maxims of the chiar'-oscuro are applicable to contrasting colours ; each have 28 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 1 their focus, — should each mutually penetrate and diffuse, — be each re- peated subordinately, that is, as principal and secondary, and mutually ba- lance each other, &c. So much, indeed, is the management and mastery of colours dependent on the same principles as light and shade, that it might become a point of good discipline, for the perfect attainment thereof, after acquiring the use of black and white in the chiar'-oscuro, to paint designs in contrast ; that is, with two contrasting colours only, in conjunction with black and white ; for example, with blue and orange, previously to attempt- ing the whole together. Black may even be dispensed with in these cases, because it may be compounded, since the neutral grey and third colours always arise from the compounding of contrasting colours, so that even flesh may be painted in this way; for example, with red and green alone, as Gainsborough is said to have done at one period of his practice. It is thus that one part of an art becomes a mirror to the rest. By mixing his colours with xohite, the artist obtains what he has appro- priately called his tints; by mixing colours with colours, he obtains com- pound colour or hues ; finally, by mixing colours or tints with black, he gets what are properly, called shades ; yet these distinctions are very commonly confounded. The foregoing classification of colours is an arrangement which exhibits a correct genealogy of their hues and shades in a general view, and enables us to comprehend the simplicity of relation which subsists among an infi- nity of hues, shades, and tints of colour, while it is calculated to give pre- cision to language respecting colours, the nomenclature of which has ever been exceedingly arbitrary, mutable, and irrelative. The names of colours, consisting of terms imposed without general reference or analogy, ac- cording to views and fashions ever varying, are for the most part idio- matical and ambiguous in all languages ; yet, boundless as is the variety of hues and compounds, the cultivated eye will readily distinguish the degrees of relation in every possible instance, to the preceding denominations of classes. There are, however, some anomalous popular names of classes, which, being shades nearly allied to the tertiary colours, have been confounded therewith, and being also of great practical importance merit the consider- ation of the colourist. These denominations comprehend all the combina- tions of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colours, with the neutral, black, or ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 29 shade, and therefore may be appropriately called semi-neutral colours; and they comport themselves precisely according to the preceding relations and arrangement throughout. Of the various combinations of black, those in which yellow, orange, or citrine predominates, have obtained the terms brown, &c. A second class, in which the compounds of black are of a predominant red, purple, or russet hue, includes the denomination of marrone, chocolate, &c. ; and a third class, in which the combinations of black have a predominating hue of blue, green, or olive, comprehends the colours termed gkay, slate, &c. Brown, marrone, and gray may therefore be properly adopted as distinguishing appellations of the three classes of semi-neutral colours. * These colours are of importance in practice, as following, deepening, or shading colours of the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, under which they are to be classed, and not to be confounded therewith as legitimate com- pounds and relatives. Nevertheless, we know an ingenious and eminent artist, who, confounding shades with hues, and practice with theory, imagines he can always produce his third colours by the addition of black with unusual simplicity, harmony, and force ; and a late professor of painting, upon a like supposition, talked of harmonizing his discordant colours by black. The same principle has probably prevailed upon many palettes : it must indeed be that upon which engravings in black are to be coloured, but would require transcendent skill in the painter to escape murkiness ; and it may be presumed to have led many of the old masters into obscurity ; so that the horror Rubens expressed at white in shadows ought powerfully to prevail against black in colours. A greater horror than either is a partiality for a particular colour ; but, to put these horrors out of question, the painter ought to dread only the improper use of any colour. Black is, however, to be guarded against in another respect, that as colours or hues in pictures vanish or decay, blackness takes their place ; and for this some allowance of freshness and force should be made in painting. Nevertheless, the contrary of this is practised, when an artist, as he is too apt to do, looks at Nature with a prejudiced eye, and sees her objects not in their true colours, but of the hues he has seen in pictures, or of the colours he has been accustomed to paint them. Fearing to look upon her impracticably, or to raise himself up to Nature, he gets over the difficulty by deceiving himself, and pulling her down to his own level. * See Note D. 1 1 I III ■ill 30 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. Black is the absolute unity of the triad of colours, and hence has in a degree a uniting, monotonizing, or harmonizing power upon them, while it softens their discordances by obscuring them, which is the only rational defence of a practice wherein obscurity, monotony, or shade, is substituted for harmony : — the perfection of colouring is, however, to combine harmony with brilliancy, unity with variety, and freshness with force, without vio- lating the truth of nature. In cases, however, where the artist is constrained to represent his principal objects of given local of offensive colours, as in military dresses, &c, or is otherwise compelled by his subject to paint in a difficult key, this power of light and shade over colour stands him as an important aid. By an illegitimate practice in music, similar to the above, the discords of sound are tolerated by the ear when low in the scale, or thrown, unresolved by their proper consonances, growling into shade, the eye and ear being alike more sensible of high and brilliant relations of colours and sounds than of the low and deep. If any of the preceding denominations of colours or classes should be objected against, others more significant or analogous may be substituted, if there be such, for we contend not for terms, content in the present case if those we have adopted convey our meaning to the reader. With regard to the perspective of colours, or the manner in which they affect the eye, according to position and distance, it is a branch of aerial perspective, or the perspective of light and shade, and both are governed by similar laws. This perspective of light and colours is distinguished from linear perspective, or the perspective of drawing, as drawing is from colour- ing; and they have progressed alike in the art. The most antient painters seem to have known little of either ; and linear perspective was es- tablished as science before the aerial, as drawing and composition preceded colouring. The perspective of colours depends upon their powers to reflect the ele- ments of light, — powers which are by no means uniform ; accordingly, blue is lost in the distance before red, and yellow is seen at a distance at which red would disappear ; — yet blue preserves its hue better than red, and red better than yellow, because colours are cooled by distance. In this respect, the compound colours partake of the powers of their components, according to a general rule, by which colours nearly related to black are first lost in the distance, and those nearly related to white disappear last. It is the same with light and shade, the latter of which is totally lost at great distances ; ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 31 and hence it is that the shadowed side of the moon is not seen. These powers of colours are, however, varied by mist, air, altitude, and mixture, which produce evanescence, and by contrast, which preserves the force of colours by distinguishing them. Colours do not decline in force so much by height as by horizontal distance, because the upper atmosphere is less dense and less clouded with vapour ; and hence it is that mountains of great eleva- tion appear much nearer than they really are. From all these circumstan- ces it is evident, that it is not a simple scumbling or uniform degradation of local colours that will effect a true perspective therein ; for this will be the aerial of light and shade only ; but such a subordination of hues and tints as the various powers of colours require, and is always observable in nature. Few artists have succeeded satisfactorily in this species of effect, which is principally attainable by close application to nature ; and we have no finer examples thereof in art than the. landscapes of Wilson afford. If the expression of which we have treated in the preceding chapter may, according to no improper analogy, be called the poetry of colouring, the relations which are our present subject have equal claim to be considered as its music, for they are that upon which the harmony of painting depends, and all a^es have consented to class these arts as sisters, and of the same parentage. This affinity of the sister arts, and the unquestionable identity of their archetype, discloses numerous analogies, through which the lights of either art may be reciprocally reflected upon the obscurities of the others, as well in theory as in practice ; and it is evident that the hues and combina- tions of colours are as infinite as those of sounds ; and there is hence equal scope for the fine sense and genius of the colourist and musician. Beautiful, fine, distinct, and classed colours are as necessary to the former as sounds of similar qualities are to the latter. The palette is the instrument of the painter, as the viol is of the musician, and the tone and tuning of the latter is analogous to the colours and setting of the former ; each requires such adjustment according to the principles of its respective art. It is difficult indeed to say where this analogy ceases, if it be true, as philosophers have argued and poets sung, that — Nature, which is the vast creation's soul, That steady, curious agent of the whole, — The art of heav'n, the order of this frame, — Is only Music in another name. Catharine Phillips. :' I" !!i;liir 32 ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. Ill furnishing or setting the palette philosophically, harmonically, and upon principle, according to the preceding relations, it is necessary to supply it with pure blue, red, and yellow ; — to oppose to these an orange of a hue that will neutralize the blue— green of a hue that will neutralize the red — and ■purple of a hue that will neutralize the yellow ; and so on to black and white that also neutralize each other. As in nature the general colour of the sky is blue, and the colour of light is always opposite to. that of the sky and shade, the white which is to represent light should be tinged with the orange of the palette sufficiently to neutralize the predominant coldness of black ; and pure neutral white may thus be reserved as a local colour, by which term is understood, technically, the natural colour of an object unvaried by distance, reflection, or any other circumstance interfering with distinct vision. This principle of setting a palette requires that all the colours should be as much as possible in contrast and accordance ; and a palette thus tuned or set will afford facilities and. conduct to harmonious colouring in ways as various, under the eye of taste and judgment, as the melodies and harmo- nies which music can elicit, through the genius of the composer, from a fine- toned and well-tuned instrument. It is admitted, nevertheless, that an able hand, guided by fine sense and a judicious mind, may realize fine effects in either art with irregular and inferior means ; and granting also that such setting of a palette is theoretical, it is nevertheless not a false refinement, since it is founded in nature, and assimilates with the most approved general practice, and the constant aim of the most eminent colourists ; we offer it therefore only as consequent to the relations of which we have been treating. Such observances may notwithstanding, we repeat, be held unnecessary to the few in whom the perceptions of sense are so powerful, that, with little of the aid of intellect and less of science, they operate and produce with the grace and certainty of nature, as it were by instinct, compared with which the productions of science are mere mimickry. This is the inspiring princi- ple called genius, in which we recognise Divinity ; to be fraught with which in perfection, is to be above rule, — to mark an aera, and to give canons to art. But though indisposed with some to deny such principle altogether, we admit it to be, in perfection, of the rarest occurrence only, and hold that most excellences of human art have been the joint results of application and rule or science ; — or, in other words, of true theory and assiduous practice com- ON THE RELATIONS OF COLOURS. 33 bined. It has hence been objected that rules are but fetters to genius ; and it may be remarked that they enable men of little ability to produce con- siderable works mechanically ; and both these have some truth when rules are used without their reasons ;■ — but reason does not fetter genius ; on the contrary, genius itself is latent reason operating by natural rules uncon- sciously. *.jil 34 ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF COLOURS, &C. :. CHAP. IV. ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF COLOURS, &c " The mind of Leonardo was, however, too active and capacious to be contented solely with the practical part of his art ; nor could it submit to receive as principles, conclusions, though confirmed by experience, without first tracing them to their source, and investigating their causes, and the several circumstances on which they depended." Hawkins's Life of Da Vinci, p. 19. In treating of pigments, there is no speculation more natural than the in- quiry, What are the physical causes of colour in general! We shall not there- fore pass it over unnoticed, though it is a question of undoubted difficulty, which has never been satisfactorily answered ; being perhaps too abstract and elementary to admit of sensible demonstration, and therefore incapable of popular solution. Hence the theory of colours has varied with the changes of philosophy, and the fashions of the mind. According to common apprehension, colours are inherent or substan- tial qualities of bodies, or material things.* The more speculative have ascribed them to sense or vision only, regarding them as intellectual affec- tions through the organs of sight ; while a third class of inquirers has as- signed them variously a medial station between vision and coloured objects ; viz. in light. Each of these doctrines has been sanctioned by great authorities, and they have given birth to the various hypotheses upon which the theories of colours have been founded and compounded ; but, however various and ingenious these theories may have been, none has hitherto fulfilled the strict requisitions of reason or experiment. It is probable, and perhaps demonstrable, that colours in the abstract belong neither exclusively to the object, the subject, nor the medium, but * It may perhaps be ultimately found, in this as in other cases, that nature does not play the fool with our senses, but that the last accomplishments of science coincide with common appre- hension. ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF COLOURS, &C. 35 refer in equal relation to them all; while they are capable of being re- garded in either respect ; physically regarded, they are material objects, — metaphysically, they are intellectual impressions, — and, in an sesthetical sense, they are sensible representations of material objects to the mind. Our present question is however purely physical, or that of the natural philosopher, in which view colours are either inherent, as belonging to their passive objects, as in pigments, &c. or transient, as belonging to their concurrent medium, as in light, ocular spectra, &c. And in both they are here to be regarded as material and of the same nature ; but the colours of light being the most pure, simple, and elementary, have afforded the most usual and elegible basis for this inquiry. Yet sensible light is not a simple substance, but an effect of the concur- rence of two elementary powers ; one of which is the active principle of light ; the other, passive or re-active, and to be regarded as the principle of shade, or darkness, — the first, coincident if not identical Math the oxygen of the chemist; the other, with hydrogen ;* and, however exceptionable this may be to those who have been accustomed to regard darkness as a mere privation of light, yet as respects the artist, a principle of darkness, blackness, and shade, is as essential as is a principle of light. Accordingly the sunbeam, as it arrives to us is a compound of these elements of light and shade, and it may be analyzed by refraction, and in other ways, into oxydizing or whitening rays, and hydrogenizing or blackening rays ; and at the same time into others that are variously compounded of these, and variously coloured. Light hence appears, as before remarked, to be in the sunbeam the effect of the concurrence or conjugation of two aethereal, electrical, or ele- mentary substances or powers; the one, an agent, of which the sun appears to be the fountain or source ; the other, a re-agent, existing in planetary or atmospheric space, analogous to shade ; — if so, the sun's light is a species of * "We adopt these terms for the two principles of light, not for their fitness, but because they have already been used in a similar elementary sense by the chemists ; — otherwise either electrogen and thamogen, or phosphogen and sciogen, were more analogous terms ; and it might be well that natural philosophers should agree upon general appellations for the two opposed or concurrent principles of light, — of electricity, — of galvanism, — of magnetism, and of every chemical or physical elementary science, since there can now be little doubt of their original identity ; the experimental demonstration of which, and of our physical rationale of colours, is beside our present purpose, and pregnant with materials for volumes. \ ■ ij pi 36 ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF COLOURS, &C. oxidation or combustion, a sort of flame attended by sensible or latent heat. Light has nevertheless been considered, equally by the common and philosophic observers, as single or simple, and not as containing in itself any antagonist principles, but as having merely intension and remission. Newton was the first who taught to regard the sunbeam as a compound of rays of various powers and colours, but still he regarded it singly, and its heat as accidental. Subsequent investigation has shown that his analysis was chemically defective ;■ — he erred also in regarding light as a compound of heterogeneous rays, of colours and powers essentially different ; and in other respects, important to art on account of the great authority of his name * Scheele and others have demonstrated rays of an invisible kind, accom- panying the colours of the sunbeam in the prismatic spectrum, which have been denominated variously deoxidizing, chemical, and phlogistic, or hydro- genizing rays,'!" and prove the existence of a tenebrous or dark principle, by which light is modified. Herschel has also investigated the calorific rays, or heat of the sunbeam ; but these are to be regarded, with Newton, rather as accidental, or an effect, than as a constituent or principle of light ; thus we have real and demonstrable principles in place of hypothesis, upon which to explain the various phenomena of light and colours. We may therefore regard the transient colours of refracted light, and also light itself, as Oxides of Hydrogen, produced by a species of combustion, attended by heat or caloric, as observed in the sunbeam and prismatic spectrum. So also are the inherent colours of solids and liquids to be regarded upon the same analogy as oxides of hydrogen, or, what is the same, as of oxygen united with a phlogistic or inflammable principle. And thus the physical cause of all colours is to be explained upon the same elementary principle or reasoning. All substances too, whether solid, liquid, or elastic, are attractive, or repulsive of oxygen and hydrogen, — of one or both, — or they are neutral ; and all substances are coloured. Hence the affinities of light de- termine it either to be wholly or partially reflected, transmitted, or re- fracted, or to enter into chemical combination with material substances. * See Exp. I. II. and particularly Exp. xm. Chap. xxyi. | See Crell's " Journal," vol. in. p. 202. and Scheele's " Essays," p. 206. ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES OF COLOURS, &C. 37 From the foregoing constitution and properties of light, and a wide expe- rimental induction, we infer the following propositions : 1. Neutral substances, or such as are in a state of indifference, neither attractive nor repulsive of the principles of light, are transmissive, or trans- parent and achromatic, or colourless.* 2. Substances entirely repulsive or reflective of the oxygenous and hydro- genous principles of light, are white and opaque. 3. Substances entirely attractive, or absorbent of, or having entire affinity for both principles of light, are black and opaque. 4. Substances having -partial and equal affinities attractive or repulsive for both principles of light, according to the proportions in which they consti- tute light, are partially transparent or opaque ; i. e. semi-pellucid and colourless, or grey. 5. If substances have unequal affinities for these oxygenous and hydro- genous principles, they are coloured and transparent, or opaque, accord- ing to the above conditions. 6. If, in consequence of this unequal affinity, a substance reflect, refract, or transmit light with one proportion of the hydrogenous principle in defect, it will be yellow— if with a second proportion, less deficient, it will be red — and if with a third proportion, but in excess, it will be blue ; and of pro- portions intermediate, or compounded of these, will be constituted the secondary and intermediate colours, &c. The relative proportions in which the primary colours combine in light, &c. in an achromatic or colourless state, as determined by the Metrochrome and denoted by the Scale of Equivalents, is approximately three of yellow, jive of red, and eight of blue ; f and since the two first belong to one ex- treme of the prismatic spectrum wherein the hydrogenous principle is in defect, and together amount to eight, and the last belonging to the other extreme wherein the hydrogenous principle is in excess, is also eight, it appears that the two principles of light are equal and complementary powers. * Hitherto we have had no physical or rational explanation of transparency : every mecha- nical arrangement of parts is quite insufficient to account for this phenomenon. Transparency and opacity are entirely relative, there being no substance absolutely transparent or opaque. Glass and adamant reflect, and gold transmits, light and colours. -\ Exp. xxvii. Chap. xxvi. M 'I I I f however absolute properties of colours, but dependant upon the relations of light and shade, which are variously appropriate in all colours : hence it is that a white object, properly adapted, appears to detach, distribute, put in keeping, and give relief, decision, distinctness, and distance to every thing around it. White itself is advanced or brought forward, unless in- deed white surround a dark object, in which case they retire together. In mixture white communicates these properties to its tints, and harmonizes in conjunction or opposition with all colours, but lies nearest in series to yellow, and remotest from blue, of which, next to black, it is the most per- fect contrast. It is correlative with black, which is the opposite ex- treme of neutrality. We have said that black and white are the same colour ; and the truth of this appears practically in painting a white object upon a light ground, which is done with black pigment; and also in painting a black object upon a dark ground, which is done with white pig- ment : in the latter case, by supplying the lights of the object ; and in the former, by supplying the shadows : the same is evinced to the eye in the black and white of the definitive scale, PL i. fig. 3. Perfect white is opaque, and perfect black transparent; hence, when added to black in minute proportion white gives it solidity ; and from a like small proportion of black combined with white the latter acquires locality as a colour, and better preserves its hue in painting. Both white and black communi- cate these properties to other colours in proportion to their lightness or depth, while they cool each other in mixture, and equally contrast each other when opposed. These extremes of the chromatic scale are each in its way most easily defiled, as green, the mean of the scale, is the greatest defiler of colours. Rubens regarded white as the nourishment of light and the poison of shadow. White is expressive of modesty and sweetness, and contributes to these expressions in other colours, when mixed therewith, by subduing their force; it is hence the pleasing expression of paleness and pureness of colour arises ; — and in its general effect, as a colour on the eye and the mind, white is enlivening and elating, without gaiety, according to the neutrality of its relations; inspiring confidence or hope, as black or darkness does fear and distrust ; — it has ever been the vesture of priesthood, and, in its sensible and moral expression, it is the natural garb and emblem of purity, delicacy, innocency, timidity, gentleness, dignity, piety, peace, and all the modest virtues ; hence the white flag is the token of peace ; the white feather the meta- I ON THE NEUTRAL. WHITE. 63 phor of timidity ; and the white vestments of the vestal and priest the symbols of purity and peace: and it heightens these sentiments in pictorial representations, and lends its powers to language metaphorically ; hence the poet also employs it ideally and rhetorically for all this variety of expression in the construction of epithets and the clothing of figures and sym- bols ; and this he does likewise with all colours in the manner, reference, and relation, and with the same feeling as the painter. Spenser, who was a great poetical colourist, gives this moral colouring to his figures ; thus his Humbleness, as Humilta, -Was an aged sire all hoary gray. Fairie Queen, Cant. x. 5. His Reverence, Right cleanly clad in comely sad attire. C. x. 7. His Faith, as Fidelia, She was arrayed all in lily white. C. x. 13. His Hope, as Speranza, Was clad in blue that her beseemed well. C. x. 14. His Charity, as Charissa, Was all in yellow robes arrayed. C. x. 30. His Falsehood, Clad in scarlet-red Purfled with gold and pearl of rich assay. C. xi. 13. His Praise-desire, In a long purple pall, whose skirt with gold Was fretted all about, she was arrayed. C. ix. 37. His Idleness, The nurse of sin Arrayed in habit black and amice thin. C. iv. 18. And many others. Indeed there is hardly a virtue, vice, or quality, which 64 ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. Spenser has not figured and decorated with generally appropriate and expressive colours in his " Fairie Queen." But of white, in particular, as employed by the poets, the following may serve as examples of epithets, — White-robed truth. Milton. White-robed innocence. Pope. Celestial Piety ! Mild in thy milk-white vest, to soothe my friend, With holy fillets on thy brows descend. Addison, after Statius, Silv. Lib. in. The saintly veil of maiden white. Milton. Vestures of nuptial ivhite. Rogers. O welcome pure-eyed Faith, lohite-handed Hope, Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings, And thou imblemish'd form of Chastity ! Milton's Comus. In the latter example white is naturally and beautifully associated with yellow. White appears to be almost as principal in the colouring of the poet as of the painter, and volumes might be filled with instances of its use, but the following may suffice : — White as the sunshine stream thro' vernal clouds. Akenside. White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear. Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. Dryden. Milton. Cytherea, How bravely thou becom'st thy bed ! Fresh lily ! And whiter than the sheets. Shaksteare's Cymbeline, Act n. Sc. 2. While she, the picture of pure piety, Like a white hind under the gripe's hard claws. Ibid. »*x**.. ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. No whiter page than Addison's remains. 65 Pope. In the following, white is symbolical of pureness, innocence, chastity, candour, peace, friendship, and virtue in general. The snowy wings of Innocence and Love. Akenside. Let hoary Judgment, sober guest, Bring candour in her lilted vest. -Kind Peace appear, Mason. And in thy right hand hold the wheaten ear, From thy white lap th' o'erflowing fruits shall fall. She first, white Peace, the earth with plowshares broke, And bent the oxen to the crooked yoke. Addison after Tibullus. "You may find too the colour of the drapery that she [Friendship] wore in the old Roman paintings, from that verse in Horace, — Te Spes, et albo rara Fides colit Velata panno. Od. 35. Lib. i." On Antient Medals, Dial. i. p. 43. Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure As the unsullied lily, I protest. Shakspeare. To bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ibid. The following afford examples of white in accordance with red, of which relation we have already spoken, and shall have occasion to mention here- after. Upon those lips, the sweet fresh buds of youth, The holy dew of prayer lies like a pearl Dropp'd from the opening eye-lids of the morn Upon the bashful rose. MlDDLETON. IS III 1 66 ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. Whose blush does thaw the consecrated snow That lies on Dian's lap. Canons of Criticism. Ne less praiseworthy is her sister dear, Faire Mariane, the Muses' only darling; Whose beautie shineth as the morning clear With silver dew upon the roses pearling. Spenser's Col. Clo. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow ? Hamlet, Act in. Sc. 3. To thee, sweet smiling maid, I bring The beauteous progeny of spring; In every breathing bloom I find Some pleasing emblem of thy mind. The blushes of that op'ning rose Thy tender modesty disclose — . The snow-white lilies of the vale, Diffusing fragrance to the gale, No ostentatious tints assume, Vain of their exquisite perfume ; Careless, and sweet, and mild, we see In them a lovely type of thee. Richardson's Russian Anecdotes. Yet I '11 not shed her blood; Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. Othello, Act v. Sc. 2. A very different form did Virtue wear ; — Rude from her forehead fell th' unplaited hair ; With dauntless mien aloft she rear'd her head, And next to manly was the virgin's tread ; Her height, her sprightly blush, the goddess show, And robes unsullied as the falling snow. She said ■ With me the foremost place let Honour gain, Fame and the praises mingling in her train ; Gay Glory next, and Victory on high, White like myself on snowy ivings shall fly. Addison, after Silius Italicus. 67 ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. In the following, white is contrasted with black : — Whiter than new snow on a raven's back. Romeo and Juliet, Act in. Sc. 2. The Moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveil' d her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. Milton. The Greeks obey ; where yet the embers glow, Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw. Next the white bones his sad companions place, With tears collected, in a golden vase. Pope's Homer's II. B. xxiii. Rogers. While, her dark eyes declining by his side, Moves in her virgin veil the gentle bride. Dark- wounding Calumny The whitest virtue strikes. Shakspeare. Thou tremblest, and the whiteness on thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. E'en such a man, so faint, so spiritless, • So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night. Ibid. In the latter of these passages white gives contrast or character to every thought, and heightens the whole sentiment, while in that which precedes it, it is contrasted and rendered more vivid. To conclude : — White, when it shines with unstain'd lustre clear, May bear an object back or bring it near. Aided by black, it to the front aspires ; That aid withdrawn, it distantly retires ; But black unmix'd, of darkest midnight hue, Still calls each object nearer to the view. Mason's Dufresnoy. Of these poetical examples we have given more than might appear jus- I (ill J, IP 68 ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. tifiable, because we believe, independent of the pleasure they may afford, the perusal of them will help to imbue the mind with just references and right appliances of colours. "White, as a pigment, is of more extensive use than any other colour in oil painting and fresco, owing to its local property, its representing light, and its entering into composition with all colours in forming tints : hence every artist is sensible of the importance of good pigments of this denomi- nation ; and Titian is said to have grieved, in one of his epistles, the death of the chemist who prepared his white, with the pathetic lamentation of a lover. The old masters are supposed to have possessed whites superior to our own ; nevertheless we question this as a general fact, attributing the pureness of the local whites of some celebrated old pictures to faithful preparation, — a proper mode of using, — careful preservation of the work, and, in many instances, to the introduction of ultramarine, or a permanent cold colour into the white, helped also frequently by judicious contrast. Notwithstanding white pigments are an exceedingly numerous class, an unexceptionable white is still a desideratum. The white earths are desti- tute of body in oil and varnish, and metallic whites of the best body are not permanent in water ; yet when properly discriminated, we have eligible whites for most purposes, of which the following are the principal: — I. WHITE LEAD, or ceruse, and other white oxides of lead, under the various denominations of London and Nottingham whites, &c. Flake white, Crems or Cremnitz white, Roman and Venetian whites, Blanc d 'argent or Silver white, Sulphate of lead, &c. The heaviest and whitest of these are the best, and in point of colour and body are superior to all other whites. They are all, when pure and properly applied in oil and varnish, safe and durable, and dry well ; but excess of oil discolours them, and in water- painting they are changeable even to blackness. They have also a destructive effect upon all vegetal lakes, except the rubial or madder lakes, and madder carmines ; they are equally injurious to red and orange leads or minium, king's and patent yellow, massicot, gamboge, orpiments, &c. : but ultramarine, red and orange vermilions, yellow and orange chromes, madder colours, Sienna earth, Indian red, and all the ochres, compound with these whites with little or no injury. Cleanliness in using them is necessary for health ; for though not virulently poisonous, they are pernicious when taken into or ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. 69 imbibed by the pores or otherwise, as are all other pigments of which lead is the basis. A fine natural white oxide, or carbonate of lead, would be a valuable acquisition. The following are the true characters of these whites according to our particular experience : 1. LONDON and NOTTINGHAM WHITES. The best of these do not differ in any essential particular mutually, nor from the white leads of other manufactories. The latter, being prepared from flake white, is gene- rally the grayest of the two. The inferior white leads are adulterated with whitening or other earths, which injure them in body and brightness, dis- pose them to dry more slowly, to keep their place less firmly, and to discolour the oil with which they are applied. All the above are carbonates of lead, and liable to froth or bubble when used with aqueous, spirituous, or acid preparations. 2. CREMS or CREMNITZ WHITE is a white carbonate of lead, which derives its names from Crems or Krems in Austria, or Kremnitz in Hungaria, and is called also Vienna white, being brought from Vienna in cakes of a cubical form. Though highly reputed, it has no superiority over the best English white leads, and varies like them according to the degrees of care or success with which it has been prepared. 3. FLAKE WHITE is an English white lead in form of scales or plates, sometimes gray on the surface. It takes its name from its figure, is equal or sometimes superior to Crems white, and is an oxidised carbonate of lead, not essentially differing from the best of the above. When levigated, it is also called Body -white. 4. BLANC D'ARGENT, or Silver white. These are false appellations of a white lead, called also French white. It is brought from Paris in the form of drops, is exquisitely white, and has all the properties of the best white leads ; but, being liable to the same changes, is unfit for general use as a water-colour, though good in oil or varnish. 5. ROMAN WHITE is of the purest white colour, but differs from the former only in the warm flesh-colour of the external surface of the large square masses in which it is usually prepared. 6. SULPHATE OF LEAD is an exceedingly white precipitate from any solution of lead by sulphuric acid, much resembling the blanc d'argent ; and has, when well prepared, quite neutral, and thoroughly edulcorated or fl-i :tf- 70 ON" THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. washed, most of the properties of the best white leads, but is sometimes rather inferior in body and permanence. The above are the principal whites of lead ; but there are many other whites used in painting, of which the following are the most worthy of attention : II. ZINC WHITE is an oxide of zinc, which has been more celebrated as a pigment than used, being perfectly durable in water and oil, but want- ing the body and brightness of fine white leads in oil ; while in water, constant or barytic white, and pearl white, are superior to it in colour, and equal in durability. Nevertheless, zinc white is valuable, as far as its powers extend in painting, on account of its durability both in oil and water, and its innocence with regard to health. III. TIN WHITE resembles zinc white in many respects, but dries badly, and has even less body and colour in oil, though superior to it in water. It is the basis of the best white in enamel painting. There are various other metallic whites, — such are those of bismuth, anti- mony, quicksilver, and arsenic ; but none of them are of any value or repu- tation in painting, on account of their great disposition to change of colour, both by light and foul air, in water and in oil. IV. PEARL WHITE. There are two pigments of this denomination : one falsely so called, prepared from bismuth, which turns black in sul- phureted hydrogen gas or any impure air, and is used as a cosmetic ; the other, prepared from the waste of pearls and mother-of-pearl, which is ex- quisitely white, and of good body in water, but of little force in oil or varnish; it combines however with all other colours, without injuring the most delicate, and is itself perfectly permanent and innoxious ; — witness Cleopatra's potation of pearls. V. CONSTANT WHITE, permanent white, or Barytic white, is a sulphate of barytes, and when well prepared and free from acid, is one of our best whites for water-painting, being of superior body in water, but destitute of this quality in oil. As it is of a poisonous nature, it must be kept from the mouth ; — in other I^^^HI ON THE NEUTRAL, WHITE. 71 respects and properties it resembles the true pearl white. Both these pigments should be employed with as little gum as possible, as it de- stroys their body, opacity, or whiteness ; and solution of gum ammoniac answers best. VI. WHITE CHALK is a well-known native carbonate of lime, used by the artist only as a crayon, or for tracing his designs, for which purpose it is sawed into lengths suited to the port-crayon. White crayons and tracing- chalks, to be good, must work and cut free from grit. From this material whitening and lime are prepared, and are the bases of many common pigments and colours used in distemper, paper-staining, &c. There are many other terrene whites under equivocal names, from the famed Melinum, or white earth of Melos, mentioned by Pliny to have been used by the Greek painters, to common whitening prepared from chalk. Among them are Moral or Modan white, Spanish white, or Troys, or Troy white, Rouen white, Bougeval white, Paris white, Blanc de Roi, China white, Satin white, &c. The common oyster-shell contains also a soft white in its thick part, which is good in water ; and egg-shells have been prepared for the same purpose, as may likewise an endless variety of native earths, as well as those produced by art. From this unlimited variety of terrene whites we have selected above such only as are reputed, or as principally merit the attention of the artist ; — the rest may be variously useful to the paper-stainer, plaisterer, and painter in distemper ; but the whole of them are destitute of body in oil, and injurious to many colours in water, as they are to all colours which cannot be employed in fresco. See Tab. ix. Chap. xxir. ! : l ■ ' '; ; , ' ! : 1 ' ■ . 72 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW* CHAP. IX. OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. What is here ? Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, Gods, I am no idle votarist : ■ Thus much of this, will make black white, foul fair, Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. Ha! you Gods! why this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides ; Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads; This yellow slave. Shaksp., Timon of Athens. Yellow is the first of the primary or simple colours, nearest in relation to, and partaking most of the nature of, the neutral white ; it is accordingly a most advancing colour, of great power in reflecting light. Compounded with the primary red, it constitutes the secondary orange, and its relatives, scarlet, &c. and other warm colours. It is the archeus or prime colour of the tertiary citrine ; — it characterizes in like manner the endless variety of the semineutral colours called brown, and enters largely into the complex colours denominated buff, bay, tawny, tan, dan, dun, drab, chesnut, roan, sorrel, hazel, auburn, isabela, faun, feuillemorte, &c. Yellow is naturally associated with red in transient and prismatic colours, and they comport themselves with similar affinity and glowing accordance in painting, as well in conjunction as composition. It is the principal power also with red in representing the effects of warmth, heat, and fire, in painting and poetry : — Where Indian suns engender new diseases, — Where snakes and tigers breed, — I bend my way, To brave the fevrish thirst no art appeases, — The yellow plagues, and madd'ning blaze of day. From the Spanish of Gonzalvo. OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 73 In combination on the other hand with the primary blue, yellow consti- tutes all the variety of the secondary green, and, subordinately, the tertiaries russet and olive. It enters also in a very subdued degree into cool, semi- neutral, and broken colours, and assists in minor proportion with blue and red in the composition of black. As a pigment, yellow is a tender delicate colour, easily defiled, when pure, by other colours. In painting it diminishes the power of the eye by its action in a strong light, while itself becomes less distinct as a colour ; and, on the contrary, it assists vision and becomes more distinct as a colour in a neutral somewhat declining light. These powers of colours upon vision require the particular attention of the colourist. To remedy the ill effect arising from the eyes having dwelt upon a colour, they should be gradually passed to its opposite colour, and refreshed amid compound or neutral tints, or washed in the clear light of day. In a warm light, yellow becomes totally lost, but is less diminished than all other colours, except white, by distance. The stronger tones of any colour subdue its fainter hues in the same proportion as opposite colours and contrasts exalt them. The contrasting colours of yellow are a purple inclining to blue when the yellow inclines to orange, and a purple inclining to red when the yellow inclines to green, in the mean proportions of thirteen purple to three of yellow, measured in surface or intensity ; and yellow being nearest to neutral white in the natural scale of colours it accords with it in conjunction. Of all colours, except white, it contrasts black most powerfully. Yellow is discordant when standing alone, or unsupported by other colours, with orange. It is the vulgar symbol of jealousy, occasioned per- haps by the biliary complexion attending that passion ; to which symbol Butler alludes thus : — Jealous piques, Which th' antients wisely signified By th' yellow manto's of the bride. Hudibr. Part II. Canto I. And Chaucer thus: — And Jalousie, That wered of yelw colors a gerlond And had a cuckow sitting on hir hond. Knight's Tale, v. 1032. yet the sensible effects of yellow are gay, gaudy, glorious, full of lustre, K 74 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. enlivening, and irritating ; and its impressions on the mind partake of these characters, and acknowledge also its discordances: — Only they That come to hear a merry, gaudy play, A noise of targets ; or to see a fellow In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow, Will be deceived. Shaksp., Prol. Hen. VIII. The name yellow is used metaphorically for several malign passions ; but from want of euphony or other cause, it is less employed than those of other colours by the poets, with whom the terms saffron, golden, orient, &c. supply its place ; hence — Now when the rosy morn began to rise, And wave her saffron streamer. Dryden. Now when the rosy -fingered morning faire, Weried of aged Tithon's saffron bed, Had spred her purple robe through dewy aire. Fairie Queen, Cant. n. 7. The cynosure of jaundiced eyes. Shakspeare. Soon as the white and red mixt finger'd dame Had gilt the mountain with her saffron flame. Chapman's Odyssey. The substitution of gold, &c. for yellow by the poets may have arisen not less from the great value and splendour of the metal, than from the paucity of fine yellows among those antients who celebrated the Tyrian purple or red, and the no less famed Armenian blue; — so in the beautiful illuminated Mss. of old, and in many antient paintings, which glowed with vermilion and ultramarine, the place of yellow was supplied by gilding :* had there been blue and red metals equal in beauty to the yellow of gold, their bril- liancy would probably have driven other coloured pigments from the field of early art ; but the modesty of nature has wisely denied such meretricious beauty to the painter ; metallic tones being as harsh and unsavoury to chaste sense in painting as they are in music. * This is also remarkable in the unique collection of antient oil paintings belonging to Charles Aders, Esq. OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 75 In the next example, the poet gives force to his epithets and comparisons by a double contrast, equally true and beautiful : — So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose ; Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright Through the transparent bosom of the deep. Shakspeare. In the following passage he employs yellow judiciously and naturally in various of its relations, and invigorates them by purple in the midst, as in the preceding instance from Spenser's Fairie Queen : — Your straw-coloured beard, your orange-tawney beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French crown-coloured, your perfect yellow. In the following, Shakspeare characterizes yellow metaphorically for jealousy : — I will possess him with yellowness, For the revolt of mien is dangerous. In the next, as giving lustre and life :■ — Glittering in golden coats, like images, As full of spirits as the month of May, And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer. Here, as irritating : — He will come to her in yellow stockings, And 'tis a colour she abhors. Again, variously : — Two beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd. Idem. Idem. Idem. Princes, What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? Idem, Troil. and Cressid. A. i. Sc. 3. Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ; Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Idem, Hamlet, A. i. Sc. 3. 4! 76 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. Now he shades it : — Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow : If that be all the difference in his love, I '11 get me such a colour'd periwig. Shakspeare. Idem. I have lived long enough : my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf. And here he contrasts it with black : — Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs. Idem. Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house, O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, "With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless skulls. Romeo and Juliet, A. iv. Sc. 1. On his harnais, — With nailes yelwe and bright as any gold, He had a beres skin, cole-blake for old. His long haire was kempt behind his bak : As any ravene's fethere it shone for Make. Chaucer's Knight's Tale, v. 2142. By other poets the term yellow is almost universally substituted metony- mously, as we have already instanced ; yet Spenser sings : — Her yellowe locks, that shone so bright and long, As sunny beams in fairest summer's day ; She fiercely tore, and with outrageous wrong From her red cheeks the roses rent away. Col. Clo. Goldsmith, another of nature's pupils, has celebrated — The yellow-blossom' 'd vale ; and Byron, in imitating Catullus, speaks of — The yellow harvest's countless seed. Yellow is a colour abundant throughout nature, and its class of pigments abounds in similar proportion. We have arranged them under the follow- ing heads, agreeably to our plan, according to their definiteness and bril- liancy of colour ; first, the opaque, and then the transparent, or finishing ■■■■^ OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 77 colours. It may be observed of yellow pigments, that they much resemble whites in their chemical relations in general. I. 1. CHROME YELLOW is a pigment of modern introduction into general use, and of considerable variety, which are mostly chromates of lead, in which the latter metal more or less abounds. They are distinguished by the pureness, beauty, and brilliancy of their colours, which qualities are great temptations to their use in the hands of the painter ; they are notwith- standing far from unexceptionable pigments ;— yet they have a good body, and go cordially into tint with white both in water and oil ; but, used alone or in tint, they after some time lose their pure colour, and may even become black in impure air ; they nevertheless resist the sun's rays during a long time. Upon several colours they produce serious changes, ultimately de- stroying Prussian and Antwerp blues, when used therewith in the com- position of greens, &c. In general they do not accord with the modest hues of nature, nor harmonize well with the sober beauty of other colours ; hence the opinions of artists vary exceedingly respecting these pigments. Whether improvement in their modes of preparation and use will render them eligible pigments hereafter remains yet to be proved. We have prepared them upon almost every possible base ; and the late ingenious Dr. Bollmann, who introduced them into commerce, made trials at our suggestion for improving them, but none has been hitherto produced upon which the artist can safely trust his reputation as a colourist. This substance was known as a native pigment long before it was distinguished as a chemical substance. 2. JAUNE MINERALE. This pigment is also a chromate of lead, prepared in Paris, differing in no essential particular from the above, except in the paleness of its colour. The chrome yellows have also obtained other names from places or persons from whence they have been brought, or by whom they have been prepared ; we pass over, however, such as have not been generally received. The following pigment passes also under the name of Jaune Minerale : — II. PATENT YELLOW, Turner's Yellow, or Montpellier Yellow, is a sub- muriate or cloruret of lead, which metal is the basis of most opaque yellow pigments : it is a hard, ponderous, sparkling substance, of a crystalline 78 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. if / /W texture and bright yellow colour ; hardly inferior, when ground, to chromic yellow. It has an excellent body, and works well in oil and water, but is soon injured both by the sun's light and impure air; it is therefore little used, except for the common purposes of house-painting, &c. III. TURBITH MINERAL is a sub-sulphate of mercury, of a beautiful lemon yellow colour, but so liable to change by the action of light or impure air, that, notwithstanding it has been sometimes employed, it cannot be used safely, and hardly deserves attention as a pigment. IV. NAPLES YELLOW is a compound of the oxides of lead and anti- vc mony, antiently prepared at Naples under the name of Giallolini ; it is sup- posed also to have been a native production of Vesuvius and other volcanoes, and is a pigment of deservedly considerable reputation. It is not so vivid a colour as either of the above, but is variously of a pleasing light, warm, yellow tint. Like all the preceding yellows it is opaque, and in this sense is of good body. It is not changed by the light of the sun, and may be used safely in oil or varnish, under the same management as the whites of lead ; but, like these latter pigments also, it is liable to change even to blackness by damp and impure air when used as a water-colour, or unpro- tected by oil or varnish. Iron is also destructive of the colour of Naples yellow, on which account great care is requisite in grinding and using it not to touch it with the com- mon steel palette-knife, but to compound its tints on the palette with a spatula of ivory or horn. For the same reason it may be liable to change in composition with the ochres, Prussian and Antwerp blues, and all other pigments of which iron is an ingredient or principal ; but used purely or with white lead, its affinity with which gives permanency to their tints, it is a valuable and proved colour in oil, in which also it works and dries well. It may also be used in enamel painting, as it vitrifies without change, and in this state it was formerly employed under the name of Giallolini difornace, and has been again introduced, under an erroneous conception that vitrifica- tion gives permanence to colours, when in truth it only increases the diffi- culty of levigation, and injures their texture for working. Naples yellow does not appear to have been generally employed by the early painters in oil. OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 79 V. ANTIMONY YELLOW is also a preparation of antimony, of a deeper colour than Naples yellow, and similar in its properties. It is prin- cipally used in enamel and porcelain painting. VI. MASSICOT, or Masticot, is an oxide of lead of a pale yellow colour, exceedingly varying in tint from the purest and most tender yellow or straw colour to pale ash colour or gray. It has in painting all the properties of the white lead from which it is prepared, but in tint with which neverthe- less it soon loses its colour and returns to white : — if, however, it be used pure or unmixed, it is a useful delicate colour, permanent in oil under the same conditions as white lead, but ought not to be employed in water, on account of its changing in colour even to blackness by the action of damp and impure air. It appears to have been prepared with great care, and successfully employed by the old masters. VII. YELLOW OCHRE, called also Mineral Yellow, is a native pig- ment, found in most countries, and abundantly in our own. It varies considerably in constitution and colour, in which latter particular it is found from a bright but not very vivid yellow to a brown yellow, called spruce ochre, and is always of a warm cast. Its natural variety is much increased by artificial dressing and compounding. The best yellow ochres are not powerful, but as far as they go are valuable pigments, particularly in fresco and distemper, being neither subject to change by ordinary light, nor much affected by impure air or the action of lime ; by time, however, and the direct rays of the sun they are somewhat darkened. Iron is the principal colouring matter in them all, of which the following are the principal species ; but they are often confounded : — 1. OXFORD OCHRE is a native pigment from the neighbourhood of Oxford, semi-opaque, of a warm yellow colour and soft argillaceous texture, absorbent of water and oil, in both which it may be used with safety according to the general character of yellow ochres, of which it is one of the best. Similar ochres are found in the Isle of Wight, in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, and various other places. 2. STONE OCHRE has been confounded with the above, which it fre- quently resembles, as it does also Roman ochre. True stone ochres are found in balls or globular masses of various sizes in the solid body of stones, lying near the surface of rocks among the quarries in Gloucestershire and 80 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. elsewhere. These balls are of a smooth compact texture, in general free from grit, and of a powdery fracture. They vary exceedingly in colour from yellow to brown, murrey and gray, but do not differ in other respects from the preceding, and may be safely used in oil or water in the several modes of painting, and for browns and dull reds in enamel. 3. DI PALITO is a light yellow ochre, not differing much from the foregoing, but affording tints rather purer in colour than the . brightest of them, but less so than Naples yellow. Many pleasing varieties of ochrous colours are produced by burning and compounding with lighter, brighter, and darker colours, but often very injudiciously, and adversely to that simple economy of the palette which is favourable to the certainty of operation, effect, and durability. 4. ROMAN OCHRE is rather deeper and more powerful in colour than the above, but in other respects differs not essentially from them ; — a remark which applies equally to yellow ochres of other denominations. 5. BROWN OCHRE, Spruce Ochre, or Ochre de Rue, is a dark-coloured yellow ochre, in no other respect differing from the preceding : — it is much employed, and affords useful and permanent tints. VIII. TERRA DI SIENNA, or Raw-Sienna earth, &c. is also a ferrugi- nous native pigment, and appears to be an iron ore, which may be considered as a crude natural yellow lake, firm in substance, of a glossy fracture, and very absorbent. It is in many respects a valuable pigment, — of rather an impure yellow colour, but has more body and transparency than the ochres ; and being little liable to change by the action of either light, time, or impure air, it may be safely used according to its powers, either in oil or water, and in all the modes of practice. IX. 1 . YELLOW ORPIMENT is a sulphurated oxide of arsenic, of a beau- tiful, bright, and pure yellow colour, not extremely durable in water, and less so in oil : — in tint with white lead it is soon destroyed ; — it is not subject to discolourment in impure air : — this property is not, however, sufficient to redeem it with the artist, as it has a bad effect upon several valuable colours ; and, although it is not so poisonous as white arsenic, is dangerous in its effect upon health. Yellow orpiment is of several tints, from bright cool yellow to warm orange, the first of which are most subject to change ; and it has appeared under various forms and denominations : — these seem to have been X. 1. PLATINA YELLOW is, as its name implies, a preparation from platina, which has afforded the author two fine yellow pigments, the deepest of which resembles the Terra di Sienna (viii.), but is warmer in tone and richer in colour and transparency, much resembling fine gall-stone. It works well, and is extremely permanent both in water and oil, in which it neither suffers change by the action of the sun, nor of sulphuretted hydrogen and impure air, and is therefore a valuable pigment, and may be produced of many tints. The other is a — 2. LEMON YELLOW, of a beautiful light vivid colour. In body and opacity it is nearly equal to Naples yellow and masticot, but much more pure and lucid in colour and tint, and at the same time not liable to change by damp, sulphureous or impure air, nor by the action of light, nor by the steel palette-knife, nor by mixture with white lead or other pigments, either in water or oil, in each of which vehicles it works well. Both these pigments are, therefore, valuable additions to the palette. Lemon yellow is principally adapted to high lights in painting. In water it exceeds gamboge in bright- ness, and in mixture therewith improves its beauty. This mixture also goes readily into oil : indeed it is the best and easiest way of rendering gamboge diffusible as an oil-colour, — simple solution of the gamboge in little water, and trituration of the lemon-yellow therewith, being all that is requi- site for this purpose. The light yellow of the definitive scale, PI. i. fig. 3. is of this pigment, which, being unaffected by lime, is eligible also in fresco and crayons. L OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 81 used by several of the old masters, with especial care to avoid mixture ; and as they dry badly, and the oxides of lead used in rendering oils drying de- stroy their colour, levigated glass was employed with them as a dryer, or perhaps they were sometimes used in simple varnish. We know that Mengs and Sir Joshua Reynolds employed them in their practice, as did also Snyders, John Van Huysum, De Heem, and other painters of still life, sometimes successfully, and sometimes otherwise ; but we are far from recommending them as eligible pigments. 2. KING'S YELLOW. Yellow orpiment has been much celebrated under this name, as it has also under the denomination of — 3. CHINESE YELLOW, which is a very bright sulphuret of arsenic brought from China. 82 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. -OF YELLOW. XL MADDER YELLOW is a preparation from the madder-root. The best is of a bright colour, resembling Indian yellow, but more powerful and transparent, though hardly equal to it in durability of hue, — metallic, terrene, and alkaline substances acting on and reddening it as they do gamboge : even alone it has by time a natural tendency to become orange and foxy. "We have produced it of various hues and tints, from an opaque and ochrous yellow, to a colour the most brilliant, transparent, and deep. Upon the whole, however, after an experience of many years, we do not consider them eligible pigments. i XII. 1. GAMBOGE ; or, as it is variously written, Gumboge, Camboge, Gambouge, Cambogia, Cambadium, Cambogium, Gambadium, Gambogium, &c. is brought principally, it is said, from Cambaja in India, and is, we are told, the produce of several trees. The natives of the coast of Coromandel call the tree from which it is principally obtained Gokathu, which grows also in Ceylon and Siam. From the wounded leaves and young shoots the gamboge is collected in a liquid state, and dried : indeed our indigenous herb celandine yields, in the same manner, a beautiful yellow juice of the same properties as gamboge. Gamboge is a concrete vegetal substance, of a gum-resinous nature, and beautiful yellow colour, bright and transpa- rent, but not of great depth. When properly used, it is more durable than generally reputed both in water and oil : it is deepened in some degree by ammoniacal and impure air, and somewhat weakened, but not easily disco- loured, by the action of light. Time effects less change in this colour than on other bright vegetal yellows ; but white lead and other metallines injure, and terrene and alkaline substances redden it. It works remark- ably well in water, with which it forms an opaque solution, without grinding or preparation, by means of its natural gum ; but is with difficulty used in oil, &c. in a dry state. In its natural state it however dries well, and lasts in glazing when deprived of its gum. It is perfectly innocent with regard to other colours, and, though it is a strong medicine, is not dangerous or deleterious in use. Sir Joshua Reynolds and Wilson are said to have employed it, and so also we know did the amiable President, West : the first of these used it softened into a paste with water, and the latter in a dry state precipitated upon whitening. It has also been employed as a yellow lake prepared upon an aluminous base ; but a much better way than OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. 83 either is to dissolve it into a paste in water, and mix it with lemon-yellow, with which pigment being diffused it goes readily into oil or varnish. 2. EXTRACT OF GAMBOGE is the colouring matter of gamboge separated from its greenish gum and impurities by solution in alcohol and precipitation, by which means it acquires a powdery texture, rendering it miscible in oil, &c. and capable of use in glazing. It is at the same time improved in colour, and retains its original property of working well in water with gum. XIII. GALL-STONE is an animal calculus formed in the gall bladder, principally of oxen. This concretion varies a little in colour, but is in general of a beautiful golden yellow, more powerful than gamboge, and is highly reputed as a water-colour : nevertheless, its colour is soon changed and destroyed by strong light, though not subject to alteration by impure air. It is rarely introduced in oil painting, and is by no means eligible therein ; and, as a water-colour, is every way inferior to platina yellow. XIV. INDIAN YELLOW, brought from India, as its name implies, is a pigment long employed in India under the name Pivree, but has not many years been introduced generally into painting in Europe. It is imported in the form of balls, is of a fetid odour, and is produced from the urine of the camel. It has also been ascribed, in like manner, to the buffalo, or Indian cow, after feeding on mangos ; but the latter statement is incorrect. However produced, it appears to be a urio-phosphate of lime, of a beau- tiful pure yellow colour, and light powdery texture ; of greater body and depth than gamboge, but inferior in these respects to gall-stone. Indian yellow resists the sun's rays with singular power in water-painting ; yet in ordinary light and air, or even in a book or portfolio, the beauty of its colour is not lasting. It is not injured by foul air, but in oil it is exceed- ingly fugitive, both alone and in tint. Owing probably to its alkaline nature, it has injurious effect upon cochineal lakes and carmine when used with them. As lime does not injure this colour, it may be employed in fresco. XV. 1. YELLOW LAKE. There are several pigments of this denomina- tion, varying in colour and appearance according to the colouring substances used and modes of preparation. They are usually in the form of drops, and AfCy ,A^/v /lilt-* <.<-«- A*"-? 84 OF THE PRIMARY COLOURS. OF YELLOW. their colours are in general bright yellow, very transparent, and not liable to change in an impure atmosphere ; qualities which would render them very valuable pigments, were they not soon discoloured, and even destroyed, by the opposite influence of oxygen and light, both in water and oil ; in which latter vehicle, like other lakes in general, they are bad dryers, and do not stand the action of white lead or metallic colours. If used, therefore, it should be as simple as possible. Of these lakes, the following are the best : — 2. QUERCITRON LAKE, or Quercitron Yellow, is what its names imply. It is dark in substance, in grains of a glossy fracture, perfectly transparent, and when ground is of a beautiful yellow colour, more durable than the common yellow lakes, although not perfectly permanent. In painting it follows and adds richness and depth to gamboge in water, and goes well into varnish ; but the lead used in rendering oils desicca- tive, browns it, and for the same reason it is useless in tints. XVI. DUTCH PINK, ENGLISH and ITALIAN PINKS, are suffi- ciently absurd names of yellow colours prepared by dyeing, whitening, &c. with vegetal yellow tinctures, in the manner of rose pink, from which they borrow their name. They are bright yellow colours, extensively used in distemper and for paper-staining, and other ordinary purposes ; but are little deserving atten- tion in the higher walks of art, being in every respect inferior even to the yellow lakes, except the best kind of Italian pink, which is, in fact, a yellow lake, and richer in colour than the pigments generally called yellow lake. The pigment called Stil, or Stil de grain, is a similar preparation, and a very fugitive yellow, the darker kind of which is called brown-pink. OF RED. 85 CHAP. X. OF RED. Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue. Milton's Paradise Lost. RED is the second and intermediate of the primary colours standing be- tween yellow and blue ; and in like intermediate relation also to white and black, or light and shade. Hence it is pre-eminent among colours, as well as the most positive of all, forming with yellow the secondary orange and its near relatives, scarlet, &c. ; and with blue, the secondary purple, and its allies, crimson, &c. It gives some degree of warmth to all colours, but most so to those which partake of yellow. It is the archeus, or principal colour, in the tertiary russet; enters subordinately into the two other tertiaries, citrine and olive; goes largely into the composition of the various hues and shades of the semineutral marrone, or chocolate, and its relatives, puce, murrey, morello, mordore, pompadour, &c. ; and more or less into browns, grays, and all broken colours. It is also the second power in harmonizing other colours, and in compounding black and all neutrals, into which it enters in the proportion of five, to blue eight, and yellow three. Red is a colour of double power in this respect also ; that, in union or connexion with yellow, it becomes hot and advancing; but mixed or combined with blue, it becomes cool and retiring. It is, however, more congenial with yellow than with blue, and thence partakes more of the character of the former in its effects of warmth, of the influence of light and distance, and of action on the eye, by which the power of vision is diminished upon viewing this colour in a strong light ; while, on the other hand, red itself appears to deepen in colour rapidly in a declining light as night comes on, or in shade. These qualities of red give it ■■ ■■■■ :,'■* 86 OF RED. great importance, render it difficult of management, and require it to be kept in general subordinate in painting : hence it is rarely used unbroken, or as the archeus, ruling or predominating colour, or for toneing a picture; on which account it will always appear detached or insulated, unless it be repeated and subordinated in a composition. Accordingly Nature uses red sparingly, and with as great reserve in the decoration of her works as she is profuse in lavishing green upon them ; which is of all colours the most soothing to the eye, and the true com- pensating colour, or contrasting or harmonizing equivalent of red, in the proportional quantity of eleven to five of red, according to surface or in- tensity; and is, when the red inclines to scarlet or orange, a blue-green ; and, when it inclines to crimson or purple, is a yellow-green. Red breaks and diffuses with white with peculiar loveliness and beauty ; but it is discordant when standing with orange only, and requires to be joined or accompanied by their proper contrast, to resolve or harmonize their dissonance. In landscapes, &c. abounding with hues allied to green, a red object, properly posited according to such hues in light, shade, or distance, con- duces wonderfully to the life, beauty, harmony, and connexion of the colouring. Red being the most positive of colours, and having the middle station of the primaries, while black and white are the negative powers or neutrals of colours, and the extremes of the scale, — red contrasts and harmonizes these neutrals ; and, as it is more nearly allied to white or light than to black or shade, this harmony is most remarkable in the union or opposition of white and red, and this contrast most powerful in black and red. As a colour, red is in itself pre-eminently beautiful, powerful, cheering, splendid, and ostentatious, and communicates these qualities to its two secondaries, and their sentiments to the mind. Hence the blind man men- tioned by Locke, who compared scarlet to the sound of a trumpet, had not a very bad conception of its analogy ; nor very different from that of Euri- pides, where he says — But when the flaming torch was hurl'd, the sign Of purple fight, as when the trumpet sounds, &c. and the intelligent youth couched by Cheselden thought scarlet the most beautiful of all colours. This beauty of red is a great temptation to that OF RED. 87 undue use of it which subjected the Greek painter Parrhasius to the cen- sure of Euphranor, " that the Theseus of the former had eaten roses, but that his own had fed upon beef." The bold Erechtheus' son, Whom Pallas bred, and cherish'd as her own. Plutarch, on the Fame of the Athenians. The same beautiful fault has been attributed in modern times to the colouring of Rubens, whose very name may be supposed in a future age to have been given him on this account. To see things or events en couleur de rose, is, with our vivacious neighbours, to look upon them with a cheerful, partial, and favourable eye. Nature, every where replete with benevolent intelligence and good taste, has given this colour to the blood, with the property of becoming more vivid when spilt ; and has proportioned its action on the eye to the danger of the case, as when an artery is wounded. If it excite salutary terror by asso- ciation, its immediate effect on the sense is to moderate alarm by its beauty. Had it been black instead of red, it would have been less promptly discovered, and more frightful in its appearance. But this is out of place, except as an instance that nature sanctions it as a true principle of art that we should disguise or veil whatever is horrible, abominable, or loathsome. Red is expressive of ardour and the sanguine passions : it is hence peculiarly a military colour, as appropriate to war as white is to peace : hence the red plumes worn by military heroes in antient times. It dyes the flag of defiance, and is the emblem of blood ; naturally stimulating and indicating fierceness and courage, as in the comb of the cock, the throttles of the turkey, and in exciting the bull to rage. As powerful, it has become the symbol of power and distinction, and hence has decorated equally the regal robe and the mantle of martyrdom, producing awe, veneration, and fear ; while in its gentler offices it moves and assists the affections of Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling train ; — and is, upon the whole, the most effective of colours. The poets have accordingly availed themselves freely of this colour and its progeny, for the purpose of expression, in decorating figures and constructing epithets, often using the term purple metonymically for red ; — sometimes, it is true, for the mere words as sounds, but frequently also with the refined taste, true — — — mgmmmmmmmmmm^ 88 OF RED. judgment, and cultivated feeling of the painter ; of which, and as illustra- tions of the relations, attributes, and uses of this colour, the following examples may suffice, in reference to 1. Beauty, &c. Beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And Death's pale flag is not advanced there. Shakspeare. To blush and beautify the cheek again. Idem. 2. Joy, &c. See, your guests approach : Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, And let 's be red with mirth. Idem. They call drinking deep, dying scarlet. Idem. Blooming youth and gay delight Sit on thy rosy cheeks confess'd. Prior. 3. Love, &c. Would you know where young Love in his beauty reposes, And find him uninjured by sorrow or care, Go — seek for the boy in the Valley of Roses, And find the pure spirit of constancy there. Mary Ann Brown. Coarse complexions, And cheeks of ev'ry grain, will serve to ply The sampler, and to tease the housewife's wool : What need a vermil-tinctured lip for that — Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn ? Milton. 4. Hope, &c. For me the balm shall bleed, the amber flow, The coral redden, and the ruby glow. Pope. The ros»/-finger'd morning fair. Spenser. 5. Dignity, &c. OF RED. The scarlet honour of your peaceful gown. Dryden. Thy ambition, Thou scarlet sin, robb'd this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. Shakspeare. 89 6. Ardour, &c. He spoke : the goddess with the charming eyes Gloivs with celestial red, and thus replies — . Pope's Homer. While Mars, descending from his crimson car, Fans with fierce hands the kindling flames of war. Haller. 7. Anger, &c. If I prove honey-mouth'd, let my tongue blister, And never to my red-look'd anger be The trumpet any more. Shakspeare. How bloodily the sun begins to peer Above yon busky hill ! The day looks pale At his distemperature. Idem. Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace To scarlet indignation, and bedew Her pastures' 1 grass with faithful English blood. Idem. Spreads the red rod of angry pestilence. Milton. 8. Accordance with white, &c. She gathereth flowers partie white and rede, To make a sotel garland for hir head. Chaucer's Knight's Tale. Hath white and red in it such wondrous power, That it can pierce through eyes into the heart, And therein stir such rage and restless tower As only death can stint the dolorous smart ? Spenser's Hymn to Beauty. m '! 90 OF RED. From the Persian of Hafiz. Sweet maid, if thou would'st charm my sight, And bid these arms thy neck infold ; That rosy cheek, that lily hand, Would give thy poet more delight Than all Bocara's vaunted gold, Than all the gems of Samarcand. Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow, And bid thy pensive heart be glad, Whate'er the frowning zealots say ; Tell them their Eden cannot show A stream so clear as Roenabad, A bower so sweet as Mosellay. Sir W. Jones. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on. Shakspeare. Such war of white and red within her cheek. Idem. Through whose white skin With damaske eyes the ruby blood doth peep. Marlowe. How now, my love ? Why is your cheek so pale ? How chance the roses there do fade so fast ? Shakspeare. The seasons alter : hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose. Idem. A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on 't Might well have warm'd old Saturn ; that I thought her As chaste as unsunn'd snow. Idem, Cymbeline, Act n. Scene 5. So women, to surprise us, spread Their borrow'd flags of white and red. Butler, Hudibras, Part n. Canto in. OF RED. 91 Unto the ground she cast her modest eye, And ever and anon with rosie red The bashful blood her snowy cheeks did dye, That her became, as polish'd ivory Which cunning craftsman's hand hath overlaid With fair vermilion, or pure lastery. Fairie Queen, Canto ix. 41. There grew a goodly tree him fair beside, Loaden with fruit and apples rosie red, As they in pure vermilion had been dyed. Idem, Canto xi. 46. O thus . . . lay the gentle babes. Thus . . . girdling one another Within their alabaster innocent arms. Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, Which, in their summer beauty, kiss'd each other. Richard the Third, Act iv. Scene 3. 9. Harmony with light, &c. Morn, Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand Unbarr'd the gates of light. Milton. And bid the cheek be ready with a blush Modest as Morning, when she coldly eyes The youthful Phoebus. Troilus and Cressida, Act i. Scene 3. Say, that she frowns ; I '11 say, she looks as clear As morning roses newly wash'd with dew. Shakspeare. Of Nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast, And with the half- blown rose. Idem. Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubim. Idem, Othello, Act iv. Scene 2. Here the roses blush so rare, Here the morning smiles so fair. Crashaw. •I'll 1 ' 92 OF RED. 10. Contrast with harmony, &c. — See where she sits upon the grassie green (O seemly sight !) Yclad in scarlet like a maiden queen, And ermines white. Upon her head a crimosin coronet With damask roses and daffodils set, Bay leaves between And primroses green, Embellish the sweet violet. Tell me have ye seen her angel-like face, Like Phoebe fair ? Her heavenly 'haviour, her princely grace, Can you well compare ? The red-rose melted with the white y fere, In either cheek depeincten lively cheere : Her modest eye, Her majesty, Where have you seen the like but there ? Spenser's Shep. Cal. Ap. His hand did quake And tremble like an aspin green; And troubled blood through his pale face was seen To come and go ; with tydings from the heart, As it a running messenger had been. Fairie Queen, C. ix. 51. On her left breast, A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops I ' the bottom of a cowslip. Shakspeare, Cymbeline, Act n. Sc. 2. A nd I serve the Fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green : The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; In their gold coats spots you see : Those be rubies, fairy favours ; In those freckles live their savours : — I must go seek some dew-drops here, And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. Mid. Night's Dream, Act n. Sc. 1. 11. Contrast with black, &c— The air hath starved the roses in her cheeks, And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face, That now she is become as black as I. Shakspeare. OF RED. 93 Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice, And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate. Shakspeare. And he to deck her raven hair Would weave the rose and lily fair. Mary A. Brown. Red is so much the instrument of beauty in nature and art in the colour of flesh, flowers, &c. that good pigments of this genus may of all colours be considered the most indispensable : we have happily, therefore, many of this denomination, of which the following are the principal : — I. VERMILION is a sulphuret of mercury, which, previous to its being levigated, is called cinnabar. It is an antient pigment, the mwafiupi of the Greeks, and is both found in a native state and produced artificially. Ver- milion probably obtained its name from resemblance, or admixture with the beautiful though fugitive colours obtained from the vermes, or insects, which yield carmines. [See Kermes Lake.] The Chinese possess a native cinna- bar so pure as to require grinding only to become very perfect vermilion, not at all differing from that imported in large quantities from China : it is said also to be found in abundance in Corinthia, in the Palatinate, Friuli, Bohemia, Almaden in Spain, the principality of Deux-Ponts, and also in South America, particularly in Peru, &c. Chinese vermilion is of a cooler or more crimson tone than that generally manufactured from factitious cinnabar in England, Holland, and different parts of Europe. The artificial, which was antiently called minium, a term now confined to red lead, does not differ from the natural in any quality essential to its value as a pigment ; it varies in tint from dark red to scarlet ; and both sorts are perfectly durable and unexceptionable pigments, — the most so perhaps of any we possess, when pure. It is true, nevertheless, that ver- milions have obtained the double disrepute of fading in a strong light and of becoming black or dark by time and impure air : but colours, like cha- racters, suffer contamination and disrepute from bad association; it has happened accordingly that vermilion which has been rendered lakey or crimson bv mixture with lake or carmine, has faded in the light, and that when it has been toned to the scarlet hue by red or orange lead it has afterwards become blackened in impure air, &c. both of which adulterations were formerly practised, and hence the ill fame of vermilion both with authors and artists. We therefore repeat, that neither light, time, nor foul If! I 94 OF RED. :fl I!! I air, effect sensible change in true vermilions, and that they may be used safely in either water, oil, or fresco, — being colours of great chemical per- manence, unaffected by other pigments, and . among the least soluble of chemical substances. Good vermilion is a powerful vivid colour of great body, weight, and opacity ; — when pure it will be entirely decomposed and dissipated by fire in a red heat, and is therefore, in respect to the above mixtures, easily tested. The following brilliant pigment from Iodine has been improperly called vermilion, and, if it should be used to dress or give unnatural vividness to true vermilion, may again bring it into disrepute. When red or orange lead has been substituted for or used in adulterating vermilion, muriatic acid applied to such pigments will turn them more or less white or gray ; but pure vermilions will not be affected by the acid, nor will they by pure or caustic alkalis, which change the colour of the reds of Iodine. By burning more or less, vermilion may be brought to the colour of most of the red ochres. II. IODINE SCARLET is a new pigment of a most vivid and beautiful scarlet colour, exceeding the brilliancy of vermilion. It has received several false appellations, but is truly an Iodide or Bi-iodide of mercury, varying in degrees of intense redness. It has the body and opacity of vermilion, but should be used with an ivory palette-knife, as iron and most metals change it to colours varying from yellow to black. Strong light rather deepens and cools it, and impure air soon utterly destroys its scarlet colour, and even metallizes it in substance. The charms of beauty and novelty have recom- mended it, particularly to amateurs ; and its dazzling brilliancy might render it valuable for high and fiery effects of colour, if any mode of securing it from change should be devised; but it is out of the general scale of nature, — at any rate it should be used pure or alone, but in the recency of expe- rience it ought not to be trusted by the artist. A similar pigment of a more crimson hue has lately appeared, having all the imperfections of the above, but in an inferior degree, and have both been improperly called vermilion, being among the most changeable of chemical substances. By time alone these colours vanish in a thin wash or glaze without apparent cause, and they attack almost every metallic substance, and some of them even in a dry state. OF RED. III. CHROMATE OF MERCURY. See Orange. 95 IV. RED LEAD, Minium, or Saturnine Red, by some old writers con- founded with cinnabar, and called Sinoper or Synoper, is an oxide of lead of a scarlet colour and fine hue, warmer than common vermilion ; bright, but not so vivid as the iodide of mercury, though it has the body and opacity of both these pigments, and has been confounded, even in name, with vermilion, with which it was formerly customary to mix it. When pure and alone, light does not affect its colour ; but white lead, or any oxide or preparation of that metal mixed with it, soon deprives it of colour, as acids do also ; and impure air will blacken and ultimately metallize it. On account of its extreme fugitiveness when mixed with white lead, it cannot be used in tints ; but employed, unmixed with other pigments, in simple varnish or oil not rendered drying by any metallic oxide, it may, under favourable circumstances, stand a long time ; hence red lead has had a variable character for durability. It is in itself, however, an excellent dryer in oil, and has in this view been employed with other pigments ; but, as regards colour, it cannot be mixed safely with any other pigments than the ochres, earths, and blacks in general : when employed in water the reds of lead, iodine, and mercury are warmed and brightened in colour by the addition of gum ; this it does mechanically by allowing the darker particles to subside. V. RED OCHRE is a name proper rather to a class, than to an individual pigment, and comprehends Indian red, light red, Venetian red, scarlet ochre, Indian ochre, redding, ruddle, bole, &c. beside other absurd appellations, such as English vermilion and Spanish brown, or majolica. Almagra, the Sil Atticum of the antients, is a deep red ochre found in Andalusia, as is also their terra Sinopica, &c. or Armenian bole, dug originally in Cappadocia, and now found in New Jersey and elsewhere under the name of blood-stone. The red ochres are, for the most part, rather hues and tints than definite colours, or more properly classed with the tertiary, semi-neutral, and broken colours ; they are, nevertheless, often very valuable pigments for their tints in dead colouring, and for their permanence, &c. in water, oil, crayons, and fresco. The greater part of them are native pigments, found in most countries, and very abundantly and fine in our own; but Ml ■ fcMB ! |! '. ; ''[IhiLiI 95 OF RED. some are productions of manufacture, and we have produced them in the variety of nature by art. The following are the most important of these pigments, most of which are available in enamel-painting. 1. INDIAN RED, according to its name, is brought from Bengal, and is a very rich iron ore, or per-oxide of iron. It is an anomalous red, of a purple-russet hue, of a good body, and valued when fine for the pure- ness and lakey tone of its tints. In a crude state it is a coarse powder, full of extremely hard and brilliant particles of a dark appearance, some- times magnetic, and is greatly improved by grinding and washing over. Its chemical tendency is to deepen, nevertheless it is very permanent; neither light, impure air, mixture with other pigments, time, nor fire, effecting in general any sensible change in it ; but, being opaque, and not keeping its place well, it is of course not fit for glazing. This pigment varies consider- ably in its hues,— that which is most rosy being esteemed the best, and affording the purest tints : inferior red ochres have been formerly substituted for it, and procured it a variable character, but it is now obtained abun- dantly, and may be had pure of respectable colourmen. Persian Red is another name for this pigment, for which we have often heard the late Presidents, Mr. West, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and others, well experienced in its use, express the highest esteem. 2. LIGHT RED is an ochre of a russet-orange hue, principally valued for its tints. The common light red is brown ochre burnt, but the princi- pal yellow ochres afford this colour best ; and the brighter and better the yellow ochre is from which this pigment is prepared, the brighter will this red be, and the better flesh tints will it afford with white. There are, however, native ochres brought from India and other countries which supply its place, some of which are darkened by time and impure air ; but in other respects light red has the general good properties of other ochres, dries admi- rably, and is much used both in figure and landscape. It affords also an excellent, crayon. — See Orange Ochre. 3. TERRA PUZOLLI is a species of light red, as is also the 4. CARNAGIONE of the Italians, which differs from the above only in its hue, in which respect other variations and denominations are produced by dressing and compounding. 5. VENETIAN RED, or Scarlet Ochre. True Venetian red is said to be a native ochre, but the colours sold under this name are prepared artificially from sulphate of iron, or its residuum in the manufacturing of acids. They OF ItED. 97 are all of redder and deeper hues than light red, are very permanent, and have all the properties of good ochres. Prussian red and English red are other names for the same pigment. 6. SPANISH RED is an ochre differing little from Venetian red. VI. DRAGON'S BLOOD is a resinous substance, brought principally from the East Indies. It is of a warm semi-transparent, rather dull, red colour, which is deepened by impure air, and darkened by light. There are two or three sorts, but that in drops is the best. White lead soon destroys it, and it dries with extreme difficulty in oil. It is sometimes used to colour varnishes and lackers ; but, notwithstanding it has been re- commended as a pigment, it does not merit the attention of the artist. VII. LAKE, a name derived from the lac or lacca of India, is the cogno- men of a variety of transparent red and other coloured pigments of great beauty, prepared for the most part by precipitating coloured tinctures ot dyeing drugs upon alumine and other earths, &c. The lakes are hence a numerous class of pigments, both with respect to the variety of their appel- lations and the substances from which they are prepared. The colouring matter of common lake is Brazil wood, which affords a very fugitive colour. Superior red lakes are prepared from cochineal, lac, and kermes ; but the best of all are those prepared from the root of the rubia tinctoria, or madder plant. Of the various red lakes the following are the principal : — 1. RUBRIC, or MADDER LAKES. These pigments are of various colours, of which we shall speak at present of the red or rose colours only; which have obtained, from their material, their hues, or their inventor, the various names of rose rubiates, rose madder, pink madder, and Field's lakes. The pigments formerly called madder lakes were brick-reds of dull ochrous hues ; but for many years past these lakes have been prepared perfectly transparent, and literally as beautiful and pure in colour as the rose ;* qualities in which they are unrivalled by the lakes and carmine of cochineal. The rose colours of madder have justly been considered as supplying a desideratum, and as the most valuable acquisition of the palette * Of this we have ample evidence in the exquisite flowers of Hewlett, Bartholomew, Sintze- nich, and others. N 1 |(f(. 'i ■'. l| !.;■ II 98 OF RED. in modern times, since perfectly permanent transparent reds and rose-colours were previously unknown to the art of painting. These pigments are of hues warm or cool, from pure pink to the deepest rose colour ; — they afford the purest and truest carnation colours known ; — form permanent tints with white lead ; and their transparency renders them perfect glazing or finishing colours. They are not liable to change by the action of either light or impure air, nor by mixture with other pigments ; but when not thoroughly edulcorated they are, in common with all lakes, tardy dryers in oil, the best remedy for which is the addition of a small portion of japanner's gold-size. Notwithstanding they are equally beautiful and durable as water-colours, they do not work therein with the entire fulness and facility of cochineal lakes : when, therefore, permanence is of no consideration, the latter may still be preferred ; but in those works in which the hues and tints of nature are to be imitated with pure effect and perma- nence, the rose colours of madder are become indispensable, and their powers in these respects have been established by experience from the palettes of our first masters during upwards of a quarter of a century. With respect to the future too, there is this advantage attending these pigments, that they have naturally the peculiar quality of ultramarine, of improving in hue by time — their tendency being to their own specific prismatic red colour. These pigments have been imitated on the Continent with various success, and in many instances by the lakes of lac, cochineal, and carthamus. The best we have seen is the laque de garance of the French, the brightest of which was evidently tinged by the rouge of safflower, and proved inferior in durability to the genuine lake of madder. As, however, the colours of safflower, cochineal, and lac, are soluble in liquid ammonia and alkalis in general, which the true madder lakes or rubiates are not, the latter may be as easily tested by an alkali as ultramarine is by an acid ; and if pure ammo- nia do not extract colour from a lake so tested, we may with general certainty pronounce it to be a true madder lake. See Madder Carmine 9. 2. LIQUID RUBIATE, or Liquid Madder Lake, is a concentrated tinc- ture of madder of the most beautiful and perfect rose colour and trans- parency. It is used as a water-colour only in its simple state diluted with pure water, without gum ; nevertheless, as it were by a sort of seeming caprice, it dries quicker in oil than alone or in water, by acting as a dryer to the oil. Mixed or ground with all other madder colours without gum, they form combinations which work freely in simple water, and produce the OF RED. 99 most beautiful and permanent effects. The red of the definitive scale, PI. i. fig. 3. is of the pigments 1. and 2. combined. Liquid rubiate affords also a fine red ink, — and is a durable stain which bears washing, for marking, painting, or printing on cotton or linen cloth, &c. 3. SCARLET LAKE is prepared in form of drops from cochineal, and is of a beautiful transparent red colour, and excellent body, working well both in water and oil, though, like other lakes, it dries slowly. Strong light discolours and destroys it both in water and oil ; and its tints with white lead, and its combinations with other pigments, are not permanent ; yet when well prepared and judiciously used in sufficient body, and kept from strong light, it has been known to last many years ; but it ought never to be employed in glazing, nor at all in performances that aim at high reputation and durability. It is commonly tinted with vermilion, which has probably been mixed with lakes at all times to give them scarlet hue and add to their weight ; for upon examining with a powerful lens some fine pictures of antient masters, in which lake had been used in glazing, particles of vermi- lion were apparent, from which lake had evidently flown : unfortunately, however, these lakes are injured by vermilion as they are by lead, so that glazings of cochineal lake over vermilion or lead are particularly apt to vanish. This effect is very remarkable in several pictures of Cuyp, in which he has introduced a figure in red from which the shadows have disappeared, owing to their having been formed with lake over vermilion. 4. FLORENTINE LAKE differs from the last only in the mode of pre- paration, the lake so called having been formerly extracted from the shreds of scarlet cloth. The same may be said also of Chinese Lake. 5. HAMBURGH LAKE is a lake of great power and depth of colour, purplish, or inclining to crimson, which dries with extreme difficulty, but differs in no other essential quality from other cochineal lakes — an obser- vation which applies to various lakes under the names of Roman Lake, Venetian Lake, and many others ; not one of which, however respectively beautiful or reputed, is entitled to the character of durability either in hue, shade, or tint. 6. KERMES LAKE is the name of an antient pigment, perhaps the earliest of the European lakes ; which name is sometimes spelt cermes, whence probably cermosin and crimson, and kermine or carmine. In some old books it is called vermilion, in allusion to the insect, or vermes, from which it is prepared ; a title usurped probably by the sulphuret of mercury ■: 100 OF RED. '; ! or cinnabar, which now bears the name of vermilion. This lake is prepared from the kermes, which formerly supplied the place of cochineal. We have obtained the kermes from Poland, where it is still collected ; and some with which we have been favoured was brought from Cefalonia by Colonel C. J. Napier, who states that it is employed by the modern Greeks under the appellation xupvo xoxivo, for dying their caps red. This substance and the lac of India probably afforded the lakes of the Venetian painters, and of the earliest painters in oil of the school of Van Eyck. Some old specimens of the pigment which we obtained were in drops of a powdery texture and crimson colour, warmer than cochineal lakes, and having less body and bril- liancy, but worked well, and withstood the power of light better than the latter, though the sun ultimately discoloured and destroyed them. In all other respects they resemble the lakes of cochineal. 7. LAC LAKE is prepared from the lac or lacca of India, and is perhaps the first of the family of lakes. Its colouring matter resembles those of the cochineal and kermes, in being the production of a species of insects. Its colour is rich, transparent, and deep, — less brilliant and more durable than those of cochineal and kermes, but inferior in both these respects to the colours of madder. Used in body or strong glazing, as a shadow colour, it is of great power and much permanence ; but in thin glazing it changes and flies, as it does also in tint with white lead. A great variety of lakes, equally beautiful as those of cochineal, have been prepared from this substance in a recent state in India and China, many of which we have tried, and found uniformly less durable in proportion as they were more beautiful. In the properties of drying, &c. they resemble other lakes. This appears to have been the lake which has stood best in old pictures, and was probably used by the Venetians, who had the trade of India when painting flourished at Venice. It is sometimes called Indian Lake. 8. CARMINE, a name originally given only to the fine feculences of the tinctures of kermes and cochineal, denotes generally at present any pigment which resembles them in beauty, richness of colour, and fineness of texture : hence we hear of blue and other coloured carmines, though the term is prin- cipally confined to the crimson and scarlet colours produced from cochineal by the agency of tin. These carmines are the brightest and most beautiful colours prepared from cochineal, — of a fine powdery texture and velvety richness. They vary from a rose colour to a warm red ; work admirably ; VIII. RED ORPIMENT. See Orange Orpiment. 1 OF RED. 101 and are in other respects, except the most essential — the want of durability, excellent pigments in water and oil : — they have not, however, any perma- nence in tint with white lead, and in glazing are soon discoloured and destroyed by the action of light, but are little affected by impure air, and are in other respects like the lakes of cochineal ; all the pigments prepared from which may be tested by their solubility in liquid ammonia, which purples lakes prepared from the woods, but does not dissolve their colours. 9. MADDER CARMINE, or Field's Carmine, is, as its name expresses, prepared from madder. It differs from the rose lakes of madder principally in texture, and in the greater richness, depth, and transparency of its colour, which is of various hues from rose colour to crimson. These in other respects resemble the rubric or madder lakes, and are the only durable carmines for painting either in water or oil ; for both which their texture qualifies them without previous grinding or preparation. — See Madder Lake, vn. 1. 10. ROSE PINK is a coarse kind of lake, produced by dying chalk or whitening with decoction of Brazil wood, &c. It is a pigment much used by paper-stainers, and in the commonest distemper painting, &c, but is too perishable to merit the attention of the artist. 11. ROUGE. The Rouge Vegetale of the French is a species of carmine, prepared from safflow or safflower, of exquisite beauty and great cost. Its principal uses consist in dyeing silks of rose colours, and in combining with levigated talc to form the paint of the toilette, or cosmetic colours employed by the fair, who would have Blooming youth and gay delight Sit on their rosy cheeks confess'd. This pigment is, however, of too fugitive a colour to merit the attention of the artist, notwithstanding its great beauty, richness of colour, transparency, and free-working,— qualities which occasion it to be too often employed in heightening the apparent excellence of lakes and carmines. Chinese Rouge and Pink Saucers have much of these qualities, and appear to be prepared also from the carthamus or safflower. il !t ,'!f N 102 OF BLUE. CHAP. XI. OF BLUE. i Where'er we gaze, — around, above, below, — What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found ! Rocks, river, forest, mountains, all abound, And bluest sides that harmonize the whole. Byron's Childe Harold. The third and last of the primary, or simple colours, is blue, which bears the same relation to shade that yellow does to light ; hence it is the most re- tiring and diffusive of all colours, except purple and black : and all colours have the power of throwing it back in painting, in greater or less degree, in proportion to the intimacy of their relations to light ; first white, then yellow, orange, red, &c. Blue alone possesses entirely the quality technically called coldness in colouring, and it communicates this property variously to all other colours with which it happens to be compounded. It is most powerful in a strong light, and appears to become neutral and pale in a declining light, owing to its ruling affinity with black or shade, and its power of absorbing light : hence the eye of the artist is liable to be deceived when painting with blue in too low a light, or toward the close of day, to the endangering of the warmth and harmony of his picture. Blue enters into combination with yellow in the composition of all greens, and with red in all purples; it cha- racterizes the tertiary olive, and is also the prime colour or archeus of the neutral black, &c, and also of the semineutral slate colour, &c. : hence blue is changed in hue less than any other colour by mixture with black, as it is also by distance. It enters also subordinately into all other ter- tiary and broken colours, and, as nearest in the scale to black, it breaks and contrasts powerfully and agreeably with white, as in watchet or pale blues, I ;i±u* OF BLUE. 103 the sky, &c. It is less active than the other primaries in reflecting light, and therefore is sooner lost as a local colour by assimilation with distance. It is an antient doctrine that the azure of the sky is a compound of light and darkness, and some have argued hence that blue is not a pri- mary colour, but a compound of black and white ; but pure or neutral black and white compound in infinite shades, all of which are neutral also, or grey. It is true that a mixture of black and white is of a cool hue, 'be- cause black is not a primary colour but a compound of the three primary colours in which blue predominates, and this predominance is rendered more sensible when black is diluted with white. As to the colour of the sky, in which light and shade are compounded, it is neutral also, and never blue except by contrast : thus, the more the light of the sun partakes of the golden or orange hue, and the more parched and burnt the earth is, the bluer appears the sky, as in Italy, and all hot countries. In England, where the sun is cooler, and a perpetual verdure reigns, infusing blue latently into the landscape, the sky is warmer and nearer to neutrality, and partakes of a diversity of grays, beautifully melodizing with blue as their key, and harmonizing with the light and the landscape. Thus the colour of the sky is always a contrast to the direct and reflected light of the scene : if therefore this light were of a rose-colour, the neutral of the sky would be converted into green ; or if the light were purple, the sky would become yellow, and such would it be in all other cases, according to the laws of chromatic equivalence and contrast, as often appears in the open- ings of coloured clouds at the rising and setting of the sun. Blue is discordant in juxtaposition with green, and in a less degree so with purple, both which are cool colours, and therefore blue requires its con- trast, orange, in equal proportion, either of surface or intensity, to compen- sate or resolve its dissonances and correct its coldness : of all colours, ex- cept black, it contrasts white most powerfully. In all harmonious com- binations of colours, whether of mixture or neighbourhood, blue is the na- tural, prime, or predominating power : accordingly blue is in colouring what the note C is in music, — the natural key, archeus or ruling tone, uni- versally agreeable to the eye, when in due relation to the composition, and may be more frequently repeated therein, purely or unbroken, than either of the other primaries : this is however a matter of taste, as in music, and subject to artificial rules founded on the laws of chromatic combination. The moral expression, or effects of blue, or its influence on the WM 104 OF BLUE. feelings and passions, partake of its cold and shadowy relations in soothing and inclining to melancholy, and its allied sentiments : accordingly it is rather a sedate than a gay colour, even when in its utmost brilliancy. In nature it is the colour of Heaven and of the eye, and thence emblematical of intelligence and divinity. It is accordingly, by a natural analogy, used in mythological representations to distinguish the mantle of Minerva, the blue- eyed goddess, and the veil of Juno, the goddess of air ; while Diana, or the Moon, is robed in blue and white, as the Isis of the Egyptians and her priests were in pure azure ; and Poetry herself is personified in a vesture of celestial blue. These analogies and effects of colours are by no means to be disregarded, since they are as various, simply and conjointly, as are colours and their tints ; and it is by attention to them that colour conduces to sentiment and expression in painting. Even where the symbolical uses of colours are merely fanciful or conventional, they are not to be totally rejected, since, by asso- ciation and common consent, they acquire arbitrary signification in the manner of words : it is their natural expression, however, which principally claims our attention. Indeed a just knowledge of the relations of colours, and their effects upon the passions, feelings, and intellect, seems, we repeat, hardly less essential to the poet than to the painter : hence he often employs their ideas and terms with happy effect, and as frequently fails when want- ing a proper comprehension, feeling, or taste of their powers : the latter case is however more fatal to the artist than to the poet. The following are in- stances in illustration of these effects, and of the coincidences of poetry and painting in the use of the colour blue. As soothing, sedate, or sad, — Long, Pity, let the nations view Thy sky- worn robes of tend' rest blue. Collins. Ah ! hills beloved ! where once a happy child, Your beechen shades, your turf, your flow'rs among I wove your blue-bells into garlands wild, And 'woke your echoes with my artless song. Charlotte Smith. And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue. Milton. intn- OF BLUE. As intellectual, &c. The blue-eyed progeny of Jove. 105 Dryden. The joyful sun sprung up the blue serene. Akenside. In accordance with white, Sec. White and azure, laced With blue of heaven's own tinct. Shakspeare's Cymbeline, Act n. Sc. 2. I saw their thousand years of snow On high — their wide long lake below, And the blue Rhone in fullest flow. Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. Morning light More orient in yon western cloud that draws O'er the blue firmament a radiant white. Milton. As the pearl Shines in the concave of its azure bed. Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, line 454. In azure channels glide on silver sands. Fletcher. The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue, And polyanthus of unnumbered dyes. Thomson. The poets almost invariably use blue with its proper contrast ; thus — But Fame, with golden wings, aloft doth fly Above the reach of ruinous decay, And with brave plumes doth beat the azure sky, Admired of base-born men from far away. Spenser's Ruins of Time. As then no wind at all there blew, No swelling cloud accloid the air, The sky, like glass of watchet hue, Reflected Phoeby's golden haire ; The garnisht trees no pendant stirr'd, No voice was heard of any bird. Idem, Elegy on Sir Philip Sidney. o i i! 106 OF BLUE. His golden locks waved wild and free O'er his blue eyes. Mrs. Pickersgill. Their eyes blue languish, and their golden hair — . Collins. There 's gold, and here my bluest veins to kiss. Shakspeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Hast thou left thy blue course in heaven, golden-haired son of the sky ? Ossian. In the following, white is blended in the contrast, &c. Rise then, fair blue-eyed maid, rise and discover Thy silver brow, and meet thy golden lover. Crashaw. Why does one climate and one soil endue The blushing poppy with an orange hue, Yet leave the lily pale, and tinge the violet blue ? Prior. And in the succeeding examples it is associated with black or shade, melancholy and coldness, &c. O coward Conscience ! how dost thou afflict me ! The lights burn blue ! — It is now dead midnight. — Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. Shakspeare, Richard the Third. Common mother, thou, Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast, Teems and feeds all ; whose self-same mettle, Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd, Engenders the black toad and adder blue, The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm. Idem, Timon, Act iv. Sceue 3. The paucity of blue pigments, in comparison with those of yellow and red, is amply compensated by their value and perfection ; nor is the palette deficient in pigments of this colour, of which the following comprise all that are in any respect of importance to the painter. I. ULTRAMARINE, Lazuline, Azurine, or Azure, is prepared from the lapis lazuli, a precious stone found principally in Persia and Siberia. It is &BlB!&{*,.r+?T%; OF BLUE. 107 the most celebrated of ail modern pigments, and, from its name and attri- butes, is probably the same as the no less celebrated Armenian blue, or Cyanus, of the antients. Of the latter, Theophrastus informs us that the honour of inventing its factitious preparation (by perhaps the very singular chemico-mechanical process still in use for ultramarine) was ascribed in the Egyptian annals to one of their kings ; * and it was so highly prized that the Phoenicians paid their tribute in it, and it was given in presents to princes : hence it was a common practice in those times to counter- feit it. Our opinion of the identity of these pigments is considerably strengthened by the accounts modern travellers give of the brilliant blue painting still remaining in the ruins of temples in Upper Egypt, which is described as having all the appearance of ultramarine. Add to this, also, that the Chinese have the art of preparing this pigment ; and as they are imitators, and rarely inventors, and cannot be supposed to have learnt it of the Europeans, it is to be inferred that they possess it as an antient art : that they have it, we conclude from having received specimens of this pigment, of a good colour, direct from Canton. In China, too, the lapis lazuli is highly esteemed, and is worn by mandarines as badges of nobility conferred only by the emperor ; which remarkably coincides with the antient usage related by Theophrastus. Ultramarine has not obtained its reputation upon slight pretensions, being, when skilfully prepared, of the most exquisitely beautiful blue, varying from the utmost depth of shadow to the highest brilliancy of light and colour, — transparent in all its shades, and pure in its tints. It is of a true medial blue, when perfect, partaking neither of purple on the one hand, nor of green on the other : it is neither subject to injury by damp and impure air, nor by the intensest action of light, and it is so eminently permanent that it remains perfectly unchanged in the oldest paintings ; and there can be little doubt that it is the same pigment which still continues with all its original force and beauty in the temples of Upper Egypt, after an exposure of at least three thousand years. The antient Egyptians had, however, other blues, of which we have already mentioned their counterfeit Armenian blue ; and we have lately seen some balls of blue pigment, of considerable depth and purity of colour, in the collection of Mr. Sams, obtained by him from the ruins of Upper Egypt, which is probably of the Theophrast. de Lapid. xcvni. Plin. lib. xxxvn. 108 OF BLUE. same kind. The Egyptians had also several vitreous blues, with which they decorated their figures and mummies. Ultramarine dries well, works well in oil and fresco, and neither gives nor receives injury from other good pigments. It has so much of the quality of light in it, and of the tint of air, — is so purely a sky-colour, and is hence so singularly adapted to the direct and reflex light of the sky, and to become the antagonist of sunshine, — that it is indispensable to the landscape-painter ; and it is so pure, so true, and so unchangeable in its tints and glazings, as to be no less essential in imitating the exquisite colouring of nature in flesh and flowers. To this may be added, that it enters so admirably into purples, blacks, greens, grays, and broken colours, that it has justly obtained the reputation of clearing or carrying light and air into all colours, both in mixture and glazing, and a sort of claim to universality throughout a picture. These qualities of ultramarine are admirably illustrated by an experiment recorded in our next article. This is the sober character of perfect ultramarine, and no eulogy, any farther than truth when attendant on merit, is ever the most powerful of all praise. It is true, nevertheless, that ultramarine is not always entitled to the whole of this commendation, and it is necessary that the artist should be thoroughly and in every respect acquainted with a pigment of such im- portance ; we will therefore take a view of the imperfections to which it is liable. Ultramarine is often coarse in texture ; and to this there are tempta- tions in the making, because in this way it is more easy of preparation, and more abundant, deep, and valuable in abearance : yet such ultramarine can- not be used with effect, nor ground fine without injuring its colour. Again, it is rarely separated in a pure state from the lapis lazuli, which is an exceed- ingly varying and compound mineral, abounding with earthy and metallic parts in different states of oxidation and composition : hence ultramarine sometimes contains iron in the state of red oxide, and such ultramarine has a purple cast ; and sometimes it contains the same metal in the state of yellow oxide, and then it is of a green tone : it has still more frequently in it a portion of the sulphuret of iron, which is black, and gives to the ultra- marine a deeper but a dusky hue. Some artists, nevertheless, have preferred ultramarine for each of these tones ; yet are they imperfections which may account for various effects and defects of this pigment in painting. Grotv- MHt^ . OF BLUE. 109 ing deeper by age has been attributed to ultramarine, but it is such specimens alone as would acquire depth in the fire that could be subject to such change ; and it has been justly supposed that in pictures wherein other colours have failed by age, it may have taken this appearance by contrast. Ultramarine prepared from calcined lapis lazuli is not subject to deepen by age ; but this advantage is purchased by some sacrifice of the vivid, warm, and pure azure colour of ultramarine prepared from the unburnt stone : the perfection of the pigment is also in a great measure dependent upon the quality of the lapis lazuli from which it is prepared. As a precious mate- rial, ultramarine has been subjected to adulteration, and it has been dyed, damped, and oiled, to enrich its appearance ; but these attempts of fraud may be easily detected, and the genuine may as easily be distinguished from the spurious by dropping a few particles of the pigment into lemon- juice, or any other acid, which almost instantly destroys the colour of the true ultramarine totally, — an example of the subtile power of chemistry in changing instantly one of the most permanent substances in nature, and a reason why the mineral itself is so rare among her productions. Though unexceptionable as an oil-colour, both in solid painting and glazing, it does not work so well as some other blues in water ; but when extremely fine in texture, or when a considerable portion of gum, which renders it transparent, can be used with it to give it connexion or adhesion while flowing, it becomes a pigment no less valuable in water painting than in oil ; but little gum can however be employed with it when its vivid azure is to be preserved, as in illuminated manuscripts and missals. The blue of the Definitive Scale, PI. i. fig. 3. is of the middle depth of ultra- marine. Such are the principal merits and defects of ultramarine as a blue colour; and the fine greens, purples, and grays of the old masters, are often un- questionably compounds of ultramarine ; and it was the only blue formerly used in fresco. The immense price of ultramarine in former times * was almost a prohi- bition to its use ; but the spirit of modern commerce having supplied its i * Walpole relates that " Charles I. presented to Mrs. Carlisle five hundred pounds' worth of ultramarine, which lay in so small a compass as only to cover his hand." — Anecdotes of Painting. Barrow states, however, that Vandyke partook of the King's present equally with Mrs. Carlisle. — Dict. Polygraph. ■■fl ■batfftHi 110 OF BLUE. material more abundantly, and the discoveries and improvement of Prus- sian, Antwerp, and cobalt blues, having furnished substitutes for its ordi- nary uses, it may now be obtained at moderate prices, particularly its lighter and very useful tints. Pure ultramarine varies in shade from light to dark, and in hue from pale warm azure to the deepest cold blue ; the former of which, when impure in colour, is called ultramarine ashes. ,iv II. FACTITIOUS ULTRAMARINE, French Ultramarine, Outremere de Guimet, Bleu de Garance, &c. In some of the latter numbers of " Brande's Journal," are accounts of a process for producing factitious ultramarine ; and a variety of these have been before the public under the above and other names. These pigments are in general of deep rich blue colours, darker and less azure than fine ultramarine of the same depths, and answering to the same acid tests, but variously affected by fire and other agents : none of them, however, possess the merits of genuine ultrama- rine, and their relative value to other blues remains to be determined by mature experience. An experiment in which this blue was tried by an ingenious artist and friend of the author, however, speaks little in its favour. He took a picture, the sky of which had been recently painted in the ordi- nary manner with Prussian blue and white ; and having painted on the clear part of the sky uniform portions with tints formed of the best factitious ultramarine, cobalt blue, and genuine ultramarine, so as to match the ground of the sky, and to disappear to the eye thereon by blending with the ground, when viewed at a moderate distance, he set the picture aside for some months ; after which it appeared upon examination that the colour of these various blue pigments had taken different ways, and departed from the hue of the ground : — the factitious ultramarine had blackened, — the cobalt blue gpeenedji*- the true ultramarine appeared of a. pure azure, like a spot of light, — and their ground, the Prussian blue sky, appeared by contrast with the ultramarine of a gray or slate colour. All the chemical combinations of iron with inflammable bases, under proper management, afford blue colours ; and in this respect the factitious ultramarines and Prussian blue are analogous. III. 1. COBALT BLUE is the name now appropriated to the modern improved blue prepared with metallic cobalt, or its oxides, although it pro- •v :' ; ■ OF BLUE. Ill perly belongs to a class of pigments including Saxon blue, Dutch ultramarine, Royal blue, Hungary blue, Smalt, Zaffre or Enamel blue, and Dumoni's blue. These differ principally in their degrees of purity, and the nature of the earths with which they are compounded. The first is the finest cobalt blue, and may not improperly be called a blue lake, the colour of which is brought up by fire, in the manner of enamel blues ; and it is, when well prepared, of a pure blue colour, neither tending to green nor purple, and approaching in brilliancy to the finest ultramarine. It has not however the body, transparency, and depth, nor the natural and modest hue, of the latter ; yet it is superior in beauty to all other blue pigments. Cobalt blue works better in water than ultramarine in general does, and is hence an acquisition to those who have not the management of the latter, and also on account of its cheapness. It resists the action of strong light and acids ; but its beauty declines by time, and impure air greens and ultimately blackens it. It dries well in oil, does not injure nor suffer injury from pigments in general, and may be used with a proper flux in enamel painting, and per- haps also in fresco. Various appellations have been given to this pigment from its preparers and venders, and it has been called Vienna blue, Paris blue, azure, and, very improperly, ultramarine. 2. SMALT, sometimes called Azure, is an impure vitreous cobalt blue, prepared upon a base of silex, and much used by the laundress for neutral- izing the tawny or Isabella colour of linen, &c, under the name of Powder- blue. It is in general of a coarse gritty texture, light blue colour, and little body. It does not work so well as the preceding, but dries quickly, and resembles it in other respects ;■ — it varies, however, exceedingly in its qua- lities ; and the finer sorts, called Dumonfs Blue, which is employed in water- colour painting, is remarkably rich and beautiful. 3. ROYAL BLUE is a deeper coloured and very beautiful smalt, and is also a vitreous pigment, principally used in painting on glass and enamel, in which uses it is very permanent; but in water and oil its beauty soon decays, as is no uncommon case with other vitrified pigments ; and it is not in other respects an eligible pigment, being, notwithstanding its beautiful appear- ance, very inferior to other cobalt blues. IV. 1. PRUSSIAN BLUE, otherwise called Berlin blue, Parisian blue, 112 OF BLUE. Cyanide of Iron, &c, is rather a modern pigment, produced by the combi- nation of the prussic or hydro-cyanic acid and iron. It is of a deep and powerful blue colour, of vast body and considerable transparency, and forms tints of much beauty with white lead, though they are by no means equal in purity and brilliancy to those of cobalt and ultramarine, nor have they the perfect durability of the latter. Notwithstanding Prussian blue lasts a long time under favourable circum- stances, its tints fade by the action of strong light, and it is purpled or dark- ened by damp or impure air. It becomes greenish also sometimes by a developement of the yellow oxide of iron. The colour of this pigment has also the singular property of fluctuating or of going and coming under some changes of circumstances, and time has a neutralizing tendency upon its colour. It dries and glazes well in oil; but its great and principal use is in painting deep blues, in which its body secures its permanence, and its transparency gives force to its depth. It is also valuable in compounding deep purples with lake, and is a powerful neutralizer and component of black, and adds considerably to its intensity. It is a pigment much used in the common offices of painting, in preparing blues for the laundress, and in dyeing. Mineralogists speak of a Native Prussian Blue. 2. ANTWERP BLUE is a lighter-coloured and somewhat brighter Prus- sian blue, or ferro-prussiate of alumine, having more of the terrene basis, but all the other qualities of that pigment, except its extreme depth. Haerlem Blue is a similar pigment. ;• i! ■Xc V. 1. INDIGO, or Indian Blue, is a pigment manufactured in the East and West Indies from several plants, but principally from the anil or indigo- fera. It is of various qualities, and has been long known, and of great use in dyeing. In painting it is not so bright as Prussian blue, but is extremely powerful and transparent ; hence it may be substituted for some of the uses of Prussian blue. It is of great body, and glazes and works well both in water and oil. Its relative permanence as a dye has obtained it a false character of extreme durability in painting, a quality in which it is never- theless very inferior even to Prussian blue. It is injured by impure air, and in glazing some specimens are firmer than others, but not durable ; — in tint with white lead they are all fugitive ; when used, however, in considerable body in shadow, it is more permanent, but in all respects inferior to Prussian blue. *^ OF BLUE. 113 2. INTENSE BLUE is indigo refined by solution and precipitation, in which state it is equal in colour to Antwerp blue. By this process indigo also becomes more durable, and much more powerful, transparent, and deep. It washes and works admirably in water ; — in other respects it has the com- mon properties of indigo. We have been assured by an eminent architect, equally able and experienced in the use of colours, that these blues of indigo have the property of pushing or detaching Indian ink from paper. The same is supposed to belong to other blues ; but as this effect is chemical, it can hardly be an attribute of mere colour. VI. 1 . BLUE VERDITER is a blue oxide of copper, or precipitate of the nitrate of copper by lime, and is of a beautiful light blue colour. It is little affected by light; but time, damp, and impure air turn it green, and ulti- mately blacken it, — changes which ensue even more rapidly in oil than in water : it is therefore by no means an eligible pigment in oil, and is princi- pally confined to distemper painting and the uses of the paper-stainer, though it has been found to stand well many years in water-colour drawings and in crayon paintings, when preserved dry. 2. SAUNDERS BLUE, a corrupt name, from Cendres Ble us, the original denomination probably of ultramarine ashes, is of two kinds, the natural and the artificial : the artificial is a verditer prepared by an alkali from sulphate of cop- per ; the natural is a blue mineral found near copper-mines, and is the same as — 3. MOUNTAIN BLUE, found in similar situations as the above. A very beautiful substance of this kind, a carbonate of copper, both blue and green, is found in Cumberland. None of these blues of copper are, how- ever, durable : used in oil, they become green, and as pigments are precisely of the character of verditers. 4. SCHWEINFURT BLUE appears to be the same in substance as Scheele's green, prepared without heat or treated with an alkali. It is a beautiful colour, liable to the same changes, and is of the same habits as blue verditer and the above pigments. VII. BLUE BICE, Iris or Terre Bleu, is sometimes confounded with the above copper blues ; but the true bice is said to be prepared from the lapis Armenius of Germany and the Tyrol, and is a light bright blue. The true Armenian stone of the antients was probably the lapis lazuli of later times, and the blue prepared therefrom the same as our ultramarine. i ;■.!■' }\4-W< I 114 OF BLUE. Ground smalts, blue verditer, and other pigments, have passed under the name of bice, which has therefore become a very equivocal pigment, and its name nearly obsolete ; nor is it at present to be found in the shops. VIII. BLUE OCHRE is a mineral colour of rare occurrence, found in Cornwall, and also in North America, and is a sub-phosphate of iron. What Indian red is to the colour red, and Oxford ochre to yellow, this pigment is to the colour blue ; they class in likeness of character ; — hence it is admi- rable rather for the modesty and solidity than for the brilliancy of its colour. It has the body of other ochres, more transparency, and is of considerable depth. It works well both in water and oil, dries readily, and does not suffer in tint with white lead, nor change when exposed to the action of strong light, damp or impure air : it is therefore, as far as its powers extend, an eligible pigment, though it is not in general use, nor easily procurable. It answers to the same acid tests as ultramarine, and is distinguishable from it by changing from a blue phosphate to an olive-brown ochrous oxide of iron when exposed to a red heat. It has been improperly called native Prussian blue. IX. BLUE CARMINE is a blue oxide of molybdena, of which little is known as a substance or as a pigment. It is said to be of a beautiful blue colour, and durable in a strong light, but is subject to be changed in hue by other substances, and blackened by foul air : we may conjecture, therefore, that it is not of much value in painting. In , Hi 1 OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. —OF ORANGE. 115 CHAP. XII. OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. OF ORANGE. Bear me to the citron groves — To where the lemon and the piercing lime, With the deep orange glowing through the green, Their lighter glories blend. Thomson. Orange is the first of the secondary colours in relation to light, being in all the variety of its hues composed of yellow and red. A true or perfect orange is such a compound of red and yellow as will neutralize a perfect blue in equal quantity either of surface or intensity, and the proportions of such compound are five of perfect red to three of perfect yellow. When orange inclines to red, it takes the names of scarlet, poppy, coquilicot, &c. In gold colour, &c. it leans toward yellow. It enters into combination with green in forming the tertiary citrine, and with purple it constitutes the tertiary russet : — it forms also a series of warm semineutral colours with black, and harmonizes in contact and variety of tints with white. Orange is an advancing colour in painting :— in nature it is effective at a great distance, acting powerfully on the eye,— diminishing its sensibility in proportion to the strength of the light in which it is viewed ; and it is of the hue and partakes of the vividness of sunshine, as it does also of all the powers of its components, red and yellow. This secondary is pre-eminently a warm colour, being the equal contrast or antagonist in this respect, as it is also in colour, to blue, to which the attribute of coolness peculiarly belongs :— hence it is discordant when stand- ing alone with yellow or with red, unresolved by their proper contrasts, or harmonizing colours, purple and green. wff"^ 116 OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. OF ORANGE. As an archeus, or ruling colour, orange corresponds to the key of F in music, and it is one of the most agreeable keys or archei in toning a picture, from the richness and warmth of its effect ;— accordingly its influence on feeling and the mind is gay and cheerful, and opposed to the soothing and sedate. In the well-known fruit of the aurantium, called orange from its golden hue, from which fruit this colour borrows its well-adapted name, nature has associated two primary colours with two primary tastes which seem to be analogous,— a red and yellow compound colour, with a sweet and acid compound flavour. The poets confound orange with its ruling colour yellow, and, by a met- onymy, use in its place the terms golden, gilding, orient, &c, to express the signification of this colour in constructing of tropes ; and it appears to be hardly less effective and necessary to warmth of description with the poet than with the painter, of which our preceding quotations afford instances ; and some of the following illustrations of the poetic employment of this colour are in point. As according with light, &c— So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright Through the transparent bosom of the deep. Shakspeare. No more the i-ising sun shall gild the morn, Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn. Reclining soft on many a golden cloud. Heaven's golden-wing" d herald. Crashaw. Orient liquors in a crystal glass. Milton. Extremes, alike, in either hue behold, Hot — in the golden, in the silvery — cold. Shee's Elements, Canto v. 1. 310. Pope. Rowe. As harmonizing with its co-secondaries : — Culls the delicious fruit that hangs in air, The purple plum, green fig, or golden pear. Rogers. OP THE SECONDARY COLOURS. OF ORANGE. 117 As contrasted with blue : — From golden cups or hare-bells blue. Mrs. Pickersgill. Of this relation we have given a number of examples in the preceding chapter ; — in the following description, by Sir Humphrey Davy, we have an instance from nature of the various relations of this colour associated : — From the summit of Vesuvius " we see the rich fields covered with flax, maize, or millet, and intersected by rows of trees, which support the green and graceful festoons of the vine ; the orange and lemon trees covered with golden fruit appear in the sheltered glens ; the olive trees cover the lower hills ; islands, purple in the beams of the setting sun, are scattered over the sea in the west ; and the sky is tinted with red, softening into the brightest and purest azure.'''' — Last Days of a Philosopher. And Shakspeare thus employs this colour in accordance with black : — The ousel-cock, so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill. Butler also uses the same compound epithet : — At that an egg, let fly, Hit him directly o'er the eye, And running down his cheek, besmear'd With orange-tawny slime his beard. Hudibras, Part i. Canto n. The list of original orange pigments is so deficient, that in some treatises on the subject of colours, orange is not even named as a colour. This may have arisen partly from the unsettled signification of the term ; partly from improperly calling these pigments reds, yellows, &c. ; and partly also from their orginal paucity. The following are accordingly all the pigments in general use which can properly be classed under the name of orange, though most of them are called reds or yellows : — - I. MIXED ORANGE. Orange being a colour compounded of red and yellow, the place of original orange pigments may be supplied by mixture of the two latter colours ; by glazing one over the other ; by stippling, or other modes of breaking and intermixing them in working, according to the nature of the work and the effect required. For reasons before given, mixed pigments are inferior to the simple or homogeneous in colour, work- i i 118 OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. OF ORANGE. L,t ing, and other properties : yet some pigments mix and combine more cor- dially and with better results than others ; this is the case with the liquid rubiate and gamboge, and they form the best and most durable mixed orange of all hues for painting in water. In oil the compounding of colours is more easily effected. II. ORANGE VERMILION is a sulphuret of quicksilver or vermi- lion of an orange colour, newly introduced : it resembles red lead in appear- ance, but is not subject to its changes, being a perfectly durable pigment under every circumstance of oil or water painting. Its tints are much warmer than those of red or orange lead ; and it is a most powerful tinger of white, yielding purer and more delicate warm carnation tints than any known pigment, and much resembling those of Titian and Rubens. It is the best and only unexceptionable orange we possess, drying in simple linseed oil, and having the powerful body and properties of the other vermi- lions, and may be tested in the same manner. It works with best effect in water with a considerable portion of gum. The orange of the defi- nitive scale, Plate i. fig. 3. is of this pigment. III. 1. CHROME ORANGE is a beautiful orange pigment, and is one of the most durable and least exceptionable chromates of lead, and not of iron, as it is commonly called, being truly a subchromate of lead. It is, when well prepared, of a brighter colour than red, or orange vermi- lion, but is inferior in durability and body to the latter pigment, being liable to the changes and affinities of the chrome yellows in a somewhat less de- gree, but less liable to change than the orange oxide of lead (v.) fol- lowing. 2. LAQUE MINERAL is a French pigment, a species of chromic orange, similar to the above. This name is also given to orange oxide of iron. 3. CHROMATE OF MERCURY is improperly classed as a red with vermilion, for though it is of a bright ochrous red colour in powder, it is, when ground, of a bright orange ochre colour, and affords with white very pure orange-coloured tints. Nevertheless it is a bad pigment, since light soon changes it to a deep russet colour, and foul air reduces it to extreme blackness. ■u». IIHHI OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. — OF ORANGE. 119 IV. 1. ORANGE OCHRE, called'also Spanish ochre, &c. is a very bright yellow ochre burnt, by which operation it acquires warmth, colour, trans- parency, and depth. In colour it is moderately bright, dries and works well both in water and oil, and is a very durable and eligible pigment. It may be used in enamel-painting, and has all the properties of its original ochre in other respects. See Yellow Ochre. 2. JAUNE DE MARS is an artificial iron ochre, similar to the above, of which we formerly prepared a variety brighter, richer, and more trans- parent than the above. 3. DAMONICO, or Monicon, is also an iron ochre, being a compound of Terra di Sienna and Roman ochre burnt, and having all their qualities. It is rather more russet in hue than the above, has considerable trans- parency, is rich and durable in colour, and affords good flesh tints. 4. BURNT SIENNA EARTH is, as its name expresses, the Terra di Sienna burnt, and is of an orange russet colour. What has been said of orange ochre and Damonico may be repeated of burnt Sienna. It is richer in colour, deeper, and more transparent, and works better than raw Sienna earth ; but, in other respects, has all the properties of its parent colour, and is permanent and eligible wherever it may be useful. 5. Light Red and Venetian Red, before treated of, are also to be consi- dered as impure, but durable, orange colours ; and several artificial prepara- tions of iron afford excellent colours of this class. V. ORANGE LEAD is an oxide of lead of a more vivid and warmer colour than red lead, but, in other respects, does not differ essentially from that pigment. VI. ORANGE ORPIMENT, or Realgar, improperly called also Red Orpiment, since it is of a brilliant orange colour, inclining to yellow. There are two kinds of this pigment; the one, native, the other, factitious ; the first of which is called sandarach, &c, and is of rather a redder colour than the factitious. They are the same in qualities as pigments, and differ not other- wise than in colour from yellow orpiment, to which the old painters gave the orange hue by heat, and then called it alchymy. VII. GOLDEN SULPHUR OF ANTIMONY is a Hydro-sulphuret of 120 OF THE SECONDARY COLOURS. — OV ORANGE. " antimony, of an orange colour, which is destroyed by the action of strong- light. It is a bad dryer in oil, injurious to many colours, and in no respect an eligible pigment either in oil or water. VIII. MADDER ORANGE, or Orange Lake, is a madder lake of an orange hue, varying from yellow to rose-colour and brown. This variety of madder colours differs not essentially in other respects from those of which we have already spoken, except in a tendency toward redness in the course of time. IX. ANOTTA, Arnotta, Annotto, Terra Orleana, Roucou, &c. are names of a vegetal substance brought from the West Indies, of an orange-red co- lour, soluble in water and spirit of wine, but very fugitive and changeable, and not fit for painting. It is principally used by the dyer, and in colouring- cheese. It is also an ingredient in some lacquers. See Carucru, Ch, xix, art. ii. !: 1 OF GREEN". 121 CHAP. XIII. OF GREEN. But where fair Isis rolls her purer wave The partial muse delighted loves to lave ; On her green banks a greener wreath is wove, To crown the bards that haunt her classic grove. Byron. GREEN, which occupies the middle station in the natural scale of colours and in relation to light and shade, is the second of the secondary colours : it is composed of the extreme primaries, yellow and blue, and is most per- fect in hue when constituted in the proportions of three of yellow to eight of blue of equal intensities ; because such a green will perfectly neutralize^v-" and contrast a perfect red in the proportions of eleven to Jive, either of space" or power, as adduced On our Scale of Chromatic Equivalents. Green, mixed with orange, converts it into the one extreme tertiary citrine ; and! mixed with purple, it becomes the other extreme tertiary, olive; hence its relations and accordances are more general, and it contrasts more agree- ably with all colours than any other individual colour. It has accordingly been adopted with perfect wisdom in nature as the general garb of the vege- tal creation. It is indeed in every respect a central or medial colour, being the contrast, compensatory in the proportion of eleven to five, of the middle primary, red, on the one hand, and of the middle tertiary, russet, on the other ; and, unlike the other secondaries, all its hues, whether tending to blue or yellow, are of the same denomination. These attributes of green, which render it so universally effective in con- trasting of colours, cause it also to become the least useful in compounding them, and the most apt to defile other colours in mixture : nevertheless it Q 'I 122 OF GREEN. forms valuable semi-neutrals of the olive class with black, for of such sub- dued tones are the greens, by which the more vivid hues of nature are con- trasted ; accordingly the various greens of foliage are always more or less semi-neutral in colour. As green is the most general colour of vegetal na- ture, and principal in foliage ; so red, its harmonizing colour, and com- pounds of red,' are most general and principal in flowers. Purple flowers are commonly contrasted with centres or variegations of bright yellow, as blue flowers are with like relievings of orange ; and there is a prevailing hue, or character, in the green colour of the foliage of almost every plant, by which it is harmonized with the colours of its flowers ; so also — No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar ; paler some, And of a warmish gray ; the willow such, And poplar, that with silver lines his leaf, And ash, far stretching his umbrageous arms ; Of deeper green the elm ; and deeper still, Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak. Not unnoticed pass The sycamore, capricious in attire; Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright. COWPER. These changes of the leaf may be attributed, like those of flowers, to the various action of the oxygenous principle in light and air upon the carbon, or hydrogenous principle of plants, to the colouring matter of which the che- mico-botanist has given the name oichromule. The general hue of green, as employed by Nature in the vegetal world, is a compound of blue, or gray, and citrine, according to its situation in the fundamental scale of colours : the gayer compounds of blue and yellow she reserves for the decoration of the animal creation, as in birds, shells, insects, and fossils. The principal discord of green is blue ; and when they approximate or accompany each other, they require to be resolved by the apposition of warm colours ; and it is in this way that the warmth of distance and the horizon reconcile the azure of the sky with the greenness of a landscape. Its less powerful discord is yellow, which requires to be similarly resolved by a purple-red, or its principles. In its tones green is cool or warm, se- date or gay, either as it inclines to blue or to yellow ; yet it is in its general effects cool, calm, temperate, and refreshing; and, having little power in re- ii.li OF GREEN. 123 fleeting light, is a retiring colour, and readily subdued by distance : for the same reasons it excites the retina less than most colours, and is cool and grateful to the eye. As a colour individually, green is eminently beautiful and agreeable, but it is more particularly so when contrasted with its com- pensating colour, red ; and they are the most generally attractive of all colours in this respect. They are hence powerful and effective colours on the feelings and passions, and require therefore to be subdued or toned to prevent excitement and to preserve the balance of harmony in painting. The general powers of green, as a colour, associate it with the ideas of vigour and freshness ; and it is hence symbolical of youth, the spring of life being analogous to the spring of the year, in which nature is surprisingly diffuse of this colour in all its freshness, luxuriance, and variety ; soliciting the eye of taste, and well claiming the attention of the landscape-painter, according to the following judicious remarks of one of the most eminent of this distinguished class of British artists. " The autumn onry is called the painter's season, from the great richness of the colours of the dead and de- caying foliage, and the peculiar tone and beauty of the skies; but the spring has, perhaps, more than an equal claim to his notice and admiration, and from causes not wholly dissimilar, — the great variety of tints and co- lours of the living foliage, accompanied by their flowers and blossoms. The beautiful and tender hues of the young leaves and buds are rendered more lovely by being contrasted, as they now are, with the sober russet browns of the stems from which they shoot, and which still show the drear remains of the season that is past." — Remarks on Landscapes characteristic of English Scenery, by J. Constable, Esq. R.A. Verdure is also the symbol of hope, which, like the animating green- ness of plants, leaves us only with life : it is also emblematical of immortality, and the figure of old Saturn or Time is crowned with evergreen. This colour denotes also memory, and affords a great number of epithets and metaphors, colloquial as well as rhetorical. Plenty is personified in a mantle of green. In mythological subjects it distinguishes the draperies of Neptune, the Naiades, and the Dryades ; and, from being a general garb of nature, perhaps, has been held to be a sacred or holy colour. It is thus that colours lead ideas by association and analogy, and ex- cite sentiments naturally in the manner we have so repeatedly alluded to already, in drawing attention to the powers of expression in colours ; an attention of more importance than generally supposed in the practice of the ! \ nn 124 OF GREEN. pencil, and in spreading the charm of disguised art over its productions ; and it is thus also that colouring moves the affections in the manner of cer- tain chords in music, upon relations grounded so deeply in our nature, that a universal comprehension is perhaps requisite for their interpretation. Of these powers of colours, which, when judiciously managed, are capable of producing or heightening sentiment, the poet has not failed to profit, of which we have already adduced many instances ; and, in the ab- sence of the more palpable illustrations of the powers and properties of green, by examples in nature and painting, the following are in point from the poets, expressing — Youth, vigour, freshness, hope, &c. My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood. Shakspeare. While virgin Spring, by Eden's flood, Unfolds her tender mantle green. Burns. And loud he sung agen the sunny shene ; O Maye, with all thy Jlowres and thy grene, Right welcome be thou, faire, freshe Maye. Chaucer's Knight's Tale, v. 1511. But with your presence cheer'd, they cease to mourn, And walks wear fresher green at your return. Dryden. If I have any where said a green old age, I have Virgil's authority : " Sed cruda Deo viridisque senectus." — Dryden. The green stem grows in stature and in size, But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes. Id. after Ovid's Met. lib. xv. For May, — " Sweet Month ! the groves green liveries wear, If not the first, the fairest of the year ; For thee the Graces lead the dancing Hours, And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers." You may be jogging while your boots are green Green is indeed the colour of lovers. Shakspeare. Idem. OF GREEN. 125 Phyllidis adventu nostra nemus omne virebit. Virgil, Eel. vn. 59. Our griefs are green. Shakspeare. Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale ? Idem. Accordance with light and colours, &c. : — Haste, haste, ye Naiads ! with attractive art New charms to every native grace impart : With opening flowrets bind your sea-green hair. Addison, after Statius. My mistaking eyes, That have been so bedazzled with the sun, That every thing I look on seemeth green. i; i Shakspeare. Idem. The violets now That strew the green lap of the new-come spring. Strike, louder strike th' ennobling strings To those whose merchant sons were kings ; To him who deck'd with pearly pride, For Adria weds his green-hair' d bride. Collins. Miranda ! mark, where shrinking from the gale, Its silken leaves yet moist with early dew, That faint fair flower, the lily of the vale, Droops its meek head, and looks, methinks, like you ! Wrapp'd in the shadowy veil of tender green, Its snowy bells a soft perfume dispense, And bending, as reluctant to be seen, In simple loveliness it soothes the sense. Charlotte Smith. Seest how fresh my flowers been spread, Dyed in lily-white and crimson-red, With leaves ingrain'd in lustie green, Colours meet to cloathe a maiden queen. Spenser's Shepherd's Callender, Feb. 126 OF GREEN. Discordance : — O beware, my Lord, of jealousy ; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on. Othello, Act hi. Sc. 3. And what's a life ? the flourishing array Of the proud summer-meadow, which to-day Wears her green plush, and is to-morrow hay. Quarles, Emb. 13. B. 3. How all the other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shudd'ring fear, and green-eyed jealousy ! Shaksp., Mer. of Venice. Variety of contrast, &c. : — Such crimson tempest should bedrench The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land. Shakspeare. Britannia's genius bends to earth, And mourns the fatal day ; While stain 'd with blood, he strives to tear Unseemly from his sea-green hair The wreaths of cheerful May. Collins. That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit. Shakspeare. In a vault Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies fest'ring in his blood. Rom. and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 3. The entire import of the colours to the sentiment lies in general wider in context than the passages which we have extracted, with all possible brevity, from the poets ; — and to analyse these critically would lead into a needlessly wide discussion, since this want will be easily supplied by the intelligent reader. This applies particularly to the colour green, which is as principal in poetry as it is in nature and painting. Milton paints with green and violet, in a sort of minor key, thus beautifully : — Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen, Within thy aery shell, .:.:*■. WM OF GREEN. By slow Meander s margent green, And in the violet-embroider 'd vale, Where the love-lorn Nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well. 127 COMUS. In the following, the elements of green combine in the joint sentiment or expression of youth, freshness, joy, and animation :• — Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly riding o'er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth at the prow, and Pleasure at the helm. Gray. And in the succeeding, the expression of green is cool, refreshing, shadowy, &c. : — Here in the sultriest season let him rest Fresh in the green beneath those aged trees ; Here winds of gentlest wing will fan his breast, From heaven itself he may inhale the breeze. Byron, Childe Harold. Guide my way Through fair Lyceum's walks, the green retreats Of Academus, and the Thymy vale, Where oft, enchanted with Socratic sounds, Ilissus pure devolved his tuneful stream. Akenside, Pl. Imag. 1. 590. Bear me some God to Baia's gentle seats, Or cover me in Umbria's green retreats, Where western gales eternally reside, And all the seasons lavish all their pride. Addison's Epist. to Ld. Halifax. Now waft me from the green hill's side, Whose cold turf hides the buried friend! Collins. The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind. Shakspeare, Tit. And. A. n. S. 3. The zephyrs curl the green locks of the plain. The green mantle of the standing pool. Drummond. Shakspeare. 128 OF GREEN. I know each lane and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, And every bosky bourn. Comtjs. The birds, Who all things now behold more fresh and green, After a night of storm so ruinous, Clear'd up their choicest notes. Ibid. The number of pigments of any colour is in general proportioned to its importance ; hence the variety of greens is very great, though their classes are not very numerous. The following are the principal : — I. MIXED GREENS. Green being a compound of blue and yellow, pigments of these colours may be used to supply the place of green pig- ments, by compounding them in the several ways of working — by mixing, glazing, hatching, or otherwise blending them in the proportions of the various hues required. The fine nature-like greens, which have lasted so well in some of the pictures of the Italian schools, appear to have been compounded of ultramarine and yellow. Whatever pigments are employed on a picture in the warm yellow hues of the foreground, and blue colouring of the distance and sky, are advantageous for forming the greens in land- scape, &c, because they harmonize better both in colouring and chemically, and impart homogeneity to the whole, — which is a principle conducive to a fine tone and durability of effect ; and this is a principle which applies to all mixed colours. In compounding colours, it is desirable not only that they should agree chemically, but that they should also have, as much as may be, the same degree of durability ; and in these respects Prussian or Antwerp blue and gamboge form a judicious, though not extremely durable, com- pound, similar to Varleys green, Hooker's green, &c. There is a green pigment of this kind prepared in Rome, of which the late President of the Royal Academy brought home a quantity, the modern substitute probably of the Italian green above mentioned, but wanting its durability, as it becomes blue in fading, and appears to be a mixture of Prussian blue and Dutch or Italian pink. See Cobalt Greens, Chrome Greens, and Prussian Green. II. TERRE-VERTE. True Terre-Verte is an ochre of a bluish green I -'k.i w . OF GREEN. 129 colour not very bright, in substance moderately hard, and smooth in texture. It is variously a bluish or gray coaly clay combined with yellow oxide of iron or yellow ochre. Although not a bright, it is a very durable pigment, being unaffected by strong light and impure air, and combining with other colours without injury. It has not much body, is semitransparent, and dries well in oil. There are varieties of this pigment; but the green earths which have copper for their colouring matter are, although generally of brighter colours, inferior in their other qualities, and are not true terre-vertes. The greens called Verona green, and Verdetto, or holy green, are similar native pigments of a warmer colour. These greens are found in the Mendip Hills, France, Italy, and the Island of Cyprus. III. CHROME GREENS, commonly so called, are compound pigments, of which chrome yellow is the principal colouring substance. These are also called Brunsivick green, &c. and are compounds of chromate of lead with Prussian and other blue colours, constituting fine greens to the eye, suit- able to some of the ordinary purposes of mechanic art ; but for obvious reasons before given are unfit for fine art. See Chrome Yellow. There is, however, a true chrome green, or Native green, the colouring matter of which is the pure oxide of chrome, and, being free from lead, is durable both against the action of the sun's light and impure air. It is of various degrees of transparency or opacity, and of several hues more or less warm or cool, which are all rather fine than brilliant greens, and afford pure and durable tints. True Chrome greens neither give nor receive injury from other pigments, and are eligible for either water or oil painting, in the latter of which they dry rapidly. The green of the Definitive Scale, PL i. fig. 3. is of this latter kind. IV. COBALT GREENS. There are two pigments of this denomination, the one a compound of cobalt blue and chromic yellow, which partakes of the qualities of those pigments, and may be formed on the palette, — the other, an original pigment prepared immediately from cobalt, which is of a pure but not very powerful green colour, and durable both in water and oil, in the latter of which it dries well. V. 1. COPPER GREEN is the appellation of a class rather than of an individual pigment, under which are comprehended Verdigris, Verditer, Ma- lachite Mineral green, Green bice, Scheele's green, Schweinfurt or Vienna green, R 130 OF GREEN. ill: Emerald green, true Brunswick green, green Lake, Mountain green, African green, French green, Saxo?i green, Persian green, Patent green, Marine green, Olympian green, &c. ; and old authors mention others under the names of individuals who prepared them, such are Verde de Barildo, &c. The general characteristics of these greens are, brightness of colour, well suited to the purposes of house-painting, but not adapted to the modesty of nature in fine art. They have considerable permanence, except from the action of damp and impure air, which ultimately blacken them, to which shade they have also a tendency by time. They have a good body, and dry well in oil, but, like the whites of lead, are all deleterious sub- stances. We will particularize the principal sorts : — 2. VERDIGRIS, or Viride JEris, is of two kinds, common or impure, and crystallized or Distilled Verdigris, or more properly refined verdigris. They are both acetates of copper, of a bright green colour inclining to blue. They are the least permanent of the copper greens, soon fading as water-colours by the action of light, &c. and becoming first white and ultimately black by damp and foul air. In oil verdigris is durable with respect to light and air, but moist and impure air change its colour, and cause it to effloresce or rise to the surface through the oil. It dries rapidly, and might be useful as a siccific with other greens or very dark colours. In varnish it stands better, but is not upon the whole a safe or eligible pigment, either alone or com- pounded. Vinegar dissolves it, and the solutionis used for tinting maps, &c. 3. GREEN VERDITER is the same in substance as blue verditer, which is converted into green verditer by boiling. This pigment has the common properties of the copper greens above mentioned, and is sometimes called Green Bice. 4. EMERALD GREEN is the name of a new copper green upon a ter- rene base. It is the most vivid of this tribe of colours, being rather opaque and powerfully reflective of light, and appears to be the most durable pig- ment of its class. Its hue is not common in nature, but well suited for gems or glazing upon. It works well in water, but difficultly in oil, and dries badly therein. 5. MINERAL GREEN is the commercial name of green lakes, prepared from the sulphate of copper. These vary in hue and shade, have all the properties before ascribed to copper greens, and afford the best common greens, and, not being liable to change of colour by oxygen and light, stand the weather well, and are excellent for the use of the house-painter, &c. ; but are less eligible in the nicer works of fine art, having a tendency to darken by time and foul air. OF GREEN. 131 6. MOUNTAIN GREEN is a native carbonate of copper, combined with a white earth, and often striated with veins of mountain blue, to which it bears the same relation that green verditer does to blue verditer, nor does it differ from these and other copper greens in any property essential to the painter. The Malachite, a beautiful copper ore, employed by jewellers, is sometimes called mountain green, and Green bice is also confounded therewith, being similar substances and of similar use as pigments. VI. SCHEELE'S GREEN is a compound oxide of copper and arsenic, named after the justly celebrated chemist who discovered it. It is vari- ously of a beautiful light warm green colour, opaque, permanent in itself and in tint with white lead, but must be used cautiously with Naples yellow, by which it is soon destroyed. Schweinfurt green is the name of a fine pre- paration of the same kind. Both these pigments are less affected by damp and impure air than the simple copper greens, and are therefore in these respects rather more eligible colours than copper greens in general. VII. PRUSSIAN GREEN. The pigment celebrated under this name is an imperfect prussiate of iron, or Prussian blue, in which the yellow oxide of iron superabounds, or to which yellow tincture of French berries has been added, and is not in any respect superior as a pigment to the com- pounds of Prussian blue and yellow ochre. VIII. SAP GREEN, or Verde Vessie, is a vegetal pigment prepared from the juice of the berries of the buckthorn, the green leaves of the woad, &c. It is usually preserved in bladders, and is thence sometimes called Bladder Green ; when good it is of a dark colour and glossy fracture, extremely transparent, and of a fine natural green colour. Though much employed as a water-colour without gum, which it contains naturally, it is a very imperfect pigment, disposed to attract the moisture of the atmosphere, and to mildew ; and, having little durability in water-colour painting, and less in oil, it is not eligible in the one, and is totally useless in the other. Similar pigments, prepared from coffee-berries, and called Venetian and emerald greens, are of a colder colour, very fugitive, and equally defective as pigments. IX. INVISIBLE GREEN. See-Oft* Pigments. >l'|!'' ll' 'W m 132 OF PURPLE. CHAP. XIV. OF PURPLE. Over his lucid arms A military vest of purple flow'd Livelier than Meliboean, or the grain Of Sarra, worn by kings and heroes old. Mtlton. Purple, the third and last of the secondary colours, is composed of red and blue, in the proportions of five of the former to eight of the latter, which constitute a perfect purple, or one of such a hue as will neutralize, and best contrast a perfect yellow in the proportions of thirteen to three, either of surface or intensity. It forms, when mixed with its co-secondary colour green, the tertiary colour olive; and when mixed with the remaining secondary orange, it constitutes in like manner the tertiary colour russet. It is the coolest of the three secondary colours, and the nearest also in relation to black or shade ; in which respect, and in never being a warm co- lour, it resembles blue. In other respects also purple partakes of the pro- perties of blue, which is its archeus or ruling colour ; hence it is to the eye a retiring colour, which reflects light little, and declines rapidly in power in proportion to the distance at which it is viewed, and also in a de- clining light. It is owing to its being the mean between black and blue that it becomes the most retiring of all positive colours. Nature employs this hue beautifully in landscape, as a sub-dominant, in harmonizing the broad sha- dows of a bright sunshine ere the light declines into deep orange or red. Girtin, who saw Nature as she is, and painted what he saw, delighted in this effect of sun-light and shadow ; but when purple is employed as a aOMgaai OF PURPLE. 133 ruling colour in flesh, or otherwise, its effect is in general too cold, or verges on ghastliness, and is to be as much avoided as the opposite extreme of viciousness in colouring stigmatized as foxiness* Yet, next to green, purple is the most generally pleasing of the consonant colours ; and has been celebrated as a regal or imperial colour, as much perhaps from its rareness in a pure state, as from its individual beauty. It is probable, nevertheless, that the famed Tyrian purple was nearer to the rose, or red, than the purple of the moderns, in which inclination of hue this colour takes the names of crimson, &c, as it does those of violet, lilac, &c. when it inclines toward its other constituent, blue ; which latter colour it serves to mellow, or follows well into shade. The contrast, or harmonizing colour of purple, is yellow on the side of light and the primaries ; and it is itself the harmonizing contrast of the tertiary citrine on the side of shade, and less perfectly so of the semi-neutral brown. As purple, when inclining toward redness, is a regal and pompous colour, it has been used in mythological representations to distinguish the robe of Jupiter the king of Gods, and in general also as a mark of sacerdotal superiority : in its effects on the mind it partakes principally, however, of the powers of its archeus, or ruling colour, blue, and is hence a highly poetical colour, stately, dignifying, sedate, and grave ; soothing in its lights, and saddening in its shades : accordingly it contributes to these sentiments under the proper management of the painter and the poet, as it does also popularly in its use in court mournings, and other circumstances of state : hence the poets sing of " purple state." The rhapsodists of Greece ,often used to recite in a theatrical man- ner, not only with proper gestures, but in colours suitable to their subject ; and when they thus acted the Odyssey of Homer, were dressed in a purple- coloured robe, aXioupyai, to represent the sea-wanderings of Ulysses : but when they acted the Iliad they wore one of a scarlet colour, to sig- nify the bloody battles described in that poem. Upon their heads they wore a crown of gold, and held in their hands a wand made of the laurel tree, which was supposed to have the virtue of exciting poetic raptures. — See Sydenham on the Io of Plato, note 8. Eustath. on the Iliad, B. i. and the Scholiast on Hesiod, Theog. vs. 50. Of the various expression of purple, and its hues, we have the following examples from the poets : The pale violeVs dejected hue. Akenside. ■ H , i .. 134 OF PURPLE. Death dyes the purple seas with gore. Thomson. Shall we build to the purple of pride ? Herbert Knowles. Flowers of this purple dye, Hit with Cupid's archery. Shakspeare. Reclining soft in blissful bowers, Purpled sweet with springing flowers. Fenton. Aurora had but newly chased the night And purpled o'er the sky. Dryden. Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine. Milton. Lest from his hands the purple reins should slip. Symonides. In the following, the poet employs purple in accordance with white and light, &c. Not with more glories, in th' etherial plain, The sun first rises o'er the purpled main, Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams Launch'd on the bosom of the silver Thames. Fair nymphs, and well-drest youths around her shone, But every eye was fix'd on her alone. On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore. Pope's Rape of the Lock, Cant. n. When next the sun his rising light displays, And gilds the world below with purple rays. Dryden's Virgil. Discordantly, — Oft came Edward to my side, With purple falchion, painted to the hilt In blood of those that had encounter'd him. Shakspeare. Contrasted, — OF PURPLE. He is come to ope The purple testament of bleeding war. Shakspeare. The lake return 'd in chasten'd gleam The purple cloud, the golden beam. "Walter Scott. Here Love his golden shafts employs ; here lights His constant lamps, and waves his purple wings. Milton. When the glad harvest waves with golden grain, And thirsty meadows drink the pearly rain, On the proud vine her purple gems appear, And smiling fields rejoice and hail the pregnant year. Pitt. Aurora now, in radiant purple drest, Shone from the portals of the golden east. 135 Hoole's Tasso. Arraying with reflected purple and gold The clouds that on his western throne attend. Milton. By Composition, — The Gods, who all things see, this same beheld, And, pitying this paire of lovers true, Transformed them there lying on the field Into one flower that is both red and blue; It first grows red, and then to blue doth fade, Like Astrophel, which thereunto was made. Spenser, Col. Clo. and in accordance with shade, &c. In darkness, and with danger compass'd round, And solitude, yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn Purples the east ; still govern thou my song, Urania ! Ibid. As the extreme primaries, blue and yellow, when either compounded or opposed, afford, though not the most perfect harmony, yet the most pleasing 136 OF PURPLE. consonance of the primary colours ; so the extremes, purple and orange, afford the most pleasing of the secondary consonances ; and this analogy extends also to the extreme tertiary and semi-neutral colours, while the mean or middle colours afford the most agreeable contrasts or harmonies. This general feeling has evidently been that of the poet, with whom it is a licence to purple and gild without reserve, and with whom " to pur- ple " often means to paint or colour in the abstract. Neither nature nor the painter's art is, however, so profuse of this colour, and purple pigments are rare, of which the following are the few that merit attention. Purple pig- ments lie under a peculiar disadvantage as to apparent durability and beauty of colour, owing to the neutralizing power of yellowness in the grounds upon which they are laid, as well as to the general warm colour of light, and the yellow tendency of almost all vehicles and varnishes, by which this colour is subdued. I. MIXED PURPLES. Purple being a secondary colour, composed of blue and red, it follows of course that any blue and red pigments, which are not chemically at variance, may be used in producing mixed purple pig- ments of any required hue, either by compounding or grinding them toge- ther ready for use, or by combining them in the various modes of operation in painting. In such compounding, the more perfect the original colours are, the better in general will be the purple produced. In these ways ultramarine and the rose colours of madder constitute excellent and beautiful purples, which are equally permanent in water and oil, in glazing, or in tint, whether under the influence of the oxygenous or the hydrogenous principles of light and impure air, by which colours are subject to change. The blue and red of cobalt and madder afford also good purples. Some of the finest and most delicate purples in antient paintings appear to have been similarly com- pounded of ultramarine and vermilion, which constitute tints equally perma- nent, but less transparent than the above. Facility of use, and other ad- vantages, are obtained at too great a sacrifice by the employment of perish- able mixtures, such as are the carmines and lakes of cochineal with indigo and other blue colours. II. GOLD PURPLE, or Cassiuss Purple Precipitate, is the compound oxide which is precipitated upon mixing the solutions of gold and tin. It is not a bright, but a rich and powerful colour, of great durability, varying OF PURPLE. 137 in hue from deep crimson to a murrey or dark purple, and is principally used in miniature, and may be employed in enamel-painting. It works well in water, and is an excellent though expensive pigment, but not much used at present, as the madder purple is cheaper, and perfectly well supplies its place. III. MADDER PURPLE, Purple Rubiate, or Field's Purple, is a very rich and deep carmine, prepared from madder. Though not a brilliant purple, its richness, durability, transparency, and superiority of colour, have given it the preference to the purple of gold preceding, and to burnt carmine. It is a pigment of great body and intensity ; it works well, dries and glazes well in oil, and is pure and permanent in its tints. It neither gives nor sustains injury from other colours, and is in every respect a very perfect and eligible pigment. There is a lighter and brighter sort, which has all the properties of the above with less intensity of colour. IV. BURNT CARMINE is, according to its name, the carmine of cochineal partially charred till it resembles in colour the purple of gold, for the uses of which in miniature and water-painting it is substituted, and has the same properties except its durability ; of which quality, like the carmine it is made from, it is deficient, and therefore in this important respect is an ineligible pigment. A durable colour of this kind may, however, be obtained by burning madder carmine in a cup over a spirit lamp, or otherwise, stirring it till it becomes of the hue or hues required. V. PURPLE LAKE. The best purple lake so called is prepared from cochineal, and is of a rich and powerful colour, inclined to crimson. Its character as a pigment is that of the cochineal lakes already described. It is fugitive both in glazing and tint ; but, used in considerable body, as in the shadows of draperies, &c. it will last under favourable circumstances a long time. Lac lake resembles it in colour, and may supply its place more durably, although not perfectly so. VI. LAC LAKE. See Red Lakes. VII. PURPLE OCHRE, or MINERAL PURPLE, is a dark ochre, s 138 OF PURPLE. native of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. It is of a murrey or chocolate colour, and forms cool tints of a purple hue with white. It is of a similar body and darker colour than Indian red, which has also been classed among purples, but in all other respects it resembles that pigment. '< I OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. OF CITRINE. 139 CHAP. XV. OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. OF CITRINE. His nose was high, his eyen bright citrin. Chaucer's Knight's Tale. CITRINE or citron is the first of the tertiary class of colours, or ulti- mate compounds of the primary triad, yellow, red, and blue ; in which yellow is the archeus or predominating colour, and blue the extreme subordinate ; for citrine being an immediate compound of the secondaries, orange and green, of both which yellow is a constituent, the latter colour is of double occurrence therein, while the other two primaries enter singly into the com- position of citrine, — its mean or middle hue comprehending eight blue, five red, and six yellow, of equal intensities. Hence citrine, according to its name, which is the name, of a class of colours, and is used commonly for a dark yellow, partakes in a subdued degree of all the powers of its archeus yellow ; and, in estimating its pro- perties and effects in painting, it is to be regarded as participating of all the relations of yellow. By some this colour is called brown, as almost all broken colours are. The harmonizing contrast of citrine is a deep purple ; and it is the most advancing of the tertiary colours, or nearest in its relation to light. It is variously of a tepid, tender, modest, cheering character, and alike expressive of these qualities in pictorial and poetic art. In nature, citrine begins to prevail in landscape before the other tertiaries, as the green of summer declines ; and as autumn advances it tends toward its orange hues, including the colours called aurora, chamoise, and others before enumerated under the head of Yellow. I 140 OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. — OF CITRINE. To understand and relish the harmonious relations and expressive powers of the tertiary colours, requires a cultivation of perception and a refinement of taste to which study and practice are requisite. They are at once less definite and less generally evident, but more delightful, — more frequent in nature, but rarer in common art, than the like relations of the secondaries and primaries ; and hence the painter and the poet afford us fewer illustra- tions of effects less commonly appreciated or understood. To this a want of right distinctions, and consequently also of proper appellations, may have contributed ; nevertheless, the tertiaries have not escaped the eye of the poet, though his allusions to them are mostly ambiguous, metonymous, or periphrastical, as in the following examples of citrine : — In accordance with light and shade, &c. Unmuffle, ye faint stars, and thou, fair moon, That wont'st to love the traveller's benison ; Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud, And disinherit Chaos, that reigns here In double night of darkness and of shades. Milton. The grete Emetrius, the king of Inde, Upon a stede bay, trapped in stele, Covered with cloth of gold diapred wele, Came riding like the god of arms. ***** His crispe here like ringes was yronne, And that was yelwe, and glitered as the sonne ; His nose was high ; his eyen bright citrin ; His lippes round ; his coloure was sanguin. Chaucer's Knight's Tale, v. 2158. While sallow autumn fills thy lap with leaves. Collins. Awake ! the morning shines, and the fresh field Calls us : we lose the prime, to mark how spring Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove, What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed, — How Nature paints her colours, how the bee Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweets. Milton. A nd on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. Idem. mm OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. — OF CITRINE. 141 Contrasted, &c. No ivory work my halls infold, Nor arched ceilings gleaming gold ; Nor bear Hymettian columns wrought, The citron beams from Afric brought : Nor high-born dames would 1 e'er see The Spartan purple weave for me. Horace, Carm. xviii. lib. n. Ceres in citrine vest smiles on his care, And purple Bacchus brings him welcome cheer. Anonymous. The tawny lion panting to get free. Milton. Sardinia too, renown'd for yellow fields, With Sicily her bounteous tribute yields. No lands a glebe of richer tillage boast, Nor waft more plenty to the Roman coast. Rowe's Lucan, lib. ii. His tawny beard was th' equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face ; The upper part thereof was whey, The nether, orange mix'd with grey. Butler, Hudibras, Chap. i. Original citrine-coloured pigments are not numerous, unless we include several imperfect yellows, which might not improperly be called citrines : the following are, however, the pigments best entitled to this appellation, though we know of no one that bears it : — I. MIXED CITRINE. What has been before remarked of the mixed secondary colours is more particularly applicable to the tertiary, it being more difficult to select three homogeneous substances, of equal powers as pigments, than two, that may unite and work together cordially. Hence the mixed tertiaries are still less perfect and pure than the secondaries ; and as their hues are of extensive use in painting, original pigments of these colours are proportionately estimable to the artist. Nevertheless there are two evident principles of combination, of which the artist may avail himself in producing these colours in the various ways of working ; the one being that of combining two original secondaries, — e. g. green and orange in producing a citrine ; the other, the uniting the three primaries in such a manner that <;i ! "..■ 142 OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. OF CITRINE. yellow predominate in the case of citrine, and blue and red be subordinate in the compound. These colours are, however, in many cases produced with best and most permanent effect, not by the intimate combination of pigments upon the palette, but by intermingling them, in the manner of nature, on the canvas, so as to produce the effect at a proper distance of a uniform colour. Such is the citrine colour of fruit and foliage ; on inspecting the individuals of which we distinctly trace the stipplings of orange and green, or yellow, red, and green. Similar beautiful consonances are observable in the russet hues of foliage in the autumn, in which purple and orange have broken or super- seded the uniform green of leaves ; and also in the olive foliage of the rose- tree, produced in the individual leaf by the ramification of purple in green. Yet mixed citrines may be compounded safely and simply by slight addi- tions, to an original brown pigment, of that primary or secondary colour which is requisite to give it the required hue. II. BROWN PINK is a vegetal lake precipitated from the decoction of French berries, and dyeing woods, and is sometimes the residuum of the dyer's vat. It is of a fine rich transparent colour, rarely of a true brown ; but being in general of an orange broken by green, it falls into the class of citrine colours, sometimes inclining to greenness, and sometimes toward the warmth of orange. It works well both in water and oil, in the latter of which it is of great depth and transparency, but dries badly. Its tints with white lead are very fugitive, and in thin glazing it does not stand. Upon the whole, it is more beautiful than eligible. III. CITRINE LAKE is a more durable and better drying species of brown pink, prepared from the quercitron bark. The citrine of the definitive scale, PI. i. fig, 3., is of this pigment. IV. CASSIA FISTULA is a native vegetal pigment, though it is more commonly used as a medicinal drug. It is brought from the East and West Indies in a sort of cane, in which it is naturally produced. As a pigment it is deep, transparent, and of an imperfect citrine colour, inclining to dark green— diffusible in water, without grinding, like gamboge and sap-green : it is, however, little used as a pigment, and that only in water, as a sort of substitute for bistre ; which see. »<.,«, .^^— VQMBl : ^e^ OF THE TERTIARY COLOURS. OF CITRINE. 143 V. UMBER, commonly called Raw Umber, is a natural ochre, abounding with oxide of manganese, said to have been first obtained from antient Ombria, now Spoleto, in Italy ; — it is found also in England, and in most parts of the world ; but that which is brought from Cyprus, under the name of Turkish umber, is the best. It is of a brown-citrine colour, semi-opaque, has all the properties of a good ochre, is perfectly durable both in water and oil, and one of the best drying colours we possess. Although not so much employed as formerly, it is perfectly eligible according to its colour and uses. Several browns, and other ochrous earths, approach also to the character of citrines ; such are the terre de Cassel, &c. But in the mixed confusion of names, infinity of tones and tints, and variations of individual pigments, it is impossible to attain an unexceptionable or universally satisfactory arrange- ment ; — we have therefore followed a middle and general course in distri- buting pigments under their proper heads. \ ; ! I #>M& 144 OF RUSSET. CHAP. XVI. OF RUSSET. 'Tis sweet and sad the latest notes to hear Of distant music dying on the ear ; 'Tis sweet to hear expiring summer's sigh, Thro' forests tinged with russet, wail and die. Joanna Baillie. The second or middle tertiary colour, Russet, like citrine, is constituted ultimately of the three primaries, red, yellow, and blue; but with this diffe- rence, that instead of yellow as in citrine, red is the archeus or predomi- nating colour in russet, to which yellow and blue are subordinates; for orange and purple being the immediate constituents of russet, and red being a component part of each' of those colours, it enters doubly into their com- pound in russet, while yellow and blue enter it only singly ; the proportions of its middle hue being eight blue, ten red, and three yellow, of equal 7C intensities. It follows that russet takes the relations and powers of a sub- dued red; and many pigments and dyes of the latter denomination are in strictness of the class of russet colours : in fact, nominal distinction of co- lours is properly only relative ; the gradation from hue to hue, as from shade to shade, constituting an unlimited series, in which it is literally impossible to pronounce absolutely where any shade or colour ends and another begins ; but which is capable nevertheless of being arbitrarily divided to infinity. The harmonizing, neutralizing, or contrasting colour of russet, is a deep green;— when the russet inclines to orange, it is a gray, or subdued blue. These are often beautifully opposed in nature, being medial accordances, or in equal relation to light, shade, and other colours, and among the most agreeable to sense. Russet, we have said, partakes of the relations of red, but moderated in every respect, and qualified for greater breadth of display in the colouring of nature and art ; less so, perhaps, than its fellow-tertiaries in proportion as OF RUSSET. 145 it is individually more beautiful, the powers of beauty being ever most effec- tive when least obtrusive; and its presence in colour should be principally evident to the eye that seeks it, — not so much courting as courted. Of the tertiary colours, it is that which has supplied most of the ornament of epithet and sentiment to the poet ; and his application of it is remarkably analogous to its just uses in painting when applied for the purposes of expression, which in this colour is warm, complacent, solid, frank, and cheering; of which and of its accordances and contrasts, &c, the following may serve as illustrations from the poets, who often, according to a common acceptation, substitute the term brown for russet : The Doric dialect has a sweetness in its clownishness ; like a fair shepherdess in her country russet. Dryden. By this white glove, (how white the hand, God knows !) Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes. Shakspeare. But look — the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. Idem, Hamlet, A. i. S. 1. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, While the landscape round it measures ; Russet lawns, and fallows gray, Where the nibbling flocks do stray. Milton's L'Allegro. Here, in full light, the russet plains extend; There, wrapt in clouds, the bluish hills ascend. Pope. Around my ivied porch shall spring Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew ; And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing In russet gown and apron blue. Rogers. A Palmer poor, in homely russet clad. Our summer such a russet livery wears As in a garment often dyed appears. Drayton. Dryden. I Ill 146 OF RUSSET. .! If! Of the tertiary colours, russet is the most important to the artist ; and there are many pigments under the denominations of red, purple, &c., which are of russet hues ; but there are few true russets, and one only which bears the name : of these are the following : — I. MIXED RUSSET. What has been remarked in the preceding chap- ter upon the production of mixed citrine colours, is equally applicable in general to the mixed russets : we need not therefore repeat it. By the immediate method of producing it materially from its secondaries, orange vermilion and madder purple afford a compound russet pigment of a good and durable colour. Chrome orange and purple lake yield a similar but less permanent mixture. Many other less eligible duple and triple compounds of russet are obvious upon principle, and it may be produced by adding red in due predomi- nance to some browns ; but all these are inferior to the following original pigments : — II. RUSSET RUBIATE, Madder Brown, or Field's Russet, is, as its names indicate, prepared from the rubla tinctoria, or madder-root. It is of a pure, rich, transparent, and deep russet ; of a true middle hue between orange and purple ; not subject to change by the action of light, impure air, time, nor mixture of other pigments. It has supplied a great desideratum, and is indispensable in water-colour painting, both as a local and auxiliary colour, in compounding and producing with yellow the glowing hues of au- tumnal foliage, &c, and with blue the beautiful and endless variety of grays in skies, flesh, &c. There are three kinds of this pigment, distinguished by variety of hue, russet, or madder brown, orange russet, and purple russet, or intense madder brown ; which differ not essentially in their qualities as pig- ments, but as warm or cool russets, and are all good glazing colours. The last dries best in oil, the others but indifferently. The russet of the defini- tive scale, PI. i. fig. 3. is of the second kind. III. PRUSSIATE OF COPPER differs chemically from Prussian blue only in having copper instead of iron for its basis. It varies in colour from russet to brown, is transparent and deep, but, being very liable to change in colour by the action of light and by other pigments, has been very little employed by the artist. OF RUSSET. 147 There are several other pigments which enter imperfectly into, or verge upon, the class of russet, which, having obtained the names of other classes to which they are allied, will be found under other heads ; such are some of the ochres and Indian red. Burnt carmine and Cassius's precipitate are often of the russet hue, or convertible to it by due additions of yellow or orange ; as burnt Sienna earth and various browns are, by like additions of lake or other reds. • ! I 148 OF OLIVE. CHAP. XVII. OF OLIVE. |it.: The water-nymphs that wont to sing and dance, And for her garland olive branches bear, Now baleful boughs of cypress do advance : The Muses that were wont green bays to wear Now bringen bitter elder branches sere : The fatal sisters eke repent Her vital thread so soon was spent : O heavy hearse, Mourn now, my muse, now mourn with heavy cheare ; O careful verse. Spenser, Shepherd's Callender. Olive is the third and last of the tertiary colours, and nearest in relation to shade. It is constituted, like its co-tertiaries, citrine and russet, of the three primaries blue, red, and yellow, so subordinated, that blue prevails therein ; but it is formed more immediately of the secondaries purple and green; and, since blue enters as a component principle into each of these secondaries, it occurs twice in the latter mode of forming olive, while red and yellow occur therein singly and subordinately. Blue is therefore, in every instance, the archeus or predominating colour of olive ; its perfect or middle hue comprehending sixteen of blue to five of red, and three of yellow; and it participates in a proportionate measure of the powers, pro- perties, and relations of its archeus : accordingly, the antagonist, or harmo- nizing contrast of olive, is a deep orange ; and, like blue also, it is a retiring- colour, the most so of all the colours, being the penultimate of the scale, or nearest of all in relation to black, and last, theoretically, of the regular distinctions of colours. Hence its importance in nature and painting is almost as great as that of black : it divides the office of clothing and deco- rating the general face of nature with green and blue ; with both which, as OF OLIVE. 149 with black and grey, it enters into innumerable compounds and accor- dances, changing its name, as either hue predominates, into green, gray, ashen, slate, &c. : thus the olive hues of foliage are called green, and the purple hues of clouds are called gray, &c, for language is general only, and inadequate to the infinite particularity of nature. This infinity, or endless variation of tint, hue and relation, of which the tertiaries are susceptible, and which actually occur in nature, give a bound- less license to the revelry of taste, in which the genius of the pencil may display the most captivating harmonies of colouring, and the most chaste and delicate expressions ; too subtle to be defined, too intricate to be easily understood, and often too exquisite to be felt by the untutored eye ; resem- bling, in this respect, what is recorded of the enharmonic of ancient music : and although these effects abound in nature, they lie for the most part be- yond the simpler distinctions of the poet, which suffice him nevetffTefess for natural and moral allusions of exquisite beauty : Of every sort which in that meadow grew They gathered some ; the violet palid hue, The little dazie that at evening closes, The virgin lillie, and the primrose trew, With store of vermeil roses To deck their bridegroom's posies. Spenser, Prothalmion. For lo, my love doth in herself contain All this world's riches that may far be found ; If saphyres, lo — her eyes be saphyres plain ; If rubies, lo — her lips be rubies sound ; If pearls, her teeth be pearls both pure and round ; If ivory, he* forehead ivory weane ; If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground ; If silver, her fair hands are silver sheene : But that which fairest is, but few behold, Her mind adorned with virtues manifold ! Idem, Sonnets. The course of Nature, in the display of ruling colours expressive of the seasons in the vegetal creation, ere she ventures on the tertiaries, is worthy of remark : her first blossoms are white and colourless, as instanced by the poet, — Already now the snoio-drop dares appear, The first pale blossom of th' unripen'd year. It ;l i; 150 OF OLIVE. Fair Flora's breath, by some transforming power, Hath changed an icicle into a flower ; Its name and hue the scentless plant retains, And winter lingers in its icy veins. To which succeed flowers of pale yellow and orange hues : — Daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty ; violets, dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses, That die unmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength. Shakspeare. Then follows, in fullest glow, the season of reds and of roses : — When Nature, prodigal of powers, Holds her own court 'mid rosy bowers ; Where the soft radiant summer's sky Spreads its ethereal canopy, Deepening while mellowing its hue In its intensity of blue. Mary Ann Brown. Which latter colour is latest in the general train of flowers, with those of strongest dye, rich purple and deep blue. Thus the scale of colours corre- sponds in a general way with the natural course of the seasons, for it is not indeed pretended that the order of the former is thus absolutely distin- guished in the latter ; such is not the method of Nature, who always melo- dizes by imperceptible gradations, while she harmonizes by distinct contrasts and accordances, so that flowers of all colours, variously subordinated, bloom at various seasons : and when the seasons of flowers may be consi- dered as past, Nature, as if she had no farther use for her fine colours, or willing to display her ultimate skill and refinement, lavishes the contents of her palette, not disorderly, but in multiplied relations over all vegetal crea- tion, in those rich and beautiful accordances of broken and finishing colours with which autumn is decorated ere the year decays and declines into darkness. OF OLIVE. 15L TO THE SEASONS. Vernal and grassy, vivid, holy powers, Whose balmy breath exhales in lovely flowers ; All-coloured Seasons, rich increase your care, Circling for ever, flourishing and fair ; Invested with a veil of shining dew, A flowery veil delightful to the view; Attending Proserpine ; when, back from night, The Fates and Graces lead her up to light ; When in a band harmonious they advance, And joyful round her form the solemn dance: With Ceres triumphing ; and Love, divine, Propitious come, and on our incense shine ; Give Earth a blameless store of fruits to bear, And make a painter's mystic art your care. Taylor's Hymns of Orpheus. To distinguish these latter combinations of colours, we have observed that language gives no aid ; they are therefore beyond the poet's pen, and it is the privilege of the pencil alone to represent or imitate them with just effect : and this affords us a true explanation of the paucity of the tertiary in poetry; yet olive is sometimes employed dubiously, with regard to colour, as symbolical of peace, solitude, and shade. Thus Collins, in his " Ode to Liberty," — And lo, an humbler relic laid In jealous Pisa's olive shade! Again, — Where peace, with ever-blooming olive, crowns The gate, where Honour's liberal hands effuse Unenvy'd treasures. Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, B. i. 1. 518. So also Milton, — But he her fears to cease Sent down the meek-eyed Peace ; She, crown'd with olive green, came softly sliding Down through the burning sphere, His ready harbinger, With turtle wings the amorous clouds dividing. Ode on the Nativity. I $ ! >: |'l i.';'' I 152 And again,- OF OLIVE. Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of Arts And Eloquence, native to famous wits, Or hospitable ; in her sweet recess, City or suburb, studious walks and shades. See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long. Milton's Paradise Regained, B. iv. 1. 240. As Olive is usually a compound colour both with the artist and mechanic, and as there is no natural pigment in use under this name, or of this co- lour, in commerce, there are few olive pigments. Terre-vert, already men- tioned, is sometimes of this class, and several of the copper greens acquire this hue by burning. The following need only be noticed : — I. MIXED OLIVE maybe compounded in several ways ; directly, by uniting green and purple, or by adding to blue a smaller proportion oi yellow and red, or by breaking much blue with little orange. Cool black pigments, combined with yellow ochre, afford eligible olives. These hues are called green in landscape, and invisible green in mechanic painting. It is to be noted that, in producing these and other compound colours on the palette or canvas, those mixtures will most conduce to the harmony of the performance which are formed of pigments otherwise generally employed in the picture. II. OLIVE GREEN. The fine pigment sold under this name, princi- pally as a water-colour, is an arbitrary compound, or mixed green, eligible for its uses in landscape, sketching, &c. III. BURNT VERDIGRIS is what its name expresses, and is an olive- coloured oxide of copper deprived of acid. It dries remarkably well in oil, and is more durable; and, in other respects, an improved and more eligible pigment than the original verdigris. Scheele's green affords by burning also a series of similar olive colours, which are as durable as their original pigment. OF OLIVE. 153 IV. OLIVE LAKE is a lake prepared from the green ebony, and is of considerable durability, transparency, and great depth, both in water and ^ oil, in which latter vehicle it dries well. The olive of the definitive scale, PI. i., is of this pigment. ■■■'■■M I u ' [J- m 'j 'i|:|,!,!|'|yi l(!l '■'MM.'! >i 154 OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. CHAP. XVIII. OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. Kate, like the hazel twig, Is straight and slender ; and as brown in hue As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than their kernels. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew. As colour, according to the regular scale descending from white, properly ceases with the class of olive, the neutral black would here naturally terminate the series ; but as, in a practical view, every coloured pigment, of every class or tribe, combines with black as it exists in pigments, — not as deepened, or lowered in tone only, but also as defiled in colour, or changed in class, — a new series or scale of coloured compounds arises, having black for their basis, which, though they differ not theoretically from the preceding order inverted, are, nevertheless, practically imperfect or impure ; in which view, and as compounds of black, we have distinguished them by the term semi-neutral,* and divided them into three classes, corresponding to the natural rela- tions preceding, and comporting with our common appellations and concep- tions of colours, and the greater number of our natural and artificial pig- ments, between the extremes of the indefinite terms brown and gray. In- ferior as the semi -neutrals are in point of colour, they comprehend, neverthe- less, a great proportion of our most permanent pigments ; and are, with re- spect to black, what tints are with respect to white, i. e. they are, so to call them, black tints, or shades. * See Note D. OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. — OF BROWN. 155 The first of the semi-neutrals, and the subject of the present chapter, is brown, which, in its widest acceptation, has been used to comprehend vul- garly every denomination of dark broken colour, and, in a more limited sense, is the rather indefinite appellation of a very extensive class of colours of warm or tawny hues. Accordingly we have browns of every denomination of colours except blue ; thus we have yellow-brown, red-brown, orange- brown, purple-brown, &c. : but it is remarkable that we have, in this sense, no blue-brown, nor any other coloured-brown, in any but a forced sense, in which blue predominates ; such predominance of a cold colour immediately carrying the compound into the class of gray, ashen, or slate-colour. Hence brown comprehends the hues called feuillemort, mort d'ore, dun, hazle, auburn, &c; several of which we have already enumerated as allied to the tertiary colours. The term brown, therefore, properly denotes a warm broken colour, of which yellow is a principal constituent : hence brown is in some measure to shade what yellow is to light, and warm or ruddy browns follow yellows naturally as shading or deepening colours. It is hence also that equal quantities of either the three primaries, the three secondaries, or the three tertiaries, produce variously a brown mixture, and not the neutral black, &c. ; because no colour is essentially single, and warmth belongs to two of the primaries, but coldness to blue alone. This tendency in the compounds of colours to run into brownness and warmth, is one of the general natural properties of colours, which occasions them to deteriorate or dirt each other in mixture : hence brown is syno- nymous with foul or defiled, in a sense opposed to fair and pure ; and it is hence also that brown, which is the nearest of the semi-neutrals in relation to light, is to be avoided in mixture with light colours. It is nevertheless an example of the wisdom of the Author of nature that brown is rendered, like o-reen, a prevailing hue, and in particular an earth colour, as a contrast which is harmonized by the blueness and coldness of the sky, — both these colours prevailing together, too, in hot climates. This tendency will account also for the use of brown in harmonizing and toneino-, and for the great number of natural and artificial pigments and colours we possess under this denomination : in fact, the failure to produce other colours chemically or by mixture is commonly productive of a brown, which, on the other hand, is the colour of dirt, and defiles all other colours. It was this fertility and abundance of brown that occasioned our great 156 OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. — OF BROWN. landscape-colourist Wilson, when an acquaintance went exultingly to inform him he had discovered a new brown, to check him, in his characteristic way, with — " I'm sorry for it : — we have gotten too many of them already" Yet are fine transparent browns obviously very valuable colours. If red or blue be added to brown predominantly, it falls into the other semi-neutral classes, marrone or gray. The wide acceptation of the term brown has occasioned much confusion in the naming of colours, since broken colours in which red, &c. predominate have been improperly called brown ; and a tendency to red or hotness in browns obtains for them the reproachful appellation of foxiness. This term, brown, should therefore be confined to the class of semi-neutral colours, compounded of, or of the hues of, either the primary yellow, the secon- dary orange, or the tertiary citrine, with a black pigment; the general con- trast or harmonizing colour of which will consequently be more or less purple or blue ; and with reference to black and white, or light and shade, it is of the semi-neutrals the nearest in accordance with white and light. Brown is a sober and sedate colour, grave and solemn, but not dismal, and contributes to the expression of strength, stability, and solidity, — vigour, warmth, and rusticity, — and in minor degree to the serious, the sombre, and the sad ; not with the painter only, but also with the rhetorician and poet, with whom, nevertheless, many of the broken colours are yet " airy nothings" and "without a name." Examples of the applications of brown to the purposes of sentiment abound with the poets. Milton employs this colour in the beginning of his " Monody of Lycidas " thus plaintively : Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, X come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, And with forced fingers rude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year ; For Lycidas is dead — . And in the following, from an unknown hand, brown is thus beautifully associated with true feeling of the force of colouring : Go, mark in meditative mood where Autumn Steals o'er his woods with mellowing touch, like Time Ripening the tints of some delicious Claude. Mark where each elm hangs forth its golden bough, ■■iP'wirifflfia ■ill OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. 157 Like that which Virgil's hero sought ; * each oak Fades picturesquely brown ; each sycamore Mantled with ruddy richness. Tis a scene That o'er us sheds the mild and musing calm Of wisdom ; breathes, as noblest bards have own'd, Poetic inspiration ; bids us taste The lonely sweetness of a walk with her By Milton wooed, " divinest Melancholy." And wouldst thou go, unfeeling, and prefer The gorgeous blaze of summer to the charm — The dying charm of Autumn's farewell smile ? Anon. It is apparent that in many instances the colours in which the poet clothes his figures are chosen purely for their expression, as in the following : Satyrs and sylvan boys were seen Peeping from forth their alleys green ; Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear, And Sport leap'd up and seized his beechen spear. Collins. In the dun air sublime. Milton. And see, the fairy valleys fade, Dun night has veil'd the solemn view ! Yet once again, dear parted shade, — Meek Nature's child, again adieu ! Collins. Be mine the hut That from the mountain's side Views wilds, and swelling floods, And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires, And hears their simple bell ; and marks o'er all Thy dewy fingers draw The dusky veil. Idem, Ode to Evening. The unsightly plain Lies a brown deluge. Thomson. * JEn. vi. 158 OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. Byron justly and beautifully contrasts this hue thus : How throbs the pulse when first we view The eye that rolls in glossy blue, Or sparkles black ; or mildly throws A beam from under hazel brows. And Goldsmith thus : Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired, Where grey-beard Mirth and smiling Toil retired. Again, Mrs. Barbauld : But thou, O nymph ! retired and coy, In what brown hamlet dost thou joy To tell thy tender tale ? The lowliest children of the ground, Moss-rose and violet, blossom round, And lily of the vale. Ode to Content. And again : O'er his fair brow, the fairer for their shade, Locks of the warmest brown luxuriant play'd. Blushing he bows — and gentle awe supplies Each flattering meaning to his downcast eyes ; Sweet, serious, tender, those blue eyes impart A thousand dear sensations to the heart. Miss Seward. Sir Walter Scott thus contrasts brown with fair : — Wreathed in its dark-brown rings her hair, Half hid, Matilda's forehead fair; Half hid, and half reveal'd to view, Her full dark eyes of hazel hue. ROKEBY. Shakspeare calls brown dissembling, perhaps in the sense of shadowing, as the Italians call burnt umber falsalo : — His very hair is of the dissembling colour — Something browner than Judas's. As YOU LIKE IT. OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. — OF BROWN. And in the following it is accorded with shade, black, &c. : — To arched walks of twilight groves, And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, Of pine or monumental oak. Milton's Lycidas. Not that our heads are, Some brown, some black, some auburn, and some bald, But that our wits are so diversely coloured. Shakspeare. Obscured where highest woods, impenetrable To stars or sun-light, spread their umbrage broad, And brown as evening. Milton. 159 Bid this mild summer of my life rebloom ; Bid every shade embrown and cloister gloom. The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil, Healthful and strong : full as the summer rose, Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid — . Mason. Thomson. Where beasts with man divided empire claim, And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim. Ambitious of the town, She left her wheel and robes of country brown. Goldsmith. The fields, all iron, cast a gleaming brown. Idem. Milton. The list of brown pigments is very long, and that of mixed browns li- terally endless, it being obvious that every warm colour mixed with black will afford a brown, and that equal portions of the primaries, secondaries, or tertiaries, will do the same ; hence there can be no difficulty of producing them by mixture when required, which is seldom, as there are many browns which are good and permanent pigments among the following : — I. VANDYKE-BROWN. This pigment, hardly less celebrated than the great painter whose name it bears, is a species of peat or bog-earth of a fine, deep, semi-transparent brown colour. The pigment so much esteemed and used by Vandyke is said to have been brought from Cassel ; and this i» 160 OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. seems to be justified by a comparison of Cassel-earth with the browns of his pictures.* The Vandyke-browns in use at present appear to be terrene pigments of a similar kind, purified by grinding and washing over : they vary sometimes in hue and in degrees of drying in oil, which they in general do tardily, owing to their bituminous nature, but are good browns of power- ful body, and are durable both in water and oil. The Campania-brown of the old Italian painters was a similar earth. II. MANGANESE BROWN is an oxide of manganese, of a fine, deep, semi -opaque brown of good body, which dries admirably well in oil. It is deficient of transparency, but may be a useful colour for glazing or lower- ing the tone of white without tinging it, and as a local colour in draperies, dead-colouring, &c. It is a perfectly durable colour both in water and oil. III. RUBENS'-BROWN. The pigment still in use in the Netherlands under this appellation is an earth of a lighter colour and more ochrous texture than the Vandyke-brown of the London shops : it is also of a warmer or more tawny hue than the latter pigment, and is a beautiful and durable brown, which works well both in water and oil, and much resembles the brown used by Teniers. IV. CASSEL-EARTH, or, corruptly, Castle-earth. The true terre de Cassel is an ochrous pigment similar to the preceding, but of a brown colour, more inclined to the russet hue. In other respects it does not differ essentially from Rubens' and Vandyke- browns. V. COLOGN-EARTH, incorrectly called Culleris-earth, is a native pig- ment, darker than the two last, and in no respect differing from Vandyke- brown in its uses and properties as a colour. Similar earths abound in our own country. VI. BURNT UMBRE is the fossil pigment called Umbre, burnt, by which it becomes of a deeper and more russet hue, and very drying in oil, in which it is employed as a dryer. It may be substituted for Vandyke- * In the tribe of browns — in oil painting one of the finest earths is known, at the colour- shops, by the name of Castle-earth or Vandyke s-br own. — Gilpin's Essays on Picturesque Beauty, &c. Essay iv. p. 33. >*^ . OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. — OF BROWN. 161 brown, and is a perfectly durable and eligible pigment in water, oil, or fresco. The old Italians called it falsalo. VII. BROWN OCHRE. See Yellow Ochre. VIII. SPANISH BROWN, or Twer. See Red Ochre. IX. BONE BROWN and Ivory Brown are produced by torrefying, or roast- ing, bone and ivory till by partially charring they become of a brown colour throughout. They may be made to resemble the five first browns above by management in the burning; and, though much esteemed by some artists, are not perfectly eligible pigments, being bad dryers in oil, and their lighter shades not durable either in oil or water when exposed to the action of strong light, or mixed in tint with white lead. The palest of these colours are also the most opaque : the deepest are more durable, and most so when approaching black. X. ASPHALTUM, called also Bitumen, Mineral Pitch, and Jews' Pitch, is a resinous substance rendered brown by the action of fire, natural or arti- ficial. The substance employed in painting under this name is black and glossy like pitch, which differs from it only in having been less acted upon by fire, and in thence being softer. Asphaltum is principally used in oil-painting ; for which purpose it is first dissolved in oil of turpentine, by which it is fitted for glazing and shading. Its fine brown colour, and per- fect transparency, are lures to its free use with many artists, notwithstand- ing the certain destruction which awaits the work on which it is much employed, owing to its disposition to contract and crack by changes of temperature and the atmosphere ; but for which it would be a most beau- tiful, durable, and eligible pigment. The solution of asphaltum in tur- pentine, united with drying oil by heat, or the bitumen torrefied and ground in linseed or drying oil, acquires a firmer texture, but becomes less transparent, and dries with difficulty. A specimen of the native bitumen, brought from Persia by Lieutenant Ford, of which we made trial, had a powerful scent of garlic when rubbed. In the fire it softened without flowing, and burnt with a lambent flame; did not dissolve by heat in oil of turpentine, but ground easily as a pigment in pale drying oil, affording a fine deep transparent brown colour, resembling fa aflAaai a : I : : ' 162 OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. OF BROWN. that of the asphaltum of the shops ; and dried firmly nearly as soon as the drying oil alone. Asphaltum may be used as a permanent brown in water, and the native kind is also superior to the artificial for this purpose. XL MUMMY, or Egyptian Brown, is also a bituminous substance com- bined with animal remains, brought from the catacombs of Egypt, where liquid bitumen was employed three thousand years ago in embalming, in which office it has combined, by a slow chemical change, during so many ages with substances which give it a more solid and lasting texture than simple asphaltum ; but in this respect it varies exceed- ingly, even in the same subject. Its other properties and uses as a pigment are the same as those of asphaltum, for which it is employed as a valuable substitute, being less liable to crack or move on the canvas. This also may be used, when ground, as a water-colour. XII. ANTWERP BROWN is a preparation of asphaltum ground in strong drying oil, by which it becomes less liable to crack. See the two last articles. Bituminous coal, jet, and other bituminous substances, afford similar browns. XIII. BISTRE is a brown pigment extracted by watery solution from the soot of wood-fires, whence it retains a strong pyroligneous scent. It is of a wax-like texture, and of a citrine-brown colour, perfectly durable. It has been much used as a water-colour, particularly by the old masters in tinting drawings and shading sketches, previously to Indian ink coming into general use for such purposes. In oil it dries with the greatest difficulty. A substance of this kind collects at the back of fire-places in cottages where peat is the constant fuel burnt ; which, purified by solution and eva- poration, affords a fine bistre. Scotch bistre is of this kind. All kinds of bistre attract moisture from the atmosphere. XIV. SEPIA, Seppia, or Animal jEthiops. This pigment is named after the sepia, or cutilt-jish, which is called also the ink-fish from its affording a dark liquid which was used as an ink by the ancients. From this liquid our pigment sepia, which is brought principally from the Adriatic, and may be obtained from the fish on our own coasts, is said to be obtained ; and it is XVI. MADDER BROWN. See Russet Rubiate, II. chap. xvi. XVII. BROWN PINK. See Chap. xv. II. XVIII. PRUSSIAN BROWN is a preparation of Prussian blue, from which the blue colouring principle has been expelled by fire, or extracted by an alkaline ley ; it is an orange brown, of the nature and properties of Sienna earth. XIX. BROWN INK. Various of these were used in sketching by Claude, Rembrandt, and many of the old masters ; the principal of which were solutions of bistre and sepia. Less eligible preparations, which have faded or decayed, as common ink does, have also been employed ; but other sketching inks may easily be produced, of durable colours and agree- able tints. "■awewfc ' I! OF SEMI-NEUTRAL COLOURS. — OF BROWN. 163 "supposed that it enters into the composition of the Indian ink of the Chinese. Sepia is of a powerful dusky brown colour, of a fine texture, works admirably in water, combines cordially with other pigments, and is very permanent. It is much used as a water-colour, and in making drawings in the manner of bistre and Indian ink ; but is not used in oil, in which it dries very reluc- tantly. XV. HYPOCASTANUM, or Chestnut Brown, is a brown lake prepared from the horse-chestnut ; transparent and rich in colour, warmer than brown pink, and very durable both in water and oil ; in the latter of which it dries moderately well. in ■ill ' mm^mKLma^mmma m 164 OF MARRONE. ! ;!i ; ■ I :■ lH CHAP. XIX. OF MARRONE. We have adopted the term marrone for our second and middle semi- neutral, as univocal of a class of impure colours composed of black and red, black and purple, or black and russet pigments, or with black and any other denomination of pigments in which red predominates. It is a mean between the warm, broken, semi-neutral class of colours called brown, and the cold semi-neutral class of grey, or ashen. Marrone is practically to shade, what ,red is to light ; and its relations to other colours are those of red, &c, when we invert or degradate the scale from black to white. It is therefore a following, or shading, colour of red and its derivatives ; and hence its accordances, contrasts, and expressions agree with those of red degraded ; hence red added to brown converts it into marrone if in sufficient quantity to predominate. In smaller proportions red gives to browns the denominations of bay, chestnut, sorrel, &c. Owing to the instability and confusion of the nomenclature of colours, most of the colours and pigments of this class have been assigned to other denominations, as reds, browns, and purples— puce, pavonazzo, murrey, morello, chocolate, &c. (and the seasons of London bring us annually new names for broken colours from the dyer, few of which survive the epheme- ral fashions which introduce them) : hence pigments which belong properly to the present and other classes, have been arranged according to their names under other heads ; such in the present instance are the ochres called purple-brown, mineral purple, dark cassius purple, dark Indian red, &c, which see. It is owing to this vagueness of nomenclature that the pre- sent and other denominations of broken colours have been unknown to or little used by the poet. OF MARRONE. 165 Marrone is a colour easily compounded in all its hues and shades by the mixture variously of red, black, and brown ; but the following is the only pigment which bears the denomination : — I. MARRONE LAKE is a preparation of madder of great depth, trans- parency, and durability of colour. It works well in water, glazes and dries in oil, and is in all respects a good pigment : as, however, its hues are easily given with other pigments, it has not been much used. There is a deeper kind, which has been called purple-black. II. CARUCRU, or Chica, is a new pigment, of a soft powdery texture, and rich marrone colour, brought by Lieutenant Mawe from South America; for a portion of which we have been indebted to the kindness of Mr. Brocke- don. It is said to be procured from a species of bignonia in the manner of indigo by the Indians of the interior of Guiana, and employed by their chiefs and higher orders as a fucus for the face, and as a sovereign remedy, topi- cally applied, for the erysipelas.* Comparatively as a pigment, it resembles marrone lake in colour, and is equal in body and transparency to the car- mine of cochineal, though by no means approaching it in beauty, or even in durability, fugitive as the latter pigment is. Exposed to the light of a window, even without sun, the colour of carucru is soon changed and destroyed, which defects alone render it unfit for fine art, whatever value it may be found to possess in dyeing or in medicine. In its chemical affinities it very much resembles the best anotta, although it is redder in colour ; and, if we may venture an opinion, it is but a finer species of that drug, and may be substituted for it in tinging lackers and varnishes, as it forms a rich orange tincture with spirit of wine. Its use as a rouge evinces a good eye in the Carib, with whose complexion it is better suited to harmonize, than the gaudy rouge prepared from carthamus or saf- flower, very injudiciously employed by the fairer beauties of Europe. • See an article on this production by Dr. Hancock, Edin. N. Phil. Journ., No. xiv. 166 OF Gil AY. CHAP. XX. OF GRAY. Down sunk the sun, the closing hour of day Came onward, mantled o'er with dusky gray. Parnell. ('« |L HI : " Of the tribe of semi-neutral colours, Gray is the third and last, being- nearest in relation of colour to black. In its common acceptation, and that in which we here use it, gray denotes a class of cool cinereous colours, faint of hue ; whence we have blue grays, olive grays, green grays, purple grays, and grays of all hues, in which blue predominates ; but no yellow or red grays, the predominance of such hues carrying the compounds into the classes of brown and marrone, of which gray is the natural opposite. In this sense the semi-neutral gray is distinguished from the neutral grey, which springs in an infinite series from the mixture of the neutral black and white : — between grays and greys, however, there is no intermediate, since where colour ends in the one, neutrality commences in the other, and vice versa ;- — hence the natural alliance of the semi-neutral gray with black or shade ; an alliance which is strengthened by the latent predominance of blue in the synthesis of black, so that in the tints resulting from the mixture of black and white so much of that hue is developed as to give apparent colour t© the tints. This affords the reason why the tints of black and dark pig- ments are colder than their originals, so much so as in some instances to answer the purposes of positive colours ; and it accounts in some measure for the natural blueness of the sky, though this is partly dependent, by con- trast, upon the warm colour of sunshine to which it is opposed ; for, if by any accident the light of nature should be rendered red, the colour of the sky would not appear purple in consequence, but green ; or if the sun shone green the sky would not be green, but red inclined to purple ; and so on of all colours, not according to the laws of composition in colours, but of con- trast, since, if it were otherwise, the golden rays of the sun would render a blue sky green. OF GRAY. 167 The grays are the natural cold correlatives, or contrasts, of the warm semi-neutral browns; and they are degradations of blue and its allies; hence blue added to brown throws it into or toward the class of grays, and hence grays are equally abundant in nature and necessary in art ; for the grays comprehend in nature and painting a widely diffused and beautiful play of retiring colours in skies, distances, carnations, and the shadowings and reflections of pure light, &c. Gray is indeed the colour of space, and hence has the property of diffusing breadth in a picture, while it furnishes at the same time good connecting tints, or media, for harmonizing the general colouring : the grays are therefore among the most essential hues of the art, which yet must not be suffered injudiciously to predominate in cases where the subject or sentiment does not require it, so as to cast over the work the gloom or leaden dulness reprobated by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; * although in solemn subjects they are wonderfully effective and proper ruling colours. As blue is the archeus of all the colours which enter into the composition of grays, the latter partake of the relations and affections of blue, both with the painter and the poet. Grave sounds, like gray colours, are deep and dull, and there is a similarity of these terms in sound, signification, and senti- ment, if even they are not of the same etymology : be this as it may, gray is almost as common with the poet, and in its colloquial use, as it is in nature and painting. The grays, like the other semi-neutrals, are sober, modest colours, contributing to the expression of gloom, sadness, frigidity, and fear,— the grave, the obscure, the spectral,— age, decrepitude, and death ; bordering in these respects upon the powers of black, but aiding the livelier and more cheering expressions of other colours by diversity, connexion, and contrast, and partaking of the more tender and delicate influence belonging to white, as they approach it in their lighter tints. Upon the whole, it may be inferred as a general rule, that half of a picture ought to be of a neutral hue, to insure the harmony of the colouring, or at least that a balance of co- lour and neutrality is quite as essential to the best effect of a picture as a like balance of light and shade is; so universal is the reference of gray ; and hence the frequent allusions to this colour by the poets thus variously : Put your torches out — the gentle day, Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey. Shakspeare. pi M * Reynolds's Works by Farrington, Notes, vol. in. p. 162. '! >: 168 OF GRAY. For all was blank, and bleak, and gray, — It teas not night — it was not day. Byron, Pris. of Chillon. Caecelia, that is gray -eyed. Camden. Oh ! how unseemly shows in blooming yoxith Such grey severity ! Milton, Comus. His hair just grizzled as in a green old age. Dryden. Gray-headed men and grave with warriours mixt. Milton. Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless. Shakspeare. Though grey Do something mingle with our younger brown. Idem, Ant. and Cleop., Act iv. Sc. 8. The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade To paly ashes ; thy eye's windows fall. Idem, Rom. and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 1. Gray-beard, thy love doth freeze. Idem. Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arms so far To be afraid to tell gray-beards the truth ? Idem. Her eyes are gray as glass, and so are mine. Idem. The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light ; And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels From forth day's pathway — . Idem, Rom. and Juliet, Act n. Sc. 3. Black spirits and white, Blue spirits and grey , Mingle, mingle, mingle — . Idem, Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 1. Our green youth copies what our gray sinners act. Dryden. Gray-headed infants. Idem. I •.'•S«Wi?<^£T , itS.^«S OF GRAY. 169 They left me then when the gray-hooded even', Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed. Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. Milton. Now came still evening on, and twilight gray, Had, in her sober livery, all things clad. Id. Par. Lost. Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise From hill or streaming lake, dusky or gray, Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold, In honour of the world's Great Author, rise. Idem. Thus pass'd the night so foul, till morning fair Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice gray. I would not leave old Scotland's mountains gray, Her hills, her cots, her halls, her groves of pine, Dark though they be ; yon glen, yon broomy brae, Yon wild fox cleugh, yon eagle cliff's outline ; An hour like this — this white right hand of thine, And of thy dark eye such a gracious glance, As I got now, for all beyond the line, And all the glory gain'd by sword or lance, In gallant England, Spain, or olive vales of France. And some will mourn in ashes, some coal black. Id. Par. Reg. A. Cunningham. Shakspeare. All music sleeps, where death doth lead the dance, And shepherds' wonted solace is extinct — The blue in black, the green in gray is tinct : The gaudy garlands deckt her grave, The faded flowers her corse embrave. O heavie hearse ! Mourn now my muse, now mourn with tears besprent. O careful verse ! The mantled meadows mourne, Their sundry colours tourne. Spenser's Shep. Cal. Nov. There are several pigments of this class, which follow ; and others might easily be found if required. They are also as easily compounded as they are useful and essential in painting : — 170 OF GRAY. i! I. MIXED GRAYS are formed not only by the compounding of black and white, which yields neutral greys, and of black and blue, black and purple, black and olive, &c, which yield the semi-neutral grays of clouds, &c, but these may be well imitated by the mixture of russet rubiate, or madder browns, with blues, which form transparent compounds, which are much employed : Grays are, however, as above remarked, so easily pro- duced, that the artist will in this respect vary and suit his practice to his purpose. II. NEUTRAL TINT. Several mixed pigments of the class of gray colours are sold under the name of Payne's gray, neutral tint, &c. They were first employed by Cousins, and are, as we have been informed, now variously composed of sepia and indigo or other blues, with madder or other lakes, and are designed for water-colour painting only, in which they are found extremely useful. And here it may be proper to mention those other pigments, sold under the name of tints, which belong to no particular denomination of pigments ; but being compounds, the result of the expe- rience of accredited masters in their peculiar modes of practice, serve to facilitate the progress of their pupils, while they are eligible in a like view to other artists. Such are Harding's and Macphersons tints, usually sold ready prepared in cakes and boxes for miniature and water painting. The latter of these two we know to be composed of pigments which associate cordially and with permanence, and may therefore be relied upon ; never- theless the artist will in general prefer a dependence upon his own skill for the production of his tints in painting. III. ULTRAMARINE ASHES are the recrement of Lapis lazuli, from which ultramarine has been extracted, varying in colour from dull gray to blue. Although not equal in beauty, and inferior in strength of colour, to ultramarine, they are extremely useful pigments, affording grays much more pure and tender than such as are composed of black and white, or other blues, and better suited to the pearly tints of flesh, foliage, the grays of skies, the shadows of draperies, &c, in which the old masters were wont to employ them. Ultramarine broken with black and white, &c, produces the same effects, and is thus sometimes carried throughout the colouring of a picture. The brighter sorts of ultramarine ashes are more properly pale ultra- marines, and of the class of blue. OF GRAY. 171 IV. PHOSPHATE OF IRON is a native ochre, which classes in colour with the deeper hues of ultramarine ashes, and is eligible for all their uses. It has already been described under its appellation of blue ochre. Slate clays and several native earths class with grays ; but the colours of some of the latter, which we have tried, are not durable, being subject to become brown by the oxidation of the iron they contain. V. PLUMBAGO. See Black Lead. 172 OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. CHAP. XXI. OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. If white and black blend, soften, and unite A thousand ways, is there no black and white ? Pope. i ■ Black is the last and lowest in the series or scale of colours descending, — the opposite extreme from white, — the maximum of colour. To be per- fect it must be neutral with respect to colours individually, and absolutely- transparent, or destitute of reflective power in regard to light ; its use in painting being to represent shade or depths, of which it is the element in a picture and in colours, as white is of light. As there is no perfectly pure and transparent black pigment, black dete- riorates all colours in deepening them, as it does warm colours by partially neutralizing them, but it combines less injuriously with cold colours. Though it is the antagonist or contrast of white, yet added to it in minute portion it in general renders white more neutral, solid, and local, with less of the character of light. As a local colour in a picture, it has the effect of connecting or amassing surrounding objects, and it is the most retiring of colours, which property it communicates to other colours in mixture. It heightens the effect of warm as well as light colours, by a double contrast when opposed to them, and in like manner subdues that of cold and deep colours ; but in mixture or glazing these effects are reversed, as we have already said, by reason of the predominance of cold colour in the constitution of black. Black is to be considered as a synthesis of the three primary colours, the three secondaries, or the three tertiaries, or of all these together— and con- sequently also of the three semi-neutrals, and may accordingly be composed OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. 173 of due proportions of either tribe or triad. All antagonist colours, or con- trasts, also afford the neutral black by composition ; but in all the modes of producing black by compounding colours, blue is to be regarded as its archeus or predominating colour, and yellow as subordinate to red, in the proportions, when their hues are true, of eight blue, five red, and three yel- low. It is owing to this predominance of blue in the constitution of black, that it contributes by mixture to the pureness of hue in white colours, which in general incline to warmth, and that it produces the cool effect of blueness in glazing and tints, or however otherwise diluted or dilated. All colours are comprehended in the synthesis of black, consequently the whole sedative power of colour is comprised in black. It is the same in the synthesis of white ; and, with like relative consequence, white compre- hends all the stimulating powers of colour in painting. It follows that a little black or white are equivalent to much colour, and hence their use as colours requires judgment and caution in painting ; and in engraving, black and white supply the place of colours, and hence a true knowledge of the active or sedative power of every colour is of great importance to the engra- ver, and of main consideration in every mode of the chiar'-oscuro. By due attention to the synthesis of black it may be rendered a harmoni- zing medium to all colours, and it gives brilliancy to them all by its sedative effect on the eye, and its powers of contrast; nevertheless, we repeat, as a pigment it must be introduced with caution in painting when hue is of greater importance than shade, even when employed as shadow. Without great judgment in its use black is apt to appear as local colour, rather than as privation of light ; and for this reason deep and transparent colours, which have darkness in their constitution, are better adapted in general for producing the true natural effects of shade. From the contrasting and har- monizing efficacy of black with all colours, and in particular with the lively and gay, the goddess Flora has been not inaptly decorated by mythologists with a mantle of black ; and the moral sentiment, arising from the same cause, has not escaped the elegant imagination of the poet, thus beautifully and succinctly expressed by Gray, — The hues of bliss more brightly glow, Chasten'd by sabler tints of woe. Black is emblematical of mental degradation and crime ; the garb of the Harpies and Furies, the daughters of Night. In its moral effects indivi- 174 OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. !i;ra " dually, it is gloomy and terrific both in nature and art ; * hence fear and horror are excited and augmented by darkness ; hence it has been the livery of woe, and the ensign of death and the devil, among every civi- lized people ; and hence the poets, priests, and rhetoricians have employed it ideally in designating the dismal, the dreadful, the criminal, the mourn- ful, the horrible, and in every sentiment of melancholy, of which the very name denotes blackness and darkness. Such also are its expressive uses in painting, in which it is the instrument of solemnity, obscurity, breadth and boundlessness, the terrible, the sublime, and the profound ; and it is by contrast the prime power whereby all the magic of the chiar'-oscuro is produced. Upon this power of the neutral, Rembrandt depended as much too much perhaps as Rubens did upon the contrast of positive colours : the works of Rembrandt afford, nevertheless, the best examples of this power generally; and, in the particular department of landscape, we know of none so varied and perfect as the admirable series of mezzotintos recently published by our English Constable, in a mode of engraving, by the bye, peculiarly qualified for exhibiting the powers of the pencil in light and shade.f If we compare these natural, sensible, and moral powers of black, with those of white, which colours are symbols of night and day, we shall be struck by the immense latitude of light and shade which lies between them, and the correspondence of opposition which belongs to them equally by nature and the consent of mankind, and be led to infer the similar, mo- ral, and sensible analogies of other colours; not as conventional fancies of the poet and painter, but as natural and real relations and attributes, although dimly understood. By insisting too earnestly upon such para- doxical powers, we may, perhaps, incur from some persons the reproach of the ancient musician who deduced every thing from his own art ; and yet we confess we are among the most reluctant to join in this censure of the harmonist, being entirely convinced that, throughout nature and science, the Great Author of all does but manifest the same Identical Wisdom in a variety of ways, and that He has capacitated man to comprehend, to imitate, and to enjoy them. We have endeavoured to show, under their proper heads, how black is * The youth couched by Cheselden had an impression of great uneasiness the first time he saw black ; and was, some months after, struck with great horror at the sight of a negress. t See Landscapes Characteristic of English Scenery, by John Constable, It. A. engraved by D. Lucas. ^~ ■ » OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. 175 related to, and how it affects each colour individually in painting. Black, white, red, blue, green, purple, and brown, are the colours of the poet, with whom gold supplies the place of yellow and orange, as it does also in some old paintings and illuminatings ; but, a tinge of melancholy being essential to pathos, black is more employed for effect in eloquence and poetry than all the other colours put together ; of which, and also of various relations of this colour, the following may serve as illustrations : — Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the scowl of night. Shakspeare. Not the black gates of Hades are to me More hostile or more hateful, than the man Whose tongue holds no communion with his heart. Sydenham, after Homer. Then came this woful Theban, Palemon, With flotery berd, and ruggy, ashy heres, In clothes blacke, ydropped all with teres, The reufullest of all the compagnie. Chaucer's Knight's Tale. News fitted to the night, — Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. The blacke and doleful ebonie. Shakspeare. Spenser's Elegy. Hence, loathed Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy, Find out some uncouth cell, Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There, under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desart ever dwell. Milton, L'Allegro. 'Tis so strange, That, though the truth of it stands off as gross As white from black, my eyes will scarcely see it. Shakspeare. 176 :^ OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night ? I did not err, — there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. Milton, Comus. Most preposterous event, that draweth From my snow-white pen the sable-colour' d ink. Shakspeare. Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouth'd ; And with contrary blasts proclaims most deeds : On both his wings, one black the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight. Black Macbeth will seem as pure as snow. Milton. Shakspeare. Youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables and his iveeds, Importing health and graveness. Idem, Hamlet, Act iv. Scene 7. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires. Idem. 'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, Your bugle eye-balls, nor your cheek of cream, That can entame my spirits to your worship. Idem. The Devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon. Idem. We mourn in black, why mourn we not in blood ? Idem. The splendid fortune and the beauteous face (Themselves confess it, and their Sires bemoan) Too soon are caught by scarlet and by lace ; The sons of science shine in black alone. DUNCOMBE. OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. And sullen Moloch, fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol, all of blackest hue ; In vain with cymbal's ring They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue. Ill Milton. Come, thick Night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell ; That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, Hold ! Hold ! Shakspeare, Macbeth. Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer. Idem, Richard hi. How now you secret, black, and midnight hags ? Idem, Macbeth. O, beat away the busy meddling^?enrf, That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, And from his bosom purge this black despair ! Idem, Henry vi. Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. Thomson. Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron, of sorrow black and deep. Milton. O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. Idem. Black perdition. Idem. Besieged with sable-colour 'd Melancholy, I did commend the black oppressing humour To the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air. Shakspeare. By heaven ! thy love is black as ebony. Idkm. 178 OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. He said my eyes were black, and my hair black, And, now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me. Shakspeare. Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Together with all forms, modes, shews of grief, That can denote me truly But I have that within which passeth show. Idem, Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. The rugged Pyrrhus, — he, whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble. Idem, Act n. Sc. 2. A rise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell. Idem, Othello, Act hi. Sc. 3. Thus like the sad presaging raven, that tolls The sick man's passport in her hollow beak, And in the shadows of the silent night Does shake contagion from her sable wings. Marlowe's Jew of Malta. When in dim chambers long black weeds are seen, And weeping 's heard where only joy has been. Rogers. Here, while the proud their long drawn pomps display, There the black gibbet glooms beside the way. Goldsmith. A cloudy region, black and desolate, Where once a slave withstood a world in arms. Rogers. But the shadows of eve, which encompass the gloom, The abode of the dead, and the place of the tomb. Herbert Knowles. With soft suspended step, and muffled deep In midnight darkness, whisper'd my last sigh. Young. She hath abated me of half my train ; Look'd black upon me ; struck me with her tongue, Most serpent-like, upon the very heart. Shakspeare, King Lear, Act n. Sc. 4. OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. 179 At length they chanced to meet upon the way An aged sire, in long black weeds yclad, His feet all bare, his beard all hoarie gray, And by his belt his booke he hanging had ; Sober he seem'd, and very sagely sad. Spenser, Fairie Queen, Canto i. 29. Most of the black pigments in use are produced by charring, and owe their colour to the carbon they contain : such are Ivory and Bone blacks, Lamp black, Blue black, Frankfort black, &c. The three first are most in use, and vary according to their modes of preparation or burning ; yet fine Frankfort black, though principally confined to the use of the engraver and printer, is often preferable to the others. Native or mineral blacks are heavy and opaque, but dry well. Some of the old masters are said to have employed a black lake of great beauty, — and all coloured lakes calcined in close vessels become such ; or perhaps they employed the sediment of the dyer's vat, which Pliny informs us was used by the antients, and which nevertheless could not have been a durable nor eligible pigment, more especially in distemper or fresco. It is probable also that this black lake may have been a synthetic black, com- posed of primary or secondary transparent colours, or by addition of co- loured lakes to other blacks as the case might require. Prussian blue and burnt lake afford a powerful black ; and compound blacks, in which transpa- rent pigments are employed, will generally go deeper and harmonize better with other colours than any original black pigment alone : hence lakes and deep blues, added to the common blacks, greatly increase their clearness and intensity ; and ultramarine has evidently been employed in mixture and glazing of the fine blacks of some old pictures. In this view, black alto- gether compounded of ultramarine, cobalt blue, or Prussian blue, with red and yellow lakes, subordinated according to the powers of the pigments used, will afford the most powerful and transparent blacks ; but they dry badly in oil, as is indeed the case also of most other blacks. Black pigments are innumerable : the following are however the prin- cipal, all of which are permanent colours : — I. IVORY BLACK and Bone Black are ivory and bone charred to blackness by strong heat in closed vessels. These pigments vary princi- pally through want of care or skill in preparing them : when well made, 180 OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. they are fine neutral blacks, perfectly durable and eligible both for oil and water painting ; but when insufficiently burnt they are brown, and dry badly ; and when too much burnt, they are cineritious, opaque, and faint in colour. Of the two, ivory affords the best pigment ; but bone black is commonly used, and immense quantities are consumed with sulphuric acid in manufacturing of shoe-blacking. II. LAMP-BLACK, or Lamblack, is a smoke black, being the soot of resinous woods, obtained in the manufacturing of tar and turpentine. It is a pure carbonaceous substance of a fine texture, intensely black, and per- fectly durable, but dries badly in oil. This pigment may be prepared ex- temporaneously for water painting by holding a plate over the flame of a lamp or candle, and adding gum-water to the colour : the nearer the plate is held to the wick of the lamp, the more abundant and warm will be the hue of the black obtained ; at a greater distance it will be more effectually charred and blacker. This is a good substitute for Indian ink, the colouring basis of which appears to be lamp-black. III. FRANKFORT BLACK is said to be made of the lees of wine from which the tartar has been washed, by burning, in the manner of ivory black. Similar blacks are prepared of vine twigs and tendrils, which contain tartar ; also from peach-stones, &c. whence Almond black ; and the Indians employ for the same purpose the shell of the cocoa-nut : and inferior Frank- fort black is merely the levigated charcoal of woods, of which the hardest, such as the box and ebony, afford the best. Fine Frankfort black, though almost confined to copper-plate printing, is one of the best black pigments we possess, being of a fine neutral colour, next in intensity to lamp black, and more powerful than that of ivory. Strong light has the effect of deepening its colour ; yet the blacks employed in the printing of engravings have proved of very variable durability. IV. BLUE BLACK is also a well-burnt and levigated charcoal, of a cool neutral colour, and not differing in other respects from the common Frankfort black above mentioned. Blue black was formerly much employed in painting* and, in common with all carbonaceous blacks, has, when duly mixed with white, a preserving influence upon that colour in two respects, which it owes, chemically, to the bleaching power of carbon, and, chroma- OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. 181 tically, to the neutralizing and contrasting power of black with white. It would be well also for the art if carbon had a like power upon the colour of oils ; but of this it is deficient ; and although chlorine destroys their colour temporarily, they re-acquire it at no very distant period. V. SPANISH BLACK is a soft black, prepared by burning cork in the manner of Frankfort and ivory blacks ; and it differs not essentially from the former, except in being of a lighter and softer texture. It is subject to the variation of the above charred blacks, and eligible for the same uses. VI. PURPLE BLACK is a preparation of madder of a deep purple hue approaching black : its tints with white lead are of a purple colour. It is very transparent and powerful, glazes and dries well in oil, and is a dura- ble and eligible pigment, more properly belonging perhaps to the semi- neutral class of marrone. VII. MINERAL BLACK is a native impure oxide of carbon, of a soft texture, found in Devonshire. It is blacker than plumbago, and free from its metallic lustre,— is of a neutral colour, greyer and more opaque than ivory black,— forms pure neutral tints,— and being perfectly durable, and drying well in oil, it is valuable in dead colouring on account of its solid body, as a preparation for black and deep colours before glazing. It would also be the most durable and best possible black for frescos. VIII. BLACK OCHRE is a variety of the above, combined with iron and alluvial clay. It is found in most countries, and should be washed and exposed to the atmosphere before it is used. Sea-coal, and innumerable black mineral substances have been and may be employed as succedanea for the more perfect blacks, when the latter are not procurable, which rarely happens. IX. BLACK CHALK is an indurated black clay, of the texture of white chalk, and is naturally allied to the two preceding articles. Its principal use is for cutting into the crayons, which are employed in sketching and drawing. Fine specimens have been found near Bantry in Ireland, and in Wales, but the Italian has the best reputation. Crayons for these uses are also .!■■.. wmm 182 OF THE NEUTRAL, BLACK. prepared artificially, which are deeper in colour and free from grit. Char- coal of wood is also cut into crayons for the same purpose. X. INDIAN INK. The pigment well known under this name is prin- cipally brought to us from China in oblong cakes, of a musky scent, ready prepared for painting in water ; in which use it is so well known, and so ge- nerally employed, as hardly to require naming. It varies, however, consider- ably in colour and quality, and is sometimes, properly, called China ink. Various accounts are given by authors of the mode of preparing this pig- ment, the principal substance or colouring matter of which is a smoke black, having all the properties of our lamp-black, and the variety of its hues and texture seems wholly to depend upon the degree of burning and levigating it receives. XI. BLACK LEAD, Plumbago, or Graphite, is a native carburet of iron or oxide of carbon, found in many countries, but nowhere more abundantly nor so fine in quality as at Borrodale in Cumberland, where there are mines of it, from which the best is obtained, and consumed in large quantity in the formation of crayons and the black-lead pencils of the shops, which are in universal use in writing, sketching, designing, and drawing — for which the facility with which it may be rubbed out by Indian rubber, caoutchouc, or gum-elastic, and the crumb of bread, admirably adapts it.* Although not acknowledged as a pigment, its powers in this respect claim a place for it, at least among water-colours ; in which way, levigated in gum- water in the ordinary manner, it may be used effectually with rapidity and freedom in the shading and finishing of pencil drawings, &c, and as a sub- stitute therein for Indian ink. Even in oil it may be useful occasionally, as it possesses remarkably the property of covering, forms grey tints, dries quickly, injures no colour chemically, and endures for ever. * Drawings, &c. in pencil are sometimes required to be fixed. This is best and most easily done with water-starch, prepared in the manner of the laundress, of such strength as just to form a jelly when cold, which may be then applied with a broad camel's-hair brush, as in varnishing. The same may be done with thin, cold isinglass size, or rice-water. ■ i' ft TABLES OF PIGMENTS. 183 CHAP. XXII. TABLES OF PIGMENTS. As there are circumstances under which some pigments may very properly and safely be used, which under others might prove injurious or destructive to the work, the following Lists or Tables are subjoined, in which they are classed according to various general properties, as guides to a judicious selection. These Tables are the results of direct experiments and observa- tion, and are composed, without regard to the common reputation or variable character of pigments, according to the real merits of the various specimens tried. The powers of pigments therein adverted to might have been denoted by numbers ; but since there is no exact and constant agreement in different specimens of like pigments, nor relatively among different pigments, it would have been an affectation of accuracy without utility : add to which, the properties and effects of pigments are much influenced by adventitious circumstances, and are sometimes varied or altogether changed by the grounds on which pigments are used ; by the vehicles in which they are used ; by the siccatives and colours with which they are used ; and by the varnishes by which they are covered. These Tables are therefore offered only as approximations to the true characters of pigments, (some of which, for the above reasons, are liable to be disputed,) and as general guides to right practice. They render it also apparent as a general conclusion, that the majority of pigments have a mediocrity of qualification balancing their excellences with their defects, and that the number of good and eligible pigments overbalances those which ought in general to be rejected. 184 TABLES OF PIGMENTS. TABLE I. Of Pigments, the colours of which suffer different degrees of change by the action of light, oxygen, and pure air; but are little, or not at all, affected by.sllade, sulphuretted hydrogen, damp, and foul air: — Yellow -< Red ....{ Yellow Lake. . f Indigo. Dutch -j Blue . . J Intense Blue. Antwerp Blue. English >Pink. Italian J ■ L Prussian Blue. Yellow Orpiment. King's Yellow. Orange f Orange Orpiment. 1 Golden Sulphur of Antimony Chinese Yellow. Gamboge. Green . Sap Green. Gallstone. Indian Yellow. r Purple Lake. Quercitron Lake. Purple . . < Burnt Carmine. 1 Lac Lake. Rose Pink. Carmine f Brown Pink. 1 Common J Cassea Fistula. Brown . | Light Bone Brown, Florence Scarlet >Lake. L &c Hamborough Kermes Rouge. Remarks. — None of the pigments in this Table are eminent for perma- nence. No white or black pigment whatever belongs to this class, nor does any tertiary, and a few only of the original semi- neutrals. Most of those included in the list fade or become lighter by time, and also, in general, less bright. TABLES OF PIGMENTS. 185 t TABLE II. Pigments, the colours of which are little, or not at all, changed by light, oxygen, and pure air; but are more or less injured by the action of shade, sulphuretted hydrogen, damp, and impure air :— White , . < Yellow .<( Red Common White Lead. Flake White. Crems White. Roman White. Venetian White. Blanc d'Argent. Sulphate of Lead. C Massicot. Patent Yellow. Jaune Minerale. Chrome Yellow. Turbith Mineral. _ Naples Yellow. f Red Lead. Chrome Red. ' | Dragon's Blood, i Iodine Scarlet. Blue i Orange Green { f Blue Verditer. Sanders Biue. Mountain Blue. Royal Blue. Smalt, and other Cobalt Blues. Orange Lead. Orange Chrome. Chromate of Mercury. Laque Minerale. Green Verditer. Mountain Green. Common Chrome Green. Mineral Green. Verdigris, and other „ Copper Greens. Remarks.— Most of our best white pigments are comprehended in this Table, but no black, tertiary, or semi-neutral colour. Many of these colours, when secured by oils and varnish, &c, may be long protected from change. The pigments of this Table may be considered as more durable than those of the preceding ; they are nevertheless ineligible in a water-vehicle, particularly for miniature painting, and most of them become darker by time alone in every mode of use. This list is the opposite of Table i. 2 A ; l| ;j : 186 TABLES OF PIGMENTS. TABLE III. Pigments, the colours of which are subject to change by the action both of light and oxygen, and the opposite powers of sulphuretted hydrogen, damp, and impure air : — r White . .<( Pearl, or Bismuth White. Antimony White. l_ Submuriate of Mercury. Yellow Red. { Turbith Mineral. Patent Yellow. Iodine Scarlet. Dragon's Blood. Royal Blue. Blue . . . < Prussian Blue. Antwerp Blue. Sulphate of Antimony Orange . . < Anotta. Carucru. Green . . Verdigris. Russet . . Prussiate of Copper. Remarks. — This Table comprehends our most imperfect pigments, and demonstrates how few absolutely bad have obtained currency. Indeed several of them are valuable for some uses, and not subject to sudden or extreme change by the agencies to which they are here attributed. Yet the greater part of them are destroyed by time. These pigments unite the bad properties of those in the two preceding Tables. TAELES OF PIGMENTS. 187 TABLE IV. Pigments, not at all or little liable to change by the action of light, oxygen, and pure air, nor by the opposite influences of shade, sulphuretted hydrogen, damp and impure air ; nor by the action of lead or iron : — Yellow " Zinc White. True Pearl White. White . . J Constant or Barytic White. | Tin White. I The Pure Earths. r Yellow Ochre. Oxford Ochre. Roman Ochre. Sienna Earth. > Stone Ochre. Brown Ochre. Platina Yellow. . Lemon Yellow. Vermilion. Rubiates, or Madder Lakes. Madder Carmines. Red Ochre. Light Red. Venetian Red. Indian Red. Ultramarine. Blue Ochre. Orange Vermilion. Orange Ochre. Jaune de Mars. Orange . .<( Burnt Sienna Earth. Burnt Roman Ochre. Damonico. - Light Red, &c. r Chrome Greens. Green . . . < Terre-Verte. *- Cobalt Green. Red .< Bl ue Purple Russet Brown and Semi- neutral. Black . . < {Gold Purple. Madder Purple. Purple Ochre. f Russet Rubiate, or J Madder Brown. * Intense Russet. Orange Russet. Vandyke Brown. Rubens' Brown. Bistre. Raw Umbre. Burnt Umbre. Marrone Lake. Cassel Earth. Cologne Earth. Antwerp Brown. Hypocastanum, or Chestnut Brown. Asphalturn. Mummy, &c. Phosphate of Iron. Ultramarine Asbes. Sepia. - Manganese Brown. Ivory Black. Lamp Black. Frankfort Black. Mineral Black. Black Chalk. Indian Ink. Graphite. Remarks.— This Table comprehends all the best and most permanent pig- ments, and such as are eligible for water and oil painting. It demonstrates that the best pigments are also the most numerous, and in these respects stands opposed to the three Tables preceding. 188 TABLES OF PIGMENTS. TABLE V. Pigments subject to change variously by the action of white lead and other pigments, and preparations of that metal. Yellow "Massicot. Yellow Orpiment. King's Yellow. Chinese Yellow. Gamboge. -I Gall-stone. Indian Yellow. Yellow Lake. Dutch English Italian >Pink. Blue Indigo. >Lake. Orange -< Green . Purple . Citrine . 'Orange Lead. Orange Orpiment. Golden Sulph. of Antimony. Anotta, or Roucou. _Carucru, or Chica. Sap Green. J Purple Lake. I Burnt Carmine. I" Bro\ l Cass rown Pink, assia Fistula. "Iodine Scarlet. Red Lead. Dragon's Blood Common Cochineal Red . . . «^ Florence Scarlet Hanibro' Lac Carmine. Rose Pink Remarks. — Acetate or sugar of lead, litharge and oils, rendered drying by oxides of lead, are all in some measure destructive of these colours. Light, bright, and tender colours are principally susceptible of change by the action of lead. The colours of this Table are very various in their modes of change, and thence do not harmonize well by time : it follows too that when any of these pigments are employed, they should be used pure or unmixed ; and, by preference, in varnish, while their tints with white lead ought to be alto- gether rejected. TABLES OF PIGMENTS. 189 TABLE VI. Pigments, the colours of which are subject to change by iron, its pig- ments, and other ferruginous substances. White Yellow Red f Sulphate of Lead. I Blanc d'Argent. f King's Yellow. Patent Yellow. ■^ Turbith Mineral. Naples Yellow. .Chinese Yellow. {Iodine Scarlet. Carmine. Scarlet Lake. Bl ue r Blue Verditer. < Mountain Blue. *- Intense Blue. Orange. . Golden Sulph. of Antimony. __ f Verdigris. Green . . < _ _, . .■ I Green Verditer. Russet . . Prussiate of Copper. Remarks.— Several other delicate pigments are slightly affected by iron and its preparations ; and with all such, as also with those of the preceding Table, and with all pigments not well freed from acids or salts, the iron pa- lette-knife is to be avoided or used with caution, and one of ivory or horn substituted in its place. Nor can the pigments of this Table be in general safely combined with the ochres. Strictly speaking, that degree of friction which abrades the palette-knife in rubbing of colours therewith is injurious to every bright colour. i\ 190 TABLES OF PIGMENTS. TABLE VII. Pigments more or less transparent, and generally fit to be employed as glazing and finishing colours, if not disqualified according to Tables I, II, III. 'Platina Yellow. Sienna Earth. Yellow . Pink. Dutch J Yellow Lake. fMadder Carmine. Madder Lakes. Lac Lake. Carmine. Kermes Common Florence Scarlet Hambro' Dragon's Blood. Rose Pink. LHtramarines. Cobalt Blue. Smalt. Royal Blue. Prussian Blue. Antwerp Blue. Intense Blue. Indigo. Blue Ochre. fMadder Orange. Anotta. Burnt Sienna Earth. Jaune de Mars. Chrome Green. > Lakes. J r j Sap Green. Green . . <{ Prussian Green. I Terre-Verte. (_ Verdigris. Purple . •( fMadder Purple. Burnt Carmine. Citrine Russet Olive . Brown Marrone Gray Black Purple Lake. (_Lac Lake. {Brown Pink. Citrine Lake. Casia Fistula, f Madder Brown. I Prussiate of Copper. Olive Lake. Vandyke Brown. Cologne Earth. Burnt Umbre. Bone Brown. Asphaltum. Mummy. Brown Pink. Antwerp Brown. Bistre. Sepia. Chestnut Brown. .Prussian Brown. J Marrone Lake. I Carucru. f Ultramarine Ashes. \ Phosphate of Iron. "Ivory Black. Bone Black. Lamp Black. Frankfort Black. Blue Black. Spanish Black. Purple Black. Emerald Green. Verdigris, and other Copper Greens. Terre-Verte. -Cobalt Green. r Gold Purple. < Madder Purple. I- Purple Ochre. "Bone Brown. Vandyke Brown. Rubens' Brown. Bistre. Raw Umbre. Burnt Umbre. Cassel Earth. Cologne Earth. Antwerp Brown. Chestnut Brown. Asphaltum. Mummy. Ultramarine Ashes. Manganese Brown. Ivory Black. Lamp Black. Frankfort Black, Slack . . . { Mineral Black. Black Chalk. Indian Ink. Graphite. Brown and Semineutral Remarks. — This Table shows the multitude of pigments from which the painters in fresco, distemper, and crayons, may select their colours ; in <• I ON FRESCO, &C. 193 doing which, however, it will be necessary they should consult the previous Tables respecting other qualities of pigments essential to their peculiar modes of painting; and as these modes are exciting renewed interest in the world of art, tending to their extension in practice, particularly the latter of them, we will subjoin a few remarks. ON FRESCO, &c. The art of painting in fresco is so naturally adapted to the grandeur of historical and patriotic painting, to which it appears to have been first ap- plied, and the zealous attention of eminent artists being at present turned to the revival of this great and free mode of art, we will not withhold the few observations we have made thereon in connexion with colours and co- louring, however brief our experience may have been. It is hardly necessary to inform the reader, that fresco painting is per- formed with pigments prepared in water, and applied upon the surface of fresh laid plaster of lime and sand, with which walls are covered ; and as it is that mode of painting which is least removed in practice from modelling or sculpture, it might not improperly be called plastic painting. As lime, in an active state, is the common cementing material of the ground and colours employed in fresco, it is obvious that such colours or pigments only can be used therein as remain unchanged by lime. This need not, how- ever, be a universal rule for painting in fresco, since other cementing mate- rials, as strong or stronger than lime, may be employed, which have not the action of lime upon colours— such is calcined gypsum, of which plaster of Paris is a species ; which, being neutral sulphats of lime, exceedingly un- changeable, have little or no chemical action upon colours, and would admit even Prussian blue, vegetal lakes, and the most tender colours to be em- ployed thereon, so as greatly to extend the sphere of colouring in fresco adapted to its various design ; which bases merit also the attention of the painter in crayons and distemper. So far too as regards durability and strength of the ground, the Parker's cement, now so generally employed in architectural modellings, would afford a new and advantageous ground for painting in fresco ; and, as it resists 2 B vmmmmmmmm ■■■■ 194 ON FRESCO, &C. i ..!■. ■)!::! |. Il ■ , i damp and moisture, it is well adapted, with colours properly chosen, to situations in which paintings, executed in other modes of the art, or even in ordinary fresco, would not long endure. As these materials, and others now in use, were either unknown or unem- ployed by the antient painters in fresco, their practice was necessarily limited to the pigments enumerated in the preceding table ; but every art demands such a variation in practice, as adapts it to circumstances and the age in which it is exercised, without attention to which it may degene- rate, or, at best, remain stationary, but cannot advance. In point of durability, however, both as respects colours and texture, the frescos of the antient Egyptians (if they may be so called) have alone pretensions to the character of almost perpetual incorruptibility ; in which respect fresco must have declined, at the same time that painting as an art advanced, even among the Greeks ; while many of the earlier works of the moderns, founded on the basis of Grecian art, have nothing to boast of in this respect ; and the " Last Judgment " of Michael Angelo, and many great performances, may be adduced as examples thereof; so that, aided by modern physics, we may hope not only the restoration, but improvement of this art. Although differing exceedingly in their mechanical execution, the modes of fresco, distemper, and crayon painting agree in their chemical rela- tions ; so far, therefore, as respects colours and pigments, the foregoing remarks apply to these latter arts. In distemper painting, however, the carbonate of lime, or whitening employed as a basis, is less active than the pure lime of fresco. The vehicles of both modes are the same, and their practice is often combined in the same work : water is their common vehicle ; and to give adhesion to the tints and colours in distemper painting, and make them keep their place, they are variously mixed with the size of glue (prepared commonly by dissolving about four ounces of glue in a gallon of water). Too much of the glue disposes the design to crack and peel from the ground ; while, with too little, it is friable and deficient of strength. In some cases the glue may be abated, or altogether dispensed with, by employing plaster of Paris diluted and worked into the colours ; by which they will acquire the consistency and appearance of oil paints, without destroying their limpidness, or allowing the colours to separate, while they will acquire a good surface, and keep their place in painting with sufficient strength, and without being liable to mildew, — to which animal glue is disposed, and to which milk, and other vehicles recommended in this mode, are also subject. ON FRESCO, &C. 195 Of more difficult introduction in these modes of painting is bees -wax, although it has been employed successfully in each of them, in the- en- caustic of the antients, &c. ; the body colours of the moderns ; and, with excellent effect, in crayons,— first, we believe, by the late Mr. Adam Buck. Wax is a most incorruptible substance, and communicates many of the qualities of oil-painting. I 196 ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. CHAP. XXIII. ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. How many fondly waste the studious hour To seek in process what they want in power, Till all in gums engross'd, macgilps, and oils, The painter sinks amid the chemist's toils. Shee. Since colours and pigments are liable to material influence, and changes of effect, from the liquids employed in painting for tempering, combining, dis- tributing, and securing them on their grounds in the various modes of the art, — the powers and properties of vehicles and varnishes are of hardly less importance than those of colours themselves ; they are therefore an essential branch of our subject, and an inquiry of interminable interest among artists. Vehicles are, indeed, among the chief materials and indispensable means of painting, and give names to its principal modes or genera, under the titles of painting in water, in oil, in varnish, &c. : we will consider them in reference to each. Though originally few and simple, vehicles have been extremely diver- sified by composition and addition, suited to the various purposes and fan- cies of artists, so as to have become a subject of no mean extent and intri- cacy ; to explicate which perfectly is as far from our hope as our intention, which is to treat of it in a general way, with such hints and remarks as have sprung from our own observation and experience, and may tend to improvement in practice. It is observable that the colours of pigments bear out with effects differ- ing according to the liquids with which they are combined, and the sub- stances those liquids hold in solution, which in some instances obscure or ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 197 depress, and in others enliven or exalt the colours ; in the first case by the tinge and opacity of the fluid ; and in the latter, by its colourless tran- sparency, and sometimes also much more so by a refractive power, — as in varnishes made of pure resinous substances, which have a very evident and peculiarly exalting effect upon colours, that continues when they are dry ; because resins form a glossy transparent cement, while the media, formed by expressed oils, become horny, or semi-opaque. And this principle applies also to aqueous and spirituous vehicles in water-painting, according to the nature of the gums, or other substances they may hold in solution. As the action of aqueous liquids, and their solvends upon colours, is stronger and more immediate than that of oils and varnishes, it is of great importance to the water-colour painter that he should attend to the pureness of his water. He ought to use no other than distilled water ; or, wanting this, he should use rain-water filtered, which is next in purity to distilled water. In all hard and impure waters, colours are disposed to se- parate and curdle, so that it is often impossible a clear flowing wash, or gradation of colour, should be obtained with them. Solution of gums, ox- gall, &c. correct, without entirely overcoming these defects of the water ; but they are often inconvenient, if not injurious : we recommend therefore to colourmen to keep distilled water ready for artists' use ; or the latter may, if he pleases, procure it of the chemists, or use in its stead the distilled water of roses, or lavender, &c. which have no injurious effect upon colours, and recommend themselves by their agreeable scents ; but then they must be the really distilled waters, and not the compounds sold as perfumes under their names. Gum is a necessary addition to water to give pigments their requisite cohesion, and to attach the colours to the paper or ground on which they are applied, as well as to give them the property of bearing out to the eye, according to the intention of the artist; upon which, and upon the pigments used, depend the proportions of gum to be employed, gum being a consti- tuent of some pigments, while others are of textures to require it in consi- derable quantity to give them proper tenacity, — qualities we have adverted to in speaking of individual pigments : as a general rule, however, the propor- tion of gum employed with a colour should be sufficient to prevent its abra- sion, but not so much as to occasion its scaling or cracking, both of which are easily determined by trial upon paper. Of Gums, — Senegal is the strongest and best suited to dark colours ; but m^^^^^^HH^B 198 ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. Gum Arabic is in general clearer and whiter, and thence is better adapted to the brighter and more delicate colours; these should be purified by solution in water, straining, and decanting, and should be used fresh or pre- served by addition of alcohol. Tragacanth is a strong colourless gum, soluble in hot water, and of ex- cellent use when colours are required to lie flat, or not bear out with gloss, and also when a gelatinous texture of the vehicle is of use to preserve the touch of the pencil and prevent the flowing of some colours ; for which pur- pose also solution of isinglass is available, and of greater power. Ammoniac, or Gum Ammoniac, is a gum-resin, soluble in spirit and in water, in the latter of which it forms a milky fluid that dries transparent : it has many properties which render it useful in water-painting, and is, we have found, superior to the gums in forming some colours into cakes, causing them to work off. It is avoided by insects, is very tenaceous, and affords a middle vehicle between oil and water, with some of the advantages of both. A most excellent mucilage for water-painting may be made by diluting gradually clear size of isinglass with boiling water, till, on becoming cold, it just flows and loses its gelatinous texture : in this liquid is then to be dissolved by gentle heat as much colourless gum Senegal, or Arabic, as it will conveniently take up. The ingenious Mr. Robertson, of Worton, has employed isinglass in water-painting with the happiest effect, of which his well-known admirable copy of the " Bacchus and Ariadne " of Titian is sufficient evidence. This picture, as well as the original works of this gentleman, possess the full powers of oil-painting, with a permanence of tone not to be expected in oil ; and being varnished with white lac varnish, may be considered as of extreme durability. His vehicle, for which the Society of Arts voted him a gold medal, may be prepared by suffering shreds of isinglass to imbibe cold water till thoroughly soft, and then dissolving them in boiling alcohol, in such proportions as will just produce a fluid compound when cold. Spirit of wine alone will, Mr. Robertson states, by boiling dissolve isinglass, which we presume is effected by the weakening of the spirit, as the more volatile portion becomes dissipated by the heat. It has been an opinion of eminent judges in the art, that the Venetian painters — after a mode also ascribed to some of the great antient Greek artists — employed oils and varnishes only as preservatives and defences of ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 199 their works, and not as vehicles in painting them, for which latter purpose they are supposed to have used water with proper additions ; and it has been proposed that artists should adopt the Indian process of painting, in which lac is rendered saponaceous and miscible in water by the medium of borax ; but against this process the foul colour and opacity of the vehicle has been justly objected. If, however, one part of borax be dissolved in twelve of boiling water, and the solution be added in equal, or other proportions, to white lac varnish, a perfectly transparent colourless liquid is formed, which diffuses freely in water, and may be used, with some difficulty, as a vehicle for painting instead of oil. Pictures wrought in such vehicle would dry readily, and, being varnished with the white lac varnish, would have a homo- geneity of texture throughout, freshness of colouring, and permanence in every way equal to oil-painting ; add to this, that as this lac vehicle is as freely miscible with oil as it is with water, it supplies an intermediate mode of painting, or connecting link between painting in water and oil, which probably may, in some ingenious hand, be free from the evils and unite the advantages of both: yet, as the tenacity and adhesion of lac vehicles depend in working upon a higher temperature than is common to our cli- mate, they will in general require artificial heat of the painting-room, except during the height of summer, and are hence better suited to a cli- mate like that of India. The amiable and accomplished Mr. W. H. Watts has been the first to encounter the difficulties of this process. By similar means, mastic and other soft resins may be rendered miscible in water, and even oils and bees'-wax may be introduced therein. These have the disadvantage, however, of being opaque, although in drying they become transparent. The mode of encaustic painting, invented by Miss Greenland (afterwards Mrs. Hooker), published in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, &c. for 1792 and 1807, which was an improvement upon the method of Count Caylus, was performed with a vehicle of this kind, which may be prepared by dissolving four and a half ounces of gum Arabic in eight ounces of pure water in a glazed vessel, to which seven ounces of powdered mastic are to be added, and the whole then stirred over a moderate fire till combined in an opaque uniform paste ; five ounces of white wax are then to be added, and stirred till melted and beginning to boil, when the vessel should be removed from the fire, and sixteen ounces more of pure cold water gradually stirred ■BM PHMSEMBBBI^^B i 200 ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. into the mixture, which then will form a cream-like composition, to be kept in a bottle for use. The Society of Arts, &c, have also recently presented a medal to Mr. J. Hammond Jones, for a process in miniature painting, in which he employed as a vehicle a cold saturated solution of borax in water, in one quart of which he dissolved a quarter of an ounce of gum tragacanth, which dried suffi- ciently firm to allow tints to be repeatedly laid one over another without moving or washing up. Albumen, or white of egg, has been employed as an addition to water vehicles ; and for the common purposes of distemper painting, milk and the serum of blood have been proposed, but are not adapted to fine art. The unnecessary use of sugar in water-colours should be avoided, as it is disposed to acid fermentation with gum, and is attractive of damp from the atmosphere, and of flies and other insects. Animal gall is necessary only to attach the colours to the ground when it rejects them, or they work greasy, as is often the case on ivory and very smooth vellum or polished sub- stances, or over certain pigments. Borax, which is mildly alkaline, answers the same purpose. Spirit of wine, or alcohol, is principally of use in water vehi- cles, as an antiseptic, to preserve them from frost, mildew, and putrescence. Water, as a vehicle compared with oil, is of simple and easy use, drying readily, and being subject to little alteration of colour or effect subsequently ; for, notwithstanding oils and varnishes are less chemically active upon colours than aqueous fluids are, those vehicles of the oil-painter subject him to all the perplexities of their bad drying, change of colour, blooming, and cracking, — to habits varying with a variety of pigments, and to the con- trariety of qualities, by which they are required to unite tenuity with strength, and to be fluid without flowing, &c. ; to provide for and reconcile all which has continually exercised the ingenuity of the artist. The early painters in oil appear to have proceeded in the manner of water-colour drawing; — beginning to sketch in on a white ground, and producing their effects with transparent colours — embossing their lights with opaque tints and body colours ; hence much of their freshness, and hence it has been imagined, not without apparent reason, that they com- menced their works or sketched in their designs in water-colours. This is evidently contrary to the general mode of modern practice among the best colourists from the time of the Venetians, who are supposed sometimes to OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES, 201 have employed the above method, but generally commenced upon coloured grounds, with opaque colours, and finished by glazing with such as are transparent. In the prevailing method of artists there is, however, occa- sional combination of both the above methods, by alternately painting and glazing throughout the progress of their works. In the infancy, and for some time after the invention of oil-painting,* expressed oils of a drying quality appear to have been used in a simple state, or with the mere addition of substances to assist their drying, or the sole preparation of boiling or fattening. Such vehicles would undoubtedly give to pictures great strength and durability ; but it unfortunately happens, that precisely in proportion to the natural strength and power of drying in oils, is their propensity to acquire colour and become dark by age and seclusion from light ; hence one principal cause of the various changes, additions, and compositions of these vehicles, by which the stronger and more drying oils of linseed, &c, have in the practice of the artist sometimes given place to the paler and weaker oils of nuts and poppy, which dry with more difficulty, yet ultimately also acquire murky colour in proportion to the body in which they are applied, but of a less offensive hue than that of linseed. Even olive oil, which is almost wholly destitute of drying power, but is not subject to acquire colour or lose its transparency, is said to have been substituted in the climate of Italy in place of the desiccative oils, but was more probably resorted to as a diluent, like the volatile essential oils of turpentine, lavender, &c, which, though destitute of strength, dry rapidly and do not change colour, and by attenuating the drying oils preserve in some measure their We speak here of the re-invention or improvement of painting in oil by Van Eyck or John of Bruges, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, for it is hardly to be supposed that this process was not much more antient, and had merely fallen into disuse. Vitruvius indeed asserts, that it was employed by the Greeks and Romans in works exposed to weather ; and we have it indeed upon record, that in the early time of Grecian art Protogenes had been bred a ship- painter; the very existence of which art almost proves the use of oil or varnish therein, capable of protecting colours from the action of water, which wax alone could hardly accomplish. That flax was known to the antient Egyptians, and linseed used by them as food, we have the testimony of Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Osiris— we infer, therefore, that its oil must have been known to the Greeks and Egyptians, who could not in such case but have been acquainted with its drying property in climates like theirs. We are indeed too apt to imagine those things to be of recent invention, of which we have neither tradition nor history. With regard to later times, Walpole and others have related proofs of the existence of oil- painting in Britain long previously to Van Eyck ; and the question has been widely investigated by Raspe, in a treatise " On the Discovery of Oil Painting."— 4to. 1781. 2 C i^HBBM^^H Mi M 202 OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. colour in painting, in proportion as they lower their strength. Of these essential oils, that commonly called spirit of turpentine, employed by painters, is a very useful addition to those of linseed, &c. for preserving the purity of light and bright pigments from the change of colour to which all drying oils are variously subject. As, however, the essential oils thus intro- duced weaken the body of the vehicle and occasion it to flow, so that the colours used therewith will not keep their place, and render the touch of the pencil spiritless and uncertain, they gave occasion for the introduction of resins and balsams, which give body to oils and varnishes ; and the employ- ment of resins introduced spirituous solvents. To these have been added bees and myrtle wax, — aqueous liquids, — soaps and salts, as media for uniting them with oils, and a variety of dryers and other substances, too numerous to mention, with which oils, &c. have been compounded under the appella- tions of macgilps, gumtions, Venetian processes, and in the various empi- ricism of vehicles with which practice has been confounded, in endless mixture and mystery. It is evident that amid such complicated confusion there can be no cer- tainty of result, that the powers of chemistry are in arms, and that in such an intestine war of vehicles the best colours may be compelled to fly. In such a state of things, there can be no escape from failure and defeat — no hope but in a return to that simplicity which is a prime distinction of excellence in every art, and has marked the practice of the most eminent masters in painting. Half a century ago the gellied vehicles which received the cant appella- tions of macgilp and gumtion were the favourite nostrums of the initiated in this country, and have maintained a preference with many artists to this day. These compounds of strong mastic varnish with oils rendered drying and coagulable by the salts and oxides of lead, were, according to the pre- ceding intentions, improvements upon the simple oil vehicle, by diluting it, and giving it a gelatinous texture, which enabled it, while flowing freely from the pencil, to keep its place in painting and glazing ; but their principal intention was missed by the weakening of the oil without preserving the co- lour or transparency of the vehicle, defects which arise from the feeble body of mastic, its softness, and a degree of disposition to darken and cloud by age. The defective colour of the maCgilp formed with oil rendered drying by boiling or maceration on litharge, both before and after drying, was in some degree remedied by gumtion, composed of acetate or sugar of lead, with OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 203 simple oil and strong varnish, which is subject to less change ultimately, particularly when the varnish abounds in the compound. In the using of sugar of lead, if the acid abound, which it does usually in the purer and more crystalline kinds, its power of drying is weakened, and it may have some injurious action upon colours, such as those of ultramarine and lakes. In this case a small addition of some of the pure oxides of lead, such as litharge, ground fine, will increase the drying property of the sugar of lead, and correct its injurious tendency; but too much litharge, or more than the oil will dissolve, will give a lasting opacity to the vehicle injurious to trans- parent colours. Little advantage appears to have resulted from subsequent attempts to improve these vehicles, by substituting for mastic those weak resins and balsams which are but native or factitious compounds of soft resins with es- sential oils, similar to that of turpentine ; nor from the introduction of soap, water, &c. The advantages in such cases, if any, have been merely in the working; hence many judicious artists of the present day have resorted to the use of copal varnish, and rejected mastic and the weak resins, contend- ing with the difficulties of working copal for the advantages of strength, fine texture, and the greater transparency and permanence of its colour ; while the resistance it opposes to re-solution by spirit, and other menstrua after drying, fits it for receiving even spirit varnishes, which may after- wards be removed without injury, and favours in other respects the texture and durability of the work : it has nevertheless the defect of cracking when it has been used without sufficient drying oil to temper it. Copal, in every mode of dissolving, swells or augments in bulk more than any other resin, like glue in water, and contracts proportionably in drying; and it is this which disposes it to crack, in which respect it is inferior to mastic. The last operation of painting is VARNISHING, which completes the in- tention of the vehicle, by causing the design and colouring to bear out with their fullest freshness, force, and keeping ; supplies as it were natural moisture, and a transparent atmosphere to the whole, while it forms a glaz- ing which secures the work from injury and decay. As it is expedient that the constitution of a picture, with regard to its materials, should be as homogeneous as possible, the proper varnish for a picture, painted with a vehicle of which mastic forms a principal ingredient, would be a mastic varnish ; and this has accordingly been the prevailing practice. Anciently the mastic was dissolved in expressed oils, and not in I.'! ■ If i'l;- ! m> 204 OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. oil of turpentine, as at present ; the former, though indisposed to crack and bloom, in the manner of the latter, was nevertheless liable to become dark and discoloured by time, and difficultly removed from a picture in proportion as the oil abounded therein ; in which respect copal oil varnish, though more durable than mastic varnish, is also in a less degree defective. When copal and the harder varnishes have been too soon used upon such pictures, the unequally contracting and expanding, and the various dispositions of the varnish and ground to move by heat or force, have usually cracked and damaged such pictures ; but where copal has been the cement and body of the vehicle in a picture, varnishes of copal, and the harder resins, have been, for the above reason, properly preferred to mastic varnish in varnishing such pictures, and have been found less liable to chill or bloom. But of all resinous substances in use for preparing of varnishes, the lac of India, which is the basis of the strong and beautiful lacquered works of the east, affords the hardest, most tenacious, and durable varnish, that of amber not excepted. The darkness of its colour was, nevertheless, an insuperable bar to its use in painting : the discovery, however, by which this substance is entirely deprived of colour and impurities, has rendered it by far the most perfect of varnishes, and is bringing it into use in the art ; so that when the difficulties usually attending the employment of new materials and means, and the obstacles common to a change of habit and practice are worn away, it will probably be the principal varnish of the painter. Yet a sudden change of established modes is neither desirable, nor to be expected from those who have waded to a safe and settled practice through a tedious experience of flattering expectations and hopes defeated. As a general sketch of the progress of vehicles and varnishes is rather a light to show the way, than a hand to guide our practice, we will subjoin such observations of a more particular and tangible nature as expe- rience has supplied concerning the materials of vehicles and varnishes ; and, first, of the fixed or expressed oils. Of these, LINSEED OIL is by far the strongest, and that which dries best and firmest under proper management; but it lies under the great disadvantage of acquiring, after drying, and by exclusion from light and pure air, a semi-opaque and yellow-brown colour, which darkens by age. To obviate this as much as possible, when working with the oil alone, it is best to work the colour as stiff as may be, so as to use as small a proportion of the vehicle as may suffice ; for it is a fact proved by direct and OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 205 repeated experiments, that little oil diffused through much colour is subject to little change, and that a thin coating of linseed oil is similarly preserved by light and the oxygen of the atmosphere, as is the case in glazing or oiling out when coat-upon-coat is not applied in these ways, or a redun- dance of oil has not been consumed in the under painting ; yet the practice of oiling out is to be deprecated when sponging with water may suffice. Linseed oil varies in quality according to the goodness of the seed from which it is expressed ; the best is yellow, transparent, comparatively sweet-scented, and has a flavour somewhat resembling that of the cucumber : great conse- quence has been attributed to the cold-drawing of this oil, but it is of little or no importance in painting whether moderate heat be employed or not in ex- pressing it. Several methods have been contrived for bleaching and purify- ing this oil so as to render it perfectly colourless and limpid ; but these give it mere beauty to the eye in a liquid state, without communicating any per- manent advantage, since there is not any known process for preventing the discolourment we have spoken of as sequent to its drying, and it is, per- haps, better upon the whole that this and every vehicle should possess that colour at the time of using to which it subsequently tends, that the artist may depend upon the continuance of his tints, and use his vehicle accord- ingly, than that he should be betrayed, by a meretricious and evanescent beauty in his vehicle, to use it too freely. If indeed the oil were tinged with a fugitive transparent brown colour previously to being employed in painting, the original disposition of the oil to acquire colour by age would be compensated by the disappearance of the brown tinge given to it, so as to preserve the original freshness of the painting. Indeed linseed oil that has been long boiled upon litharge in a water-bath, to preserve it from burning, acquires such a fugitive colour ; and is, when diluted with oil of turpentine, less disposed to run than pure linseed oil, and affords one of the most eligi- ble vehicles of the oil painter. The most valuable qualities of linseed oil, as a vehicle, consist in its great strength and flexibility ; some have preferred it when fattened by age, or ex- posure to sun and air ; others when new and fresh, or that which is cold- drawn; but that is the best which will temper most colour in painting, and oil expressed with a heat, which does not char or much discolour it, is equal in all respects to the cold-drawn. For light colours and glazing the oil should be macerated two or three days at least upon about an eighth of its weight of litharge, in a warm place, D I Hlfl RHBRMHSMRHMHSHI^IH 206 OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. occasionally shaking the mixture, after which it should be left to settle and clear, or it may be prepared without heat by levigating the litharge in the oil. This affords pale drying oil for light and bright colours. By a more tardy method very pale drying oil may be prepared by frequently agitating therein the smallest shot of the sportsman, or finely granulated lead, with access of air. The above mixture of oil and litharge gently and carefully boiled in an open vessel till it thicken, becomes strong drying oil for dark colours. As dark and transparent colours are in general comparatively ill driers, japanners' gold size is sometimes employed as powerful means of drying them. This material is very variously and fancifully prepared, often with needless, if not pernicious ingredients ; but may be simply, and to every^ useful purpose in painting, prepared thus :— powder finely, of asphaltum, litharge or red lead, and burnt umber, or manganese, each one ounce ; stir them into a pint of linseed oil, and simmer the mixture over a gentle fire, or on a sand bath till solution has taken place, scum ceases to rise, and the fluid thickens on cooling; carefully guarding it from taking fire.' Kept at rest in a warm place, it will clear itself; or it may be strained through cloth and diluted with turpentine for use. The same methods are applicable, for the same purposes, with other oils. POPPY OIL is much celebrated in some old books under the appellations of oil of pinks and oil of carnations, as erroneously translated from the French • oeillet, or olivet, a local name for the poppy in districts where its oil is employed as a substitute for that of the olive. It is, however, inferior in strength, tenacity, and drying to linseed oil ; and though it is of a paler colour, and slower in changing, it becomes ultimately not so yellow, but as brown and dusky as linseed oil, and therefore is in no respect to be preferred to the latter. The same may be said of nut oils, which have even less of the gluten or gelatine which give strength and desiccativeness to linseed oil, and come nearer to the nature of animal oils, which never dry perfectly ; resembling, in this respect, the fish oils of the seal and cod, which, after becoming dry, soften again and even flow, and acquire deeper colour than linseed oil : neverthe- less the oils of nut and poppy may be, and are, sometimes, boiled upon oxides of lead, in the manner of linseed oil, and with similar effect, in which state they may also be compounded with varnish in the formation of macgilp, and similar vehicles. OLIVE OIL has the valuable property of permanently retaining a good colour ; but this advantage is overbalanced by the almost impossibility OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 207 of drying it, both which properties it communicates in mixture to other oils. Whether an oil might not be obtained of a drying quality and suffi- cient strength for oil-painting, and which shall have the property of con- tinuing permanently colourless, remains for research ; but, according to our present knowledge, it may be questioned whether oils do not uniformly change in colour in proportion to their natural power of drying. The VOLATILE OILS, procured by distillation from turpentine, and other vegetal substances, are almost destitute of the strength of the expressed oils, having hardly more cementing power in painting than water alone, and are principally useful as solvents, and media of resinous and other sub- stances introduced into vehicles and varnishes. They are not, however, liable to change colour like expressed oils of a drying nature ; and, owing to their extreme fluidness, are useful diluents of the latter : they have also a bleaching quality, whereby they in some degree correct the tendency of drying and expressed oils to discolourment. Of essential oils, that most used in painting is the oil of turpentine ; the rectified oil, improperly called spirit of turpentine, &c. is preferable only on account of its being thinner, and more free from resin. By the action of oxygen upon it water is either generated or set free, and the oil becomes thickened, but is again rendered limpid by a boiling heat, in which the oxygen is separated from it. OIL OF LAVENDER is of two kinds,— the fine scented English oil, and the cheaper foreign oil, called oil of spike; these are rather more vola- tile and more powerful solvents than the oil of turpentine, which render them preferable in enamel painting ; they have otherwise no advan- tage over the latter oil, unless they be fancied for their perfume. The other essential oils, such as oil of rosemary, thyme, &c, are very numerous ; but it has not appeared that they possess any property that gives them superiority in painting over that of turpentine ; some of them have, however, more power in dissolving resins in the making of varnishes, as is the case also with naptha or petroleum, and the rectified oil of coal tar, the intolerable scent of which latter is a prohibition to its use in any familiar work. SPIRIT OF WINE, or Alcohol, is weaker and more dilute than essen- tial oils, or even than water, and is so volatile as to be of use in vehicles only - as a medium for combining oils with resins, &c. — as a powerful solvent in the formation of spirit varnishes, and in some degree as an innocent promoter of drying in oils and colours. In picture-cleaning it affords also powerful means of removing varnishes, &c. : 31 208 OF VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. RESINOUS VARNISHES are either spirit varnishes, volatile oil var- nishes, fixed oil varnishes, or compounds of these, their usual solvents being either spirit of wine or alcohol, oil of turpentine, or linseed oil. The principal Varnishes hitherto introduced into vehicles, or used in painting, are those of mastic and copal. It is true that other soft resins are sometimes substituted for that of mastic, and that very elaborate compounds of them have been recommended and celebrated, but none that possess any evident advantage over the simple solution of mastic in rectified oil of tur- pentine, which is easily prepared, by digesting in a bottle during a few hours, in a warm place, one part of the dry picked resin with two parts or more of the oil of turpentine. One part of this, cleared, varnish combined with two of either of the before-mentioned drying oils of linseed, more or less according to the purpose of the artist, constitute the transparent macgilp of the painter. If, instead of drying oil, the simple pure linseed oil be used with about an eighth of acetate or sugar of lead dissolved in water, or ground fine, we obtain variously the opaque mixture called gumtion, which is of similar use, and rather less liable to change colour than macgilp. Wilson, our Coryphaeus in landscape painting, used at one period of his practice a similar but simpler compound of equal quantities of linseed oil and oil of turpentine, thickened by exposure to the sun and air till it became resinous and half evaporated, to which he afterwards added a portion of melted bees'- wax ; and it is probable, from similarity in the texture of their pictures, that Sir Joshua Reynolds used also the same vehicle ; indeed he is said to have greatly prized linseed oil inspissated by age. According to Lanzi, Corregio's vehicle was a mixture of two parts oil with one of varnish, but of what oil and varnish we are not informed. As other soft resins are sometimes substituted for mastic, so inferior hard resins are sometimes employed in the place of copal in the composition of varnishes celebrated as copal varnishes ; but the simple solution of pure picked copal made by triturating and digesting it in oil of turpentine, as recommended by Mr. Cornelius Varley, is of more certain effect in painting and varnishing of pictures, and superior to mastic varnish in the permanence of its colours ; — as a simple vehicle, it is nevertheless deficient of the tena- city and flexibility which render linseed oil so essential in painting; — com- bined, however, with linseed oil and oil of turpentine, copal varnish affords a vehicle superior in texture, strength, and durability to mastic and its macgilp, though in its application it is a less attractive instrument, and of ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 209 more difficult management ; it is, therefore, a desideratum with the artist to form a macgilp of copal, which would stand up with the flimsy firmness of that of mastic ; till which can be done he must be content to mix it as above ; for linseed oil is essential to prevent its cracking. The mixture of copal varnish and linseed oil is best effected by the medium of oil of turpentine, and for this purpose heat is sometimes requisite : strong copal varnish and oil of turpentine in equal portions with one-sixth of drying oil mixed together, hot, afford this vehicle ; and if about an eighth of pure bees'- wax be melted into it, it will enable the vehicle to keep its place in the manner of macgilp. AMBER VARNISH has been more reputed in painting than it merits. The process by which it is prepared is the same as that of copal ; but amber is more difficult of solution, is of a deeper colour than copal, and, owing to the succinic acid it contains, dries very slowly in solution. Amber of the palest colour is most easily dissolved, and at the same time affords the best varnish. WHITE LAC VARNISH has hitherto been only partially used in painting, for which, its being a spirit varnish that requires a warm tempera- ture and dries rapidly, and its repugnance to combine with oils, in perma- nent mixture, disqualifies it by rendering it difficultly manageable as a vehicle. It has, however, been introduced, by rubbing, into oil colours on the palette, with a view to the giving them permanence by cloathing them, and a crispness which makes them stand up and keep their place. Its extreme transparency, and the power with which it causes colours to bear- out, have occasioned its successful introduction in the progress of a picture, to bring out and preserve the force and richness of deep colouring and sha- dows. To what more extensive use the ability and ingenuity of artists may apply ,it in oil-painting remains to be proved. The principal recommendations of white lac, as a varnish, are the remark- able power and effect with which it brings out the colouring and design of a picture, and the permanence with which it so preserves them ; it being neither subject to bloom, chill, nor crack, when skilfully and properly applied, according to the general rules for all varnishes, and those of spirit varnish in particular ; the principal of which are a dry atmosphere and sum- mer warmth of the apartment in which they are used. At a temperature of 2 D ■■■■ 210 ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. not less than 60°, it dries in a second or two, and coat after coat, as it dries, may be applied with a broad soft camel-hair brush. This soon becomes harder and firmer than any other varnish, and entirely free from the tackiness by which they catch and retain the dust and floatings of the atmosphere, and from the opacity and discolourment by which varnishes ultimately obscure pictures on which they are applied ; so that removing this varnish from a picture becomes an unnecessary operation, though this may be easily effected, if required, by the proper use of spirit of wine. This and all other spirit varnishes differ from those of fixed or expressed oils in this respect, that spirit and essential oil varnishes are dissoluble, and removable from pictures, by alcohol and essential oils, &c. ; but fixed oil varnishes are insoluble by such means, or any other not injurious to the painting itself. Lac varnish may be combined with mastic varnish, in small proportion, so as greatly to improve it ; it may also be employed in the manner of other spirit varnishes in varnishing drawings, prints, &c, which have been pre- viously sized with isinglass ; and, being first thickened by setting it to evaporate in an open vessel in a warm place, it may be passed over minia- tures, &c, without previous sizing, so as to give them much of the strength, force, and durability of oil-paintings ; but in all these cases it should be used in warm dry weather, or near a fire. Upon comparing the qualities of the varnishes of mastic, copal, and lac, it will appear that the latter are successively harder and more perfect as varnishes, and in proportion to their perfection as varnishes is the difficulty of using them as vehicles ; and as it is necessary that before varnishing with any of them the picture should be thoroughly dry, to prevent subsequent cracking, this is perhaps more essential for the latter than for the for- mer.* Notwithstanding this necessity, there is one highly important advantage which seems to attend early varnishing; namely, that of pre- serving the colour of the vehicle used from changing, which it is observed to do when a permanent varnish is passed over colours and tints newly laid ; but this it does always at the hazard and often at the expense of cracking. This saving grace of early varnishing appears to arise from the circum- stance, that, while linseed and other oils are in progress of drying, they attract oxygen, by the power of which they entirely lose their colour; * In some trials, however, lately made upon oil-painting not firmly dried, with the white lac varnish, cracking of the varnish has not ensued. ON VEHICLES AND VARNISHES. 211 but after becoming dry, they progressively acquire colour. It is at the mediate period between oils thus losing and acquiring colour, which commences previously to the oil becoming perfectly dry, that varnish pre- serves the colour of the vehicle, probably by preventing its farther drying and oxidation, which latter may in the end amount to that degree which constitutes combustion and produces colour : — indeed it is an established fact, that oils attract oxygen so powerfully as in many cases to have produced spontaneous combustions and destructive fires. It is eminently conducive to good varnishing, in all cases, that it should be performed in fair weather, whatever varnish may be employed, and that a current of cold or damp air, which chills and blooms them, should be avoided. To escape the perplexities of varnishing, some have rejected it altogether, contenting themselves with oiling-out — a practice which, by avoiding an extreme, runs to its opposite, and subjects the work to ultimate irrecoverable dulness and obscurity. The manufacturing processes of the varnishes now generally used have been recently detailed in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, &c, Vol. xlix. p. 33., by Mr. J. Wilson Neil, to whom the Gold Isis Medal of the Society has been voted for the communication, as have also the processes for white lac varnish, in Vol. xlv. of the same publication. i* _~JaBB 212 ON GROUNDS. CHAP. XXIV. ON GROUNDS. The last thing in the order of our analysis is the ground and basis on which colours, pigments, and vehicles are applied in painting ; and as the basis of fresco-painting is plaster, and that of water-colour painting is prin- cipally paper, the subject of grounds is chiefly of consideration with respect to painting in oil, in which mode a great variety of grounds have been employed, which have afforded a subject of wide speculation and experi- ment, — of many hopes and many failures, while the charm of Venetian art has been as fruitful in exciting the invention of grounds as of vehicles. The subject of grounds belongs to our inquiry only so far as regards their influence upon colours, and needs no very elaborate consideration here. Among the various bases upon which grounds have been laid are the metals, stone, slate, plaster, woods, card, vellum, and cloths, in all their variety. The qualities requisite to a perfect basis are durability, infrangibility, and inflexibility, which neither of these substances comprise in perfection. Metals are durable and infrangible in the highest degree ; but they expand and contract by the mere alterations of temperature, and are on this account subject to detach or throw off portions of the ground, and to craze the painting and varnish. Cloths, parchment, and paper bases, are infrangible and durable in a high degree, but very flexible, which is remedied in a measure by straining and stretching ; they become therefore variously eligible bases. Wood comprises all the qualities of a good basis in a medial degree, and hence upon the whole panel affords the best basis. To treat of the peculiar qualities of all these in their various kinds, would carry us far beyond the bounds of utility, and the limits of our subject, to which the grounding of these is more intimate. Grounding or priming is not in all cases necessary, as, for example, when stone, slate, glass, porcelain, &c, are employed, as was the case in some paintings of undoubted extreme antiquity ; but when grounds are necessary, ■ .-»*..* ON GROUNDS. 213 as upon metal, wood, and canvas, to be eligible, such grounds must partake all the qualities of a good basis, in being neither soft, friable, nor perishable. The early painters in oil, being also painters in fresco, and accustomed to plaster grounds, appear to have prepared their panels, &c. with plaster or stucco, upon which they employed their colours, in some cases in water, in the manner of fresco or distemper, using size to fix them, and finishing with oil vehicles and varnish ; and many such pictures have stood admirably well the ordinary effects of time, as appears among the works of Paul Veronese, Titian, Correggio, and others; but, upon cloth and flexible bases, such grounds are too stiff and friable ; such bases require, therefore, a ground more of their own yielding and elastic nature, and better suited to assimilate with the materials of oil-painting, such as is afforded by tempering earths and metallic oxides with the most tenacious drying-oils, and laying them evenly upon the cloths, first coated or primed with size. The preparing of grounds on cloths, &c. is now, however, so well per- formed by several of our principal colourmen, and with so much improve- ment, as to require little comparative attention from the artist, beyond such a general knowledge of their proper qualities and effects as may enable him to choose such as are best suited to his purpose. The colour of his ground is in like manner a matter of choice, and, generally speaking, that hue is to be preferred which partakes of the ruling colour of his picture : it was pro- bably on this account that Titian chose to paint on a red ground, when he intended to introduce much flesh in his design, or to render red principal in his picture. It is related of the same -great master, who is a prime authority in all things relating to chromatic art, that, to secure the durability and cohesion of his grounds, he imbued the canvas at the back with bees'- wax, dissolved in oil, a substance well calculated to resist damp in such a situation as Venice. To preserve the elasticity of grounds, some drying oil should be introduced into the glue or size with which they are prepared ; for the same purpose bees'-wax, sugar, treacle, albumen, &c, have been added with various degrees of eligibility and success. If the ground give way in any respect, the upper surface of the picture must fail also, and this is one of the princi- pal causes of cracking, although by no means the only one. Those sub- stances, however, which occasion cracking in the ground will occasion cracking in the painting ; hence the importance of homogenity of process in 214 ON GROUNDS. both these subjects. Any discordance in this respect may induce crackinc in a variety of ways : if a picture be painted in varnish, or even with some addition of oil, exposure to sunshine will inevitably crack it, by drying and contracting the upper surface, while it softens and swells the under coat upon which it is applied. Heat of any kind will in a less degree produce the same effect. As oils and resins imbibe moisture, da?np will have the effect of expanding the upper surface and of cracking, blooming, and chilling soft varnishes. Glue or animal, size in the ground unprotected will, by expanding and contracting upon damp or very dry walls, have the same effects. Thick coats of varnish, applied too rapidly, will also dispose the surface to crack by the same mechanism. Indeed a rapid drying of the upper surface before the under-painting is fixed, notwithstanding the firm- ness of the ground, will invariably produce cracking : this is the foundation of an artifice, of which the imitators of antiques avail themselves, by apply- ing solutions of gum and glue over varnishes newly laid on, so as to craze the surface all over in the manner often produced by time on old pictures, &c. So powerful indeed is simple solution of gum in this respect, that, when applied upon ground glass, and dried thereon, it will disrupt and tear up the surface of the glass itself by the force of its contraction ; and this is a pro- perty which belongs in a degree to some varnishes of the hard resins, such as copal, when employed over surfaces of a tenacity inferior to their own. Other causes of cracking might be enumerated, not peculiarly attributable to the ground, such are over-stretching and mechanical violence, which do most injury to weak and inelastic substances, but against which none are entirely secure. It is apparent, therefore, that this disease of pictures, so desirable to avoid, and so often attributed to the grounds, may belong equally to the vehicles, the varnish, the pigments, or "to the entire process of a painting. It has been supposed that some grounds have impeded, and that others have promoted, drying, and that consequently the first or latter paintings have dried more or less speedily; and for this there may be some reason according with the materials of the grounds. Litharge and burnt umber are in this and other respects useful additions in the grounds. The best remedy in every case of ill-drying from the grounds will be to sponge with a weak solution of sugar of lead in water previously to painting. With respect to the improvement of the ground of a picture, it may be worthy of experiment and inquiry, whether caoutchouc judiciously intro- ON GROUNDS. 215 duced upon a proper basis would not afford the best of all grounds for oil-painting? We have only to remark, with respect to painting in water-colours, that pure paper is essential to the permanence of colouring, —if the bleaching acid employed in manufacturing remains ever so little in the paper, both the tex- ture and the colours will suffer in permanence ; and if, in the concern of the paper-maker to neutralize such acid, the paper be surcharged with alkali or alkaline earths, they will prove no less injurious in these and other respects : it is highly necessary therefore that these circumstances, together with the proper sizing and aluming of paper should be attended to, and that, if wanting, or if the paper happen to have been long made, the artist should reprepare it himself, by a judicious application of weak isinglass size and roach alum. And as to the practice of miniature painting, ivory and porcelain afford excellent and adequate bases entirely free from injurious action on colours. i 216 ON PICTURE-CLEANJNG AND RESTORING. CHAP. XXV. ON PICTURE-CLEANING AND RESTORING. The diseases and disorders of pictures are almost as numerous as those of animal nature, and dependent on innumerable accidental circumstances ; hence picture-cleaning has become a mystery, in which all the quackery of art has been long and profitably employed, and in which every practitioner has his favourite nostrum, for doctoring, which too often denotes destroying under the pretence of restoring and preserving. The restoration of disfigured and decayed works of art is nevertheless next in importance to their pro- duction ; and, as it chiefly relates to the colouring of pictures, it is a part of our inquiry with which we will close the technical portion of our work. This medication of pictures is then no mean subject of art, but is, when divested of quackery and fraud, as honourable in its bearing as any other form of healing art ; and, to be well qualified for its practice, requires a thorough education and knowledge in every thing~that relates to the practice of painting, or the production of a picture, but more particularly to its che- mical constitution and colouring. As, however, a picture has no natural and little of a regular constitution, it will be difficult to give general rules, and utterly impossible to prescribe universal remedies for cleaning and restoring pictures injured by time and ill-usage ; we will, therefore, briefly record such methods and means as have been successfully employed in cleaning and restoring in particular cases, with such cautions as seem necessary to prevent their misapplication, confining our remarks to oil-paintings in particular. These are subject to deterioration and disfigurement simply by dirt, — by the failure of their grounds, — by the obscuration and discolourment of vehi- cles and varnishes, — by the fading and changing of colours, — by the crack- ing of the body and surface, — by damp, mildew, and foul air, — by mechani- cal violence, — by injudicious cleaning and painting on, — among a variety of other natural and accidental causes of decay. ON PICTURE-CLEANING AND RESTORING. 217 The first thing necessary to be done in cleaning and restoring is to bring the picture to its original plane and even surface, by stretching, or, if sufficiently injured to require it, by lining, which, with the transferring of pictures to new canvases, is an operation admirably well performed in London by experienced hands. In cases of simple dirt, washing with a sponge or a soft leather and water is sufficient, with subsequent rubbing of a silk handkerchief; which latter, occasionally used, is eminently pre- servative of a painting. After restoring the surface to its level, and washing, the next essential in cleaning is to remove the varnish or covering by which the picture is obscured ; and this in the case of simple varnishes is usually done by fric- tion or solution, or by chemical and mechanical means united, when the varnish is combined, as commonly happens, with oils and a variety of foulness. In removing varnish by friction, if it be a soft varnish, such as that of mas- tic, the simple rubbing of the finger-ends, with or without water, may be found sufficient ; a portion of the resin attaches itself to the fingers, and by continued rubbing removes the varnish. If it be a hard varnish, such as that of copal, which is to be removed, friction with sea or river-sand, the particles of which have a rotundity that prevents their scratching, will accomplish the purpose. More violent means are sometimes resorted to, but never without danger or injury. The solvents commonly employed for this purpose are the several alka- lies, alcohol and essential oils, used simply or combined. Of the alkalies, the volatile in its mildest state, or carbonate of ammonia, is the only one which can be safely used in removing dirt, oil, and varnish from a picture, which it does powerfully ; it must, therefore, be much diluted with water, according to the power required, and employed with judgment and caution, stopping its action on the painting at the proper time by the use of pure water and a sponge. These cautions are doubly necessary with the fixed alkalies, potash and soda, which ought to be employed only as extraordinary means of removing spots that will not yield to safer agents. Spirits of wine or alcohol, and ether, act in a similar manner, and their power may be in like manner tempered or destroyed by dilution with water. The uniform disadvantage of all these agents is that they obscure the work, so that the 2 E 218 ON PICTURE-CLEANING AND RESTORING. . operator cannot see the good he is doing, or the mischief he may have done, in the progress of his work, except by revarnishing or oiling out. This inconvenience is, however, avoided by the safer and better mode of cleaning and removing the varnish at once by spirit of wine, tempered more or less with oil of turpentine : the practice in this case is to apply the spirituous mixture to the surface of the picture with a brush, or with carded cotton ; and when, by the motion of either, the liquid has performed its office, its farther or injurious action on the design is to be stopped by another brush or cotton imbued with linseed oil, and held in the other hand ; thus alternately proceeding with these tools, till the cleaning and removing the varnish is accomplished. The brushes act rather the better of the two, but the cottons imbibe the dirt and foul liquid, and are then easily exchanged for new ones. The great advantage of this method is, that the design and colouring bear out, and the progress of the cleaning is apparent. If more action is requisite than the spirituous mixture affords, the more active essential oils may be employed, or the pure alcohol, with the addition of sulphuric ether in extreme cases ; and if their action be too strong, the turpentine alone may be employed, or linseed oil added to the mixture. Many other methods of cleaning have been recommended and employed, and in particular instances, for sufficient chemical reasons, with success ; some of which we will recount, because in an art so uncertain, it is good to be rich in resources, although the legitimate doctor may deem them empirical. In an instance of difficulty, where much care was required, we succeeded upon a picture entirely obscured by various foulness, by varnishing over the whole, and when thoroughly dried, removing the varnish by the above means, bringing off with it the entire foulness and original varnish of the picture, with which, in this instance, the new varnish had combined. Strong solution of gum or glue will sometimes effect the removing a foul surface mechanically, but requires care. A thick coat of wet fullers earth may be employed with safety, and, after remaining on the picture a sufficient time to soften the extraneous surface, may be removed by washing, and leave the picture pure, — and an architect of the author's acquaintance has succeeded in a similar way in restoring both paintings and gilding to their original beauty by coating them with wet clay. ON PICTURE-CLEANING AND RESTORING. 219 An eminent artist and friend of the author passed oxgall over a very dirty old picture, which resisted washing with soap, repeating the application of the oxgall during several days, but without washing it off, till the last day, when a sponge and water easily removed the oxgall and dirt together, leaving the picture beautifully fresh and clean ; the efficacy of this very safe method is due to the animal alkali contained in the gall. Another friend, known to the public as an eminent engraver, was equally felicitous in restoring the purity of an excellent picture, by carefully washing it gradually, and in parts with some of the aqua fortis used in engraving, and cautiously sponging with water as he proceeded. He found the acid equally efficacious in cleaning the gilding of frames. The principle of safety in this case is, that acids, when not excessively powerful, do not act on the resinous varnishes and oils used in painting ; and that nitrous acid does not act upon gold ; but there is danger if the picture is cracked or abraded, both for the colouring and the canvas, and it can be employed with safety on oil-gilding only. This method is the opposite of the alkaline process, and they may be employed together alternately in some cases to remove spots, in doing which all manner of agency must occasionally be resorted to. Among other ingenious means of cleaning, we have it on the authority of a talented and experienced friend, that by damping the face of a picture, and exposing it to the action of a frosty night, all foulness will be effectually loosened and removed by the subsequent use of a sponge. In every method of cleaning there is great danger of removing the glazings and otherwise injuring the colouring of a picture, which require great skill and judgment to restore. In filling cracks and replacing portions of the ground, putty formed of whitening, varnish, and drying-oil, tinted somewhat lighter than the local colours require, should be employed ; as plaster of Paris may also in some cases ; and, in restoring colours accidentally removed, it should be done with a vehicle of simple varnish, because of the change of tint which takes place after drying in oil : so much is necessary, but in no case is gratuitous painting on an original picture of merit to be justified. There is a state of declining health which occurs to every picture in the course of time, arising from the natural oil that clothes its co- lours and forms a semi-opaque skin, or thin surface, which, after being removed, and the picture lined if requisite, and varnished, conduces greatly |] ill 1 7 HUH 220 ON PICTURE-CLEANING AND RESTORING. to its perfect state and preservation. This operation, which gives fresh- ness without the crudeness that belongs to pictures which have not been ameliorated by time, is necessary to every work deserving reputation. We have thus recounted various occasions, and described a variety of methods, for the cleaning and preserving of pictures ; nevertheless, we ear- nestly recommend that no inexperienced person should attempt to clean a valuable picture by any more powerful means than is afforded by soft water and a sponge. ■■i im •if , i Of ! * '■ 4 I , jgjj ' M IIP I Si is a t~ is ^ H ! i; :\;;4 : :! N. is 3. 3 at> H >*1 OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 221 CHAP. XXVI. DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS, WITH EXPERIMENTS ON LIGHT AND COLOURS. Although by Nature's liberal bounty bless 'd, The fire of Genius glow within the breast, Collateral studies still must feed the flame That, clearly burning, brightens into fame. Da Vinci thus the light of science sought, And Art, reviving, kindled as he wrought ; Thus Buonaroti rear'd his lofty name, And great Urbino brighten'd into fame ; Rubens array'd in learning's lustre shone, And triumph'd on his allegoric throne ; Thus, graced with all that liberal studies yield To form the powers of genius for the field, Accomplish'd Reynolds claims the Muse's praise. Shee, Elements of Art, p. 248. The principal of these instruments are the Chromascope and Metrochrome, so named from ^u>/*a, colour; o-kottsco, to view; and [xsTpi 249. 343. Vol. II. p. 168. I 238 EQUIVALENCE OF COLOURS, &C. ■ inches long and the tenth of an inch wide, we observed the effect de- scribed to arise gradually ; — when immediately removing the light from the right to the left eye, we found the colours at first to remain as above unchanged, but gradually they declined, and both images became as colour- less as the light ; — they then again gradually acquired colour, that which had been green becoming red, and that which had been red becoming green. It is evident, therefore, that these colours depend upon opposed spectra produce d in time, — by the hot light a green spectrum, and by the cool compensating shadow a red one, and that they are equivalent and complementary ; — evincing also our doctrine of the excitement and exhaustion of the principles of light and colour in the organ of sight ; whence it may become a useful practice in painting, that the artist view his colouring with his right and left eyes alternately closed, so as not to be subject to error by the false excitement of either organ. That the colours green and red are equivalent and complementary in the above Smithian Experiment, may be farther proved by gradually turning the strip of paper from the perpendicular to a horizontal position, when the double object will merge exactly into the single, and the two colours coincide and become white as the light. In whatever way this neutralization of equivalent colours is produced, there is a union or coalescence of the primary triad, blue, red, and yellow, in due subordination ; and it is remarkable, that when it arises from the union of two colours, as' in the present Experiment, these colours bear the relation of that interval in music which is called the fourth, corresponding to the diatessaron of the Greeks, which was held by them to be the concord upon which all others depend. This harmonizing power of colours renders it evident that it was not without some foundation Father Castel is said to have attempted to construct an ocular harpsichord, for the purpose of exhibiting to the eye a pleasurable sensation from colours, analogous to that which the ear receives from musical sounds ; but he evidently could not have succeeded, because his scale was erroneous, and because the harmo- nious effects of colours are not, as he treated them, merely successive or temporary, like those of sounds, but they are simultaneous, co-expansive, and governed by space.* In these Experiments, properly coloured glasses, or other media, such as transparent coloured liquids, may be substituted for the colours of the spectrum, and with the same results. i * Exp. xxvi. COLOURS OF SHADOWS, &C. 239 EXPERIMENT XVI. Let a solar bow be cast upon a white screen in a room nearly darkened in manner of Experiment xi. at a distance often or twelve feet from the lensic prism, at which distance the secondary colours, orange, green, and purple, are apparent. Then hold a small flat ruler across the iris, so that it cast a shadow upon the screen, when it will be found that the space of the shadow which displaces a portion of the bow will be supplied with an inverse spectrum, the colours of which will be perfect contrasts, colour for colour, to those of the bow ; thus, in place of purple in the bow will be dark yellow in the shadow, in place of green will be dark red, and in place of orange, dark blue ; and so it will be with other contrasts and colours of the bow, taken nearer its source with a proportionably narrower ruler. Remarks. — This experiment is important to the artist by demonstrating that shade is in all cases a contrast to light, not only in effect or power, as chiaroscuro, but also in colour. It corrects also the error into which the naturalist has fallen in explaining the phenomenon of the blue shadows which occur with the orange light of the rising and setting sun, or other warm-coloured light, noticed by Leonardo da Vinci, Counts Buffon and Rumford, and attributed to blue reflected from the sky, which, in truth, is merely complementary to the orange, or golden colour of the light ; for if, at any time of day, any colour be given to the sun's light, by passing it through coloured glass into a darkened chamber, the shadows of such light will always be of the colour which contrasts it, notwithstanding the reflex blue of the sky ; accordingly, if in a bright sunny day, when the sky is bluest, the shadows of an object be projected on white paper at a window opposite the north, into which the sun never enters, such shadows will be so far from blue, that they will be of colour more or less warm in proportion to the blueness of the sky. The same effects are also uniformly produced by the colours of artificial light. Another remarkable circumstance of the coloured shadows of our Experiment is, that those of a colour related to light, such as yellow or orange, will appear lighter than their lights, which are purple and blue, and vice versa of those coloured shadows whose colours are related to shade, evincing physically the truth of such relations, by which some colours appear to carry light, and to advance, while others carry shade and retire, according to the principles of painting ; and interpreting also the beautiful compensation of nature by which shade increases with light, and vice versa. *i, 4DM8S 240 NEW PRISMIC SPECTRA, &C, I EXPERIMENT XVII. Upon viewing, in the manner of Experiment i. a black spot, three- quarters of an inch in diameter, upon a white ground at about three inches distant from the lensic prism, a beautiful blue circle, inscribed with white, and circumscribed by black, will be produced ; and if a similar white spot, upon a black ground s be viewed in the same manner, a red and yellow circle, inscribed with black and circumscribed with white, will appear. By vary- ing the colours of the ground and spot in this experiment, circles of any required colour may be obtained ; thus a black spot upon a yellow ground will yield a circle of green, &c. EXPERIMENT XVIIL If any number of concentric circles, variously distinguished by figure or colour, circumscribing a spot in manner of Experiment v, fig. 10, be viewed in the same way, a compound spectrum of the like number of circles will be produced within that of the spot, succeeding one within another as the instrument rises, but in the inverted order of the object, the reason of which has been given. !Kif' : EXPERIMENT XIX. fig. 12. Let a spiral, fig. 12, be formed of any number of involutions; then adjust the chromascope to its centre, as in Experiment i. and, looking through the instrument, gradually elevate it, when the spiral will appear refracted into two involved spiral irides ; and if the figure be barbed, or arrow-headed, at either end of the spiral, a like arrow-head will be found at the central end BEAUTIFUL LUNAR ORE. 241 of one of the involved irides, and another at the external extreme of the other, the reason of which is apparent from the double incidence and re- fraction adduced, Experiment V. EXPERIMENT XX. Again ; if a spiral of any diameter exceeding that of the chromascope be viewed at a proportionate distance, as in the last Experiment, a single spiral iris only will be seen, as in Experiment VI., and if a head be formed at the outward extremity of the figure, it will be seen at the centre of the spectrum ; and if the figure be drawn to represent a serpent as large as the boa constrictor, it will seem as it were to uncoil itself as the instrument recedes from it, and will be beautifully variegated with prismatic colours. EXPERIMENT XXI. On a clear evening, when the moon is at the full, remove the small tube of the chromascope, and so adjust it with the open end toward the moon that it may be viewed through it by placing the eye close to the lensic prism, when the moon will be refracted into a beautiful lucid orb, the colours of which will not be at all inferior in brilliancy to those of the solar spec- trum, Exp. II. A plano-convex, or conical lensic prism, with the plane toward the eye, is the most convenient for close vision, and the eye being close to the plane, and the apex toward the object concentrically, a wider field of vision is com- manded. EXPERIMENT XXII. On a dark night, when the sky is clear, the planets and fixed stars may be viewed in manner of the above experiments, when the light of either will \>e refracted into coloured orbs, differing from that of the moon only in the breadth and brilliancy of its colours ; proving that the light of the heavenly bodies differs not by the analysis of refraction. 2 H i- 242 PLEASING EXPERIMENTS. Ill the same manner may be examined the lights of the glow-worm, lightning, phosphori, &c. ; but when these lights are faint, the yellow is diffi- cultly distinguished in their spectra. EXPERIMENT XXIII. If day-light be admitted into a darkened chamber through a small round aperture in the window-shutter, or a sun-beam be received on a ground glass, or tissue paper, which covers the opening ; and it be then viewed, as in the last experiments, at any convenient distance, a brilliant circular iris will be produced, as in those experiments. For this purpose a circular card, or piece of thin sheet lead, or other metal, perforated with the aper- ture required, and fitted to the socket of the scioptic ball, is well adapted. Remarks. — In the same manner many of the preceding experiments, by reflection from opaque and coloured objects, may be performed by means of figures perforated in the manner of stainfoils, in card or thin sheet metal, and adapted to the socket of the scioptic ball, or opening in the window shutter ; and these experiments have the advantages of superior brilliancy, &c. EXPERIMENT XXIV. Into the short small tube, or eye-piece of the chromascope, fit a small lensic prism, of a plano-convex or other required shape, at the interior extre- mity. At the opposite, or prism end of the principal tube of the chroma- scope, fit a plane white ground glass, perforated metal plates, coloured glasses or lenses, &c. as may be required : or the whole may be managed by a sliding apparatus, fixed at the end of the chromascope, in manner of the magic lanthorn. Thus provided, the instrument will be adapted for a variety of the pre- ceding and other experiments in a light apartment, in the sun, or in artificial lio-ht, — the large tube supplying the place of a darkened chamber or screen. Thus, e. g. to demonstrate the refrangibility of the coloured rays of the prismic spectrum, as in Exp. XIII., having fitted the large tube of the chromascope with a colourless ground glass, and a perforated plate, cast GENERAL REMARKS. 243 either of the original pure colours of the prismic spectrum on the object glass, or perforated plate at the end of the chromascope, and view it through the lensic prism of the small tube at the opposite end, &c. General Remarks. — To describe all the experiments to which these instruments conduct, whether for use or amusement, is impossible. The fore- going are sufficient to show some of their applications and to indicate others. What is therein performed by the refraction of lensic prisms may, in many in- stances, be accomplished by the reflection of similar specula ; add to which the other figures of these prisms, before pointed out, a similar variety of annular prisms and their combinations, together with the variations of which the chromascope itself is susceptible, from the simple hand-glass to its combinations with other optical instruments, and a new and extensive field is opened to the ingenious enquirer for dioptrical experiment, adapted equally to instructive amusement and the advancement of science. Of other applications of these instruments none is more obvious than the facility with which they may be adapted to the magic lanthorn, so as to ex- hibit their effects by artificial light. It remains yet that we describe the Metrochrome, the other instrument alluded to at the commencement of this chapter, and illustrate some of its principal uses and effects by experiments, ■ I , ■H—T" ]'f 244 ON THE METROCHROME ; ON THE METROCHROME; OR, STANDARD OF COLOURS. An accurate and determinate mode of measuring and denominating colours, so as to convey precise ideas of their hues, shades, and relations, has hitherto been a desideratum, not only in fine art, but also to the che- mist and geologist, the botanist and anatomist, the optician and astronomer, and in every department of natural philosophy. Nor has it been less desirable in commerce ; to the cultivator, and to the manufacturer, not to enumerate also the many utilities and appliances of such a standard in various other concerns of taste and science. In painting, in particular, it has the important office of establishing defi- nitively the proportional powers of colours upon which their equivalence, or faculty of harmonizing each other in every possible case depends, the accomplishment of which has been among the principal objects of the Metrochrome described, and so applied, in the following experiments. I EXPERIMENT XXV. Fig. 5. PI. ii. represents part of the above-named instrument, in which ABCD is a hollow prism or wedge, in each side of which is cemented, and secured by a brass frame and screws, a colourless plate glass efg h, which glasses touch each other within at the end eg, and diverge or sepa- rate at the other ends to the thickness of the wedge at ///. We thus ob- tained a hollow prism, pervious to light and vision, which might be filled with a transparent coloured liquid by means of an opening and screw stopper in the end B D. To prevent compression of the liquid the stopper OR, STANDARD OF COLOURS. 245 should be perforated lengthwise, that the air may escape, and the perfora- tion be secured by the screw or plug E. It is evident this wedge, being so charged with a coloured liquid, and viewed opposite the light, will, throughout its broad face, present a perfect gradation of colour, from the utmost diluteness or minimum, at the conver- gent extreme g e, where the glasses touch, to the utmost depth or maximum at. the divergent extreme/ £, where they are at their utmost separation. On one side of the wedge, C D, is screwed a brass scale of the exact length of the cavity within the glasses efg h, geometrically divided into 32 degrees, each subdivided into four others, forming evidently an accurate measure of thickness, increasing at each division, from the point of contact of the glasses, and are consequently also a true numerical measure of the intensities of transparent colour throughout the wedge. Such a prism, charged with a blue liquid, will form a cyanometer, or measure of blue ; with a red liquid, an eruthrometer, or measure of red; and with a yelloiv liquid, a xanthometer, or measure of yellow, the colours of such liquids being adjusted to a given intensity. EXPERIMENT XXVI. Again C E X, fig. 6. PI. n., represent in combination three of the above described prismic wedges, or colour gauges, accurately formed and graduated to the same scale, and having prepared three liquids of the three true primary colours of equal powers or intensities,* charge the cyano- meter C with blue liquid, the eruthrometer E with red, and the xanthometer X with yellow. \ The gauges thus prepared may be combined in pairs alternately to pro- duce the secondary colours purple, green, and orange, similarly gradated of all shades ; or, by changing them endwise, of one uniform shade of all hues, and ! ": H * This is as easy to a correct and practised eye as the tuning of musical strings is to a musi- cian ; nevertheless mechanical aids may be resorted to. E. g. Intercept the light passing singly through the coloured liquids at any given division of the wedges by three equal bars, Ind re- ceive their shadows on white paper at equal distances, varying the coloured liquids till they cast equal shadows, or till they are lost at equal distances; or various other photometrical contri- vances may be employed. f The liquids may be, for a blue, a solution of sulphate of copper; for the red, liquid rubiate diluted with water ; and for yellow, aqueous tincture of saffron, or terra merita. 24G THE METROCHROME. the proportions of the compound of any hue will be denoted by comparing the numbers opposed to it on the two scales. By similar management of the three gauges may be produced of the same originals, blue, red, and yellow ; the tertiary colours, olive, russet, and citrine, and all other compounds, with a like power of measuring and computing their proportions. Thus used in conjunction the three gauges constituted a Metrochrome, or general measure and standard of colours. Remarks. — It has been suggested by a friend intimately conversant with the philosophy of colours, " that the most effectual mode of making a stan- dard would be to have the wedges filled with coloured liquids so diluted, or at angles so acute, that a ray of light transmitted through either of the wedges at the centre, taken as zero, should, as nearly as possible, correspond with the red, blue, or yellow ray from the prism at any given distance. This would become a standard if the centre gave the tint in truth and just intensity at zero, and the wedges always had the same length and angle. These records of corresponding quantities above and below zero would be- come standards of tints amounting, in a scale of only thirty-two degrees, to nearly three hundred ternary tints, independent of the binary, and the degrees of intensity of the primary," EXPERIMENT XXVII. For a convenient mode of managing the graduated wedges in conjunction, a tube or case, fig. 7. PI. ir., has been adopted, consisting of a pedestal A, which forms a foot or stand for the instrument when in use, and an obe- lisk B, to receive the wedges. The latter has a glass front through which the graduated sides of the wedges may be seen, and the sides of the obelisk are perforated with two small openings opposite each other, CD; through which, and the wedges altogether, a direct view may be had, or a beam of light be thrown. The obelisk is connected with its pedestal by hinges, ena- bling it to fallback at right angles therewith; in which situation it is further supported by a falling leg E, in the back view of the apparatus, fig. 8, as appears in its horizontal position, fig. 9. In using the metrochrome, place it in its horizontal position across the light to be viewed or transmitted ; turn out the lid of its pedestal F, for the wedges, CHROMATIC EQUIVALENCE. 247 charged with their respective colours, to slide on, into, or out of the obelisk, as appears at G. Parallel with the axis of vision, and over the centre of the two openings in the sides of the metrochrome C D, is an index formed by a fine wire stretched across,— or better by a line drawn with a diamond pencil across the face of the front glass. If now, for example, the blue gauge be slid in, till its scale reaches 24 degrees beneath the index, the red gauge till it reaches 15°, and the yellow till it reaches 9°— or any similar proportions— a beam of light being cast through the whole by the openings C D, will pass achromatic or colourless, provided the coloured liquids with which the gauges have been charged are of pure colours and equal intensities. The light viewed through them in the opposite direction will also, of course, appear colourless. It is not necessary that the blue gauge be placed at 24° in this Experiment ;— any other position of the scale will equally afford the achromatic compound of yellow, red, and blue, upon properly adjusting the other two wedges to such other position, when it will invariably result that the proportions of the three are as 9, 15, 24, or in the ratio of 3, 5, 8, in remarkable coincidence with the geometrical analogy, or proportional intervals, of the common chord, or harmonic triad of the musician, which is the foundation of all harmony in sounds, as deduced by Tartini and others from the string trumpet and monochord. In the three primary colours combined thus in achromatic unity, or accordance, the power of yellow is as 3, that of red as 5, and that of blue as 8. . EXPERIMENT XXVIII. Having adjusted the colour gauges in the position of the metrochrome fig. 9. as in the last Experiment in the complementary proportions 3° + 5°+ 8°= 16° ; if the blue be then withdrawn, a perfect orange, composed of 3 yellow and 5 red will remain, and be visible either by transmitting a beam of light, or looking through the gauges in the metrochrome, as before de- scribed ; and this orange of 8° is consequently the equal contrast or equiva- lent complementary of blue of 8° ; 16° being the amount of neutrality. 4 * * This numerical equivalence of orange and blue is as remarkable as the corresponding inter, vals in the diatonic scale of the natural major mode in music, which are both half.notes. 1 | .... wmm 248 POWERS OF COLOURS. If now the blue gauge be restored to the exact position, from which it was removed, in the metrochrome, and the red gauge be withdrawn in its stead, a -perfect green, composed of yellow of 3° and blue of 8°, will remain visible in manner and place of the orange ; and this green of 11° will be the equiva^ lent of red of 5°, their numbers amounting also to 16°. Finally, by restoring the red gauge to its position in the metrochrome, and withdrawing the yellow gauge, a perfect purple, composed of red of 5° and blue of 8°, will remain in like manner ; and this purple of 13° will be the equivalent of yellow of 3°, which again also amount to 16°. Remarks. — From these data may be deduced the relative powers of other colours, for the tertiaries are regular compounds of the secondaries, as the latter are of the primary colours, as denoted by the following Table : — Primary, S o u u 02 { >> H 16° Neutral . . *— - — — Blue 8° Red 5° Yel. 3° White and I ^ight. Orange . 8°= 5 3 Green . . 11°= 8 3 Purple. . 13°= 8 5 Neutral .... 16 10 6 Grey. Blue Red Yel. Orange . . 8= Green . . 11 = 8 5 3 3 }- 5 6 Orange . . 8= Purple . . 13= 8 5 5 3 }=e 10 3 Green . . 11= Purple . . 13 = 8 8 5 3 5 3 i Neutral .... 32 20 12 Black. Citrine. Russet. Olive. H m >=■ so It appears above, that the amounts of the primary colours which consti- tute the secondaries are proportionally 16°=10=6; and that those of the secondary colours, which constitute the tertiaries, are 32=20=12; but both CHROMATIC EQUIVALENCE.. 249 these are the same in ratio, as 8=5=3, or that mixture of the primaries which compensate or neutralize each other equivalently ; accordingly the neutrals, black, white, and grey, may be compounded of secondary, primary, or tertiary colours, as we have shown elsewhere. Blue. Red. Yel. If we add to 16 5 3 which are the constituents of olive, the 5 3 which constitute orange, they amount to 16 10 6 which constitute the neutral grey : accord- ingly orange is the contrast and complementary of olive. Blue. Red. Yel. 8 10 3 which belong to russet, 8 3 of green, So if we add to the we again obtain the russet. 16 10 6 of grey; — and green is the contrast of Blue. Red. And if we add to the the 8 8 5 5 Yel. 6 of citrine of purple, we also obtain 16 10 6 of grey; and purple is the contrast of citrine. The tertiaries have, therefore, similar relation to black or shade that the primaries have to white or light. Hence the relations and propor- tionals of colours terminate circularly, or at the point of commencement. They are therefore complete, and admit of systematic arrangement. Accordingly we have constructed the Scale fig. 2. PI. i. upon the princi- ple of which may be deduced the equivalent relations of colours to infinity. This scale comprehends six circles, constituting three stars, each having six radials, or branches, with black at the centre ; but of which we need not repeat the description already given in Chap, in., and of which we have now supplied the principle and rationale.* Any one so disposed may refine mechanically upon this plan, by giving motion to the outward scale of figures, so as to work with the inward fixed scale; all possible relations and combinations of colours numerically, and in other ways. It is evident that all colours and contrasts may be determined upon the same principle of mensuration, so that the artist may not only know and name his hues, but also form a correct judgment of the proportions in which they will neutralize, and the quantities either of surface or intensity in which they harmonize • Note D. 2 I I ' 114 i,. 250 CONSTRUCTION OF THE METROCHROME. each other ; — and carrying therewith a fine eye to his performances, he may the more readily satisfy the demands of a pure and cultivated taste. All the rules of poetry will not, however, make a poet ; nor will the utmost refinements of mechanism or science give genius to the painter, however they may correct and aid him as important means in his art, and help him to realize the conceptions of a poetical imagination. To treat of the innumerable uses to which the metrochrome maybe applied in the various affairs of life and literature, would be little to the purpose of the present work — and they are perhaps sufficiently obvious. To give to the instrument itself the utmost simplicity and perfection, would render a much more important service to art. And as the triangular prisms, first employed by natural philosophers, were formed of glass planes and filled with water, &c, ere prisms of solid glass were constructed, so it is perfectly practicable to form coloured gauges of solid glass to supply the place of the hollow wedges of the metrochrome. For this purpose it may be suggested, that clear flint glass may be tinged by the sulphuret of gold of a red colour — by the sulphuret of silver, yellow — and by the sulphuret of cobalt, blue ; or, otherwise, by the various precipitates of these metals, or the same metals minutely divided. It is not necessary that massy coloured glass wedges should be formed for the above purpose; on the contrary, a new mode of perfect adjustment of the colours of the glasses would arise if wedge-shaped pieces of flat glass of the eighth of an inch uniform thickness, polished at the edges, were em- ployed — because the glasses, being of uniform thickness, might be chosen of equal intensities, and a perforation of the obelisk of the metrochrome, for light and vision, of the diameter of the thickness of the glass would be suffi- cient for all the purposes of the instrument ; and these means would render its construction as easy as that of most other metral instruments. The following ingenious mode of obtaining the results of these instru- ments has been suggested : — " Instead of transmitting the light, as required, through two or three such wedges at once, let them be so adapted to a whirling disk, that each wedge may be brought to pass in rapid succession before an eye-hole, through which the light transmitted through the wedges will present compounded tints of different hues and intensities, by sliding the wedges so that different thicknesses thereof may pass before the eye- hole. In this way every possible tint may be compounded, and the known quantities of its constituent colours determined by the scale." m CHROMATIC EQUIVALENCE. 251 The same may be accomplished in other ways, as by uniformly thin transparent plates of the required primary colours with which hues and shades may be compounded, and the proportions of the compounds denoted by the number of plates employed ; and also mechanically and chemically, as in the following Experiments : EXPERIMENT XXIX. Divide a circular white card of three inches diameter by a line across, into two equal semicircles, one of which paint of a light blue colour ; again, divide the other half-circle from the centre, in the proportion of five to three, and paint its larger portion of a light prismatic red colour, and the smaller portion of a bright yellow, so that the three colours shall be of equal pureness and intensities. The face of the card will then be divided and coloured in the proportions of three yellow, five red, and eight blue. Pass a pin through the centre of this card, which spin rapidly thereon with its face toward the light, when the three colours of the circle will blend and vanish, and the card will be seen of a dull white colour, which is most apparent when contrasted by some dark object behind it. EXPERIMENT XXX. Three cylindrical glasses, of equal diameters and equal height, were filled with aqueous tinctures, the one blue, another red, and the third yellow, of pure colours, and reduced by diluting with water to as nearly equal intensities as the eye could judge. Then into a glass tube, nine inches long and half an inch in diameter, accurately graduated lengthwise, portions of each of the above coloured liquids were poured alternately till the mix- ture upon shaking became neutral or colourless. Upon measuring the quantities of the coloured liquids remaining in the cylindrical glasses, the proportions wanting were eight blue, five red, and three yellow, which formed the proportions of the neutral liquid in the tube within a fraction. This Experiment was repeated several times with the same result, by pouring the coloured liquids into the graduated tube in the above propor- tions, and shaking ;— more of either colour then added to the mixture gave I ill ... tarn* \7 252 MONOCHROME. its own hue. The colours of the liquids should not be so deep as to disturb their transparency ; the eye is also a better judge of the hues and intensities of light or pale than of deep or dark colours. EXPERIMENT. XXXI. The last experiment lies under the disadvantage of the permanent com- bination of the three liquids, so that we cannot be assured that the disap- pearance of the colours in the mixture is not the effect of chemical change : if, therefore, we were to tinge clear saturated aqueous solution of potash of a blue colour, — oil of turpentine, or other colourless oil, of a pure yellow colour, and alcohol red, and, with these coloured liquids, repeat the above Experi- ment, the neutral compound being left at rest, would soon separate, and the three liquids detach themselves in their proper colours, demonstrating at once the proportional powers of the primary colours, synthetically and analytically. This Experiment may be adapted to the various other compounds and relations of colours ; e. g. for exhibiting the contrasts complementarily, by variously tingeing these liquids as the case may require. Remarks. — A tube employed as in the above experiments becomes a monochrome, so to call it, in which the three primary colours are united harmonically, under certain invariable natural proportions, analogous to the harmonics of the monochord and trumpet marine of the musician, upon which simple instrument the natural theory or science of his beautiful art is grounded;* so also may be developed, by this monochrome, the entire scale of colours analogically as numbers to unity. Notwithstanding the simplicity of this latter instrument, the metrochrome has a wider range, and many obvious advantages of which the monochrome is deficient ; and this in particular, that a more perfect neutralization of the colours can be effected without even a suspicion of chemical change by the action of contact and mixture in the liquids : these instruments, however, help to confirm each other's results by coincidence. To the same end other means may be resorted to, and such also as are not liable to chemical exception, by mingling measured quantities of coloured * See Stillingfleet's Principles and Powers of Harmony, p. 22, § 35. GENERAL REMARKS. 253 powders of equal purity and intensities, or by numbers of coloured glasses, or other more tenuous transparent coloured substances, of equal thickness, pureness, and intensities ; by which the general laws of chromatic accord- ance may be established upon a wider induction. It may perhaps be objected against the metral accuracy of these instru- ments that they have not an indisputable or invariable standard ; but the same objection holds against the barometer, thermometer, hydrometer, and all other meters, the most perfect of which afford but approximations to truth; and this, in the present instance, is all that can be of use to the artist ; and relative perfection is all that we claim for the metrochrome. The eye must be the judge and test of purity and depth of colour, as the ear is of sounds ; and as many musicians are to be found who could tune strings and instruments in respect to pitch, tune, and temperament, to the acquiescence, if not entire satisfaction, of every good ear ; so few artists, perhaps none, would dispute the relative depth or purity of any two or more colours equalised by a good eye ; and upon this principle depends the adjustment of the gauges of the metrochrome, though other aids may be resorted to if required. This instrument is therefore qualified in principle and practice to become a universal standard of colours by which the philo- sopher, the artist, and the merchant may register and communicate accurate records of colours from the most distant places, and from age to age. Conclusion. — The foregoing experiments and observations, selected from our occasional and desultory investigation of this delightful branch of optics, might have been greatly extended had it been the leading subject of this work ; but as it may be thought by some that we have already passed the bounds of a proper subordination, we will add only a few words more, and have done. The chromascope, it is evident, is capable of great variation in its con- struction and application ; and much remains to be done in the formation and adaptation of tire lensic prisms. When solid wedges of coloured glass of pure hues and adjusted intensities shall have been constructed, they will contribute to the simplicity, permanence, and perfection of the metro- chrome. For these instruments also a properly constructed chamber, re- sembling the magic lanthorn, for employing them with artificial light, should be constructed, all of which would improve their application and facilitate research in the hand of an ingenious inquirer. \'f 254 CONCLUSION. Upon the whole, it has appeared that whether we experiment upon the inherent or reflected colours of pigments, fyc, the transient or refracted colours of piisms, &;c., or the transmitted colow^s of transparent liquids, #c, they present the same uniform relations, and in this illustration our design in these expe- riments terminates ; nevertheless we have not ceased to intend, during the last twenty-five years, to pursue this inquiry in such a way as might carry these instruments to such relative perfection as might qualify them for ge- neral use, according to their objects ; but, having satisfied our primary intention by these experiments, our ultimate design has given way from time to time to more urgent occupations ; but the field of research herein is still open, and, to any person having leisure and inclination for such inquiry, there is ample room for the exercise of skill and ingenuity, with a fair pro- spect of beautiful and useful results ; indeed, an able artist, and most inge- nious gentleman, the late Mr. Stephens, formerly one of the professors of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, had, some years since, taken up the subject with zeal and assiduity from our hands ; and we had reason to expect very interesting communications from one so well prepared for the research, when his sudden death, in the cathedral at Exeter, unfortunately put a period to this hope. NOTES. Note A, page 6. Decisions of Criticism.— It is highly important to the student that the question con- cerning the true rank and esteem of the various styles and departments of painting, and of that of colouring in particular, should be rightly understood, that he may not waste his time and talents in vain and unprofitable endeavours ; and, to comprehend this question correctly, it is necessary to consider these styles and departments in their true, natural, and philosophical relations individually, as well as in reference to art and society generally. In the first respect, they are either material and mechanical— sensible and sentimental— ox they are moral and in- tellectual; yet it is impossible to separate these entirely from either branch, or to assign either to either otherwise than by predominance, in which way hand, execution, drawing and whatever concerns the management of the materials of a picture belong to the material and ma- nual ;— colour, light, shade, and effect, belong to sense,— and to the intellectual belong inven- tion, composition and expression. Admitting, then, that intellect is above sense, and sense above matter and mechanism, we must accord the highest rank to invention and expression in themselves, and assign the like middle station to colouring; but if the art as a whole have, as it truly has, essentially more of the sensible than it has of either the material or intellectual, then is the sensible principal in the art, and colouring and its allies are principal in painting, although out of the art itself they have not the highest reference. Styles in art have ever varied with their age and nation according as the people among whom they have been practised have been more or less mechanical, sensible, or intellectual, without this, art would have terminated in rules, models, and sinensian sameness ; — without this there had been neither Dutch, Flemish, nor Venetian schools ; and without this there can be no English school. Had the critics and professors of Holland and Flanders inflated the Dutch and Flemish painters with the ambition of rivalling the schools of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and the Caracci, their works would have been rejected by their country, and their attempt to lead their age, instead of leaving art to the impulse of genius and the calls of society, would have had the effects it has had in England of neutralizing patronage or demand, and of depriving the world of a new developement of art, and of the rich produce of a school low in °rade, but admirable in effect. Hence, left to its natural course in a free, great, and enlightened country like this, the art cannot fail of those new and transcendant attainments, which have ever sprung from power and riches, accompanied by freedom and intelligence, as witnessed in antient Greece ; but the spirit of art in this country has been constantly depressed by false criticism, foreign revilings against its genius, and the domestic outcry of want of patronage for works of magnitude; as if magnitude were synonymous with merit. The Greeks knew how to concentrate ^ajtammi vf 256 NOTES. more of the perfections of art on a gem than all the gigantic figures of Egypt, together, could afford ; — why, then, shall not the British artist obtain riches and exalted reputation by the free exercise of his talents on works of such a magnitude as may be suited to the customs, climate and calls of his country ? Note B, page 7. That Sir Joshua Reynolds felt unaffected upon a first inspection of the works of Raffael at Rome, was owing, doubtlessly, to the general unattractiveness of their colouring. Many, he observed, experienced the same indifference toward them. He remarked also, " That those persons only, who, from natural imbecility, appeared to be incapable of relishing those divine performances, made pretensions to instantaneous raptures on first beholding them." — 'Reynolds's Works by Farrington. Gainsborough, with a candour parallel to that of Reynolds, acknowledged to Edwards, upon viewing the Cartoons at Hampton Court, that their beauty was of a class he could neither appreciate nor enjoy. The present highly talented President of the Royal Academy has remarked, with just discri- mination, that " They who have excelled in subjects of a grand and elevated character, have rarely been able to combine with their other accomplishments the merits of colouring, chiaro'scuro, and execution ; but let us not, therefore, contract our ideas of excellence, in compliment to their deficiencies, nor endeavour to persuade ourselves that we see in the imperfection of their art a principle of their science. "—Elements, Canto v. N. P. 284. " How colouring and effect may and ought to be managed, to enliven form and invigorate sentiment and expression (remarks Opie), I can readily comprehend, and, I hope, demonstrate ; but wherein these different classes of excellence are incompatible with each other, I could never conceive ; nor will the barren coldness of David, the brickdust of the learned Poussin, nor even the dryness of Raffael himself, ever lead me to believe, that the flesh of heroes is less like flesh than that of other men; nor that the surest way to strike the imagination and interest the feelings, is to fatigue, perplex, and disgust the organs through which the impression is made on the mind." — Lect. I. p. 18. Upon this subject, and upon colouring in general, there has been much ably and eloquently said by Opie, — himself an eminent colourist, — in his fourth and last excellent lecture, which well merits the attention of every colourist, for just feeling and discrimination in this branch of painting. Tt is evident, notwithstanding, that he was not well acquainted with the relations upon which harmony depends, since he confounds tone and warmth with harmony, according to a very common error, when he says, *' Harmony is secured by keeping up the same tone through the whole, and not at all by any sort of arrangement." — P. 143. And again, " Harmony easily slides into jaundice."— Ibid. Now, harmony of colouring is infinite in its varieties, all depending upon arrangement, and tone is but the ruling colour pervading any arrangement or composition — the archeus of the piece ; which in like case the harmonist, in the sister art of music, calls the key;— and warmth is the suffusion of a particular tone, the natural key-note of the colouring. Colouring has as many NOTES. 257 artificial keys as there are hues;— as many tones, all applicable to legitimate arrangement, or harmonies in colouring ; but not all equally eligible, for this must depend upon taste, nature, sentiment, and judgment. Opie is not, however, singular in confounding tone with harmony ; the error is general, and Sir Joshua has fallen into it; — but monotony of any kind must not be confounded with harmony. Note C, pages 20. 226. Green, orange, violet, and indigo primaries — from crossings of blue, RED, AND yellow rays. — Newton considered the simple originality of the first four of these colours, together with the three latter, to be demonstrated, because, after having produced them from a beam of light analytically, by prismatic refraction, he could not farther resolv either of them into other colours by passing them through a second prism ; for, though variously dispersed, each colour retained its original hue.* Hence Newton concluded that there were seven primary colours. Nevertheless, three of these, blue, red, and yellow, being separated from the others and properly compounded, reproduce colourless light, which again, by prismatic refraction, affords Newton's seven primaries, including green, orange, violet, and indigo; and so on repeatedly, f Another difficulty into which Newton's hypothesis led, was the necessity of admitting two kinds of colours, which he denominated homogeneal and heterogeneal ; thus his prismatic green was homogeneal, but a green composed of blue and yellow he called heterogeneal; yet, had he mixed his blue and yellow rays, his prism would have refracted without separating them, and thus the heterogeneal colour would have become homogeneal ; we shall not, however, continue an argument which will make artists smile and grave men frown ; yet, neither false shame, nor respect for authority, however exalted, ought, in any case, to suppress our regard for and vindication of truth. In the present case, too, that great man, Newton himself, admonishes us not to admit more causes of natural appearances than are both true and sufficient to explain them, agreeably to that more antient maxim, that nature does nothing in vain, and, therefore, would not have instituted seven primaries in a design which is perfectly accomplished by three. X Note D, pages 21. 29. 154. 249. Having deduced the relations of colours regularly from white or light, through the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, to black or shade, we might have done the same inversely from black to white. On this plan the tertiaries, olive, russet, and citrine, take the place of the primaries, blue, red, and yellow, while the secondaries still retain their intermediate station and relation to both ; thus russet and olive compose or unite in dark purple, citrine and olive in dark green, and russet and citrine in dark orange, as demonstrated pp. 248 and 249. The tertiaries have, therefore, the same order of relation to black that the primaries have to white ; and we have black primaries, * Optics, Prop. ii. Theor. n. Exp. 5. 2 K t Exp. Xxvii. p. 247. 258 NOTES. secondaries, and tertiaries, inversely, as we have white primaries, secondaries, and ternaries, directly ; or, what is the same thing, we have light and dark colours of all classes. Theoretically, the tertiaries may be produced either by mixture of the primaries alone, the secondaries alone, or by the primaries and black ; but in the latter mode the black must be perfectly neutral and the colours true, to do this practically, and none of our pigments are perfect enough for this ; the latter mode is, therefore, a bad practice, and applicable only to the production of shadow colours, distinguished by the term semi-neutrals. — P. 28. It is the imperfection or anomalousness of pigments which renders these distinctions necessary, for had we pigments in the chromatic and relative perfection which belongs to prismatic colours, with also a perfectly transparent and neutral shade-colour with which to combine the whole, the inverse order of our classification would afford us the series from black to white ; the contrary order adopted is, however, practically preferable, because we have white pigments sufficiently opaque and pure to compound all tints without changing the denominations of colours; but, as before remarked, we have no black so transparent and neutral as to afford us equally perfect shades : both these orders are, however, represented by the definite scale and the scale of equivalents taken conversely, and the absolute completeness of the natural system of colours is demonstrated analytically and synthetically, or rather antithetically. Note E, page 22. Mr. Brockedon, in his late interesting discussion of chromatic and optical phenomena at the Royal Institution, introduced a variety of devices, some of which, by very ingenious arrange- ment and mechanism, illustrated the combinations, contrasts, and powers of colours upon each other. To do justice to these by description, unassisted by engravings and colours, will be impossible; the following may, however, help the reader in forming a conception of one of them, which consisted of a broad ring, formed upon a white ground, and coloured at equal distances, blue, red, and yellow ; these colours, being gradated alternately into each other, form the three secondaries, each opposite to its contrasting primary in regular gradation and series all round the ring or circle. A similar narrower circle of the mean diameter of the above, cut from its ground, internally and externally, formed a ring, which being coloured exactly as the above, but much more faintly, and placed concentrically upon it, colour to colour, alike all round, the power and mass of colour in the large ring negated that of the small incumbent ring, and rendered it nearly colourless to the eye ; but the latter being turned half round, so that the colours of the two rings became opposed, colour to contrast, all round the circles, the faint hues of the small ring revived to the eye, with a vigour of colour far exceeding their natural power when viewed alone. A colourless circular board, of sufficient diameter to cover the larger circle, being perforated with two or more small openings opposite to each other, and turned round concentrically upon this larger coloured ring, exhibited successively all the individual contrasts of the whole circular series, with other pleasing and instructive effects applicable to many uses in the arts. This portion of Mr. Brockedon's plan is evidently available for our scale of equivalents, so as to isolate single contrasts, or by three or more openings, at equal distances, to indicate a like NOTES. 259 number of harmonizing colours, and the proportions on the scale in which they would compose harmoniously in painting. Many diagrams have been contrived for exhibiting colours under various references ; the schemes of Kircher, Lamozzo, Newton, and Harris, are well known. Adopting the doctrine of three primaries, &c. their relations may be illustrated by a great variety of trine figures ; of which we have in our " Chromatics" preferred the triangle as the simplest and most analogous for form and composition. Mr. Clover, who has studied this branch of his art with care and success, has constructed a diagram of this kind equally simple and ingenious, the principal device of which consists of a broad ring (circumscribing a triangle) constituted of three crescents, formed by lines drawn by the compasses from the outward to the inward edges of the ring, and dividing it into three equal portions, coloured severally blue, red, and yellow. It is evident that any diametrical line, drawn across this ring, will point to contrasts which arise from combinations of the primaries all round the ring. Many other plans might be described, such as Mr. T. Hargreave's, which coincides with our own ; Mr. Martin's, by the trisecting of three sets of concentric circles ; and Mr. Hayter's, who has published a very curious and ingenious one, consisting of the involution of three spirals; — the principle of all which arises out of the admirable geometrical property of the apt combi- nation of trine figures. Note F, page 39. Our theory of the constitution of light, upon which we interpret the phenomena of inherent and transient colours by chemical election, is fully adequate to the explanation of the colours of transmitted and reflected light. Thus, when light passes through transparent coloured class, it is not the colour of the glass that tinges the light so transmitted, in the manner a colouring- substance tinges a liquid, but the colour in the glass neutralizes itself, or retains from the light by election such a proportion of its principles as reduces such colour to an achromatic state, and suffers the remainder of the light to pass through the glass, so constituted as to afford the pre- cise colour of the glass itself. In this manner such a proportion of the principles of lioht as constitutes redness passes through red glass, and the rest of the light is retained. It is the same with other colours of transparent substances; and in like manner the colours reflected from opaque coloured bodies are not the colours of the bodies themselves, but of the light by which they are illuminated— nor do we in any case see the immediate colours of objects, but those only with which they affect light. As yellow fixes or absorbs one proportion of the elementary principles of light — red another — blue another — and black absorbs the whole of light, so coloured bodies are found to become heated by the sun's rays in proportion as their colours retain or fix light, or refuse its transmission or reflection. That colours and light itself are oxides of hydrogen is a doctrine which, though we have founded principally upon modern discoveries, is so remarkably coincident with one of a poetical and figurative character, drawn from traditions, and handed down to us by the father of poetry that we may be pardoned perhaps for introducing it here. According to Hesiod, Iris was the daughter of Thatjmas (or Osiris) and Electra (or Isis), and trine sister of A'ello and Ociipete. Vf 260 NOTES. What are we to understand by this ? If Iris and her bow are figurative of colours, Electra of the active principle of light, and Thaumas of the reactive principle of shade or darkness, as the learned will allow; and if Ocypete is also figurative of their offspring oxygen, and Aiillo [a stormy or gloomy air] also figurative of hydrogen, the reader will not find much diffi- culty in reconciling the poet's genealogy of Iris, or colours, with modern physics, and the chro- matic theory we have founded upon them. Could the true original significations of the names of the heathen deities be determined, the whole Theogony of Hesiod would probably unravel itself into the personifications of the powers of nature, according to the physics and metaphysics of the poet's time, and become as perspicuous to us as it must in such case have been to his contemporaries; or as his Works and Days still are. This might account for the constant application of the heathen mythology to the allegories of poetry and painting, of which the personification of the powers of nature affords the grandest machinery, and sanctions the practice among Christians. If this speculation is well founded, the painter may petition Iris with philosophic truth in the language of poetry, as imitated in the following Orphic, in which the colours are illustrated by natural objects, and classed in the order of their derivation, as primary, secondary, and tertiary. TO IRIS. Come, daughter of celestial right ! Come, goddess born of shade and light ! * Lovely and gay, — fair sister trine Of Oxygen and Hydrogene, Propitious come ! and bring with thee In glowing tints thy progeny. Bring me the beam of yellow hue, Bring me the sky's celestial blue, And Evening's roseate red! Bring me fair Albion's vernal green, The orange fruit, the purple vine, The fields with citrine spread. O bring the russet heath, the olive grove, And aid my genius in the art I love ! Note G, page 39. Unequal affinities of the organ may explain the various defects of vision with REGARD to colours. — An imperfect eye for colours is hardly perhaps less common than a bad ear for musical sounds. We were some years ago introduced to an intelli- * Thaumas and Electra. \ NOTES. 261 gent gentlemanly man, about fifty years of age, high in office at the East India House, who never had been able to distinguish any colour sufficiently to name it, nor could designate such otherwise than as comparatively light or dark, and who used to refer to his daughter, whose eyes were excellent, for their nominal distinctions. He used spectacles, but his eyes were not otherwise defective. In the Philosophical Transactions for 1738 is an account of persons to whom all objects appeared red after having eaten henbane-roots. In the same journal for 1777, p. 250, one Harris is mentioned who could not tell black from white. He had two brothers equally defective, one of whom mistook orange for green. Again, (Phil. Trans. 1778, p. 6L3.) to another person full reds and full greens appeared alike, but yellows and dark blues were very nicely distinguished. It is remarkable that in those cases of defective vision in which the eye is insensible to either of the primary colours, the party so defective confounds with, or regards such colour as, its oppo- site or contrasting colour. This phenomenon is easily explained upon our principle of vision and colours, and the fact we have demonstrated in the preceding Experiments, in. vu. xn. xni. that each colour contains virtually all the others; whence, if the eye be insensible to red, a red object even will appear to be green, and so of other cases. The rationale of a good or bad eye for colours rests upon the same ground, which depends upon the health or infirmity of the organ ; and there can be no doubt that cultivation may very greatly improve the sensibility of the eye with regard to colours, as exercise strengthens the powers of the mind, and increases the health, vigour, and dexterity of the body : this is evident in the case of myopes, or the short-sighted, in whom the eye for colours is commonly deficient. Inasmuch as a man is deficient in any sense, he is still unborn; whence those who are defective of vision are unconscious of, and never suspect, their own incapacity ; yet the want of a good eye has not prevented some very eminent men from attaining high reputation in painting in spite of defective colouring; nor has it prevented others from investigating and writing on colours : nevertheless it is probable that much discordance in the theory of colours may have arisen upon this foundation. A late Professor of painting expresses himself upon this subject like one born blind or who had never seen colours, and many natural philoso- phers appear to have been remarkably deficient in this sense. Newton confesses that his eye for distinguishing colours was not very critical,* and that he availed himself of assistance in this respect. Mr. Dalton could not distinguish blue from pink by daylight. -f- Professor San- derson, who was born, or very early became, blind, delivered lectures upon light and colours ; and Dr. Priestley mentions an artist living in Edinburgh whose companions " have, by putting his colours out of the order in which he keeps them, sometimes made him give a gentleman a green beard, and paint a beautiful young lady with a pair of blue cheeks!" Note H, page 40. The effect of any colour intently viewed, in producing its opposite colour as an ocular spec- trum ; the effects of two colours of the prismatic spectrum, when cast separately into the two eyes Optics, Prop. in. Prob. I. p. 110. f Manchester Mem. v. 28. 262 NOTES. : at the same time, in producing a compound sensation in the observer; the effects of colours con- trasted contiguously in balancing or subduing each other by a similar combination ; the like effects of transparent colours in glazing or mixture; the harmonizing influences of colo.urs, and the whole doctrine of equivalence, are all attributable to the same principles. Note I, page GO. As the eye of the artist is apt to be influenced in painting by surrounding colours, and as the same circumstance powerfully affects his finished works, the colour of the walls of the study, and gallery of the artist, "and their accordance, are no unimportant aid or hinderance to good colouring; it has accordingly excited his attention with various results. The late academician Tresham, and his colleagues in the office of arranging the Townley collection of statues at the British Museum, found much difficulty in colouring the walls of the galleries in accordance with the best appearance of sculptures become dingy by age, owing to the well-known pro- perty of a plane surface, or mass of any particular colour, to obtrude or come forward upon the eye to the detriment of the relief of the statues, and the power of some hues to augment by contrast the foulness of their colour ; both of which difficulties they ultimately overcame by sprinkling, or marbling, the walls with a second or third colour; upon which the walls retired from the eye, and the statues relieved, without any disadvantage from contrast, notwithstanding their having rather injudiciously adopted a warm advancing colour, better suited to a picture- gallery. The principle which succeeded with the academicians in placing these statues has been carried into the painting-room and picture-gallery, perhaps irrelevantly and with ill effect, for pictures are in this respect opposed to statues, in which colour is of remote consideration, and relief principal. We look at a picture in its frame as if the representation had distance, and were seen through a window or door ; the advancement or coming forward of the wall on which it hangs, so long as it does not attract the eye, is therefore a benefit rather than a disadvantage : consequently a plain colour or ground is preferable for hanging pictures upon ; hence also frames of the boldest relief and most advancing colour exhibit pictures to the best advantage, by forming as it were a proscenium to the design, for pictures in this respect are dramas. As to colour, those which are cold and dark are the most retiring; the warm and light ad- vance most ; and each colour has its antagonist, and consequently may affect a picture well or ill, according to its tone or general hue : hence there can be no universally good colour for the walls of a picture-gallery or painting-room ; we may therefore conclude that a mean, or middle colour, not too obtrusive on the eye, is generally preferable ; such is a crimson hue, com- pounded of a retiring and advancing colour, and neither hot nor cold, — which contrasts with the general green of nature and pictures. These are the middle colours of the chromatic system, — the most generally agreeable antagonists, and in almost all cases inoffensive to the eye. We conclude, therefore, that a plain, flat, unobtrusive crimson colour is best adapted to the walls of an exhibition-room, and far superior to any other in general effect ; it might also cor- rect the too frequently prison-like appearance of the painting-room, and, if the mass of colour in NOTES. 263 this case should prove too advancing upon the eye of the artist, its power may be subdued by breaking it with a faint pattern or design. Such a crimson will in general afford the most effective contrast to the works of the landscape- painter and subjects exhibiting distance, but is less essential to the portrait and historic paint- ers, whose objects are more immediate and advancing; to such, therefore, a more retiring colour — a modest green, may in some cases prove more eligible; but the practice sometimes resorted to by the artist, of producing a favorable contrast for his pictures by a colour in itself disgust- ing upon his walls, is to be deprecated, as exciting an ill sentiment on entering the room by no means advantageous to himself or his works. In all cases, therefore, he should select a pleasing tint of colour ; and, we may remark, that those of crimson and green are univer- sally so, and that they are prime media of nature and art in effecting chromatic harmony : since however a universal rule cannot be given, the artist will have to exercise his judg- ment, according to the case, in selecting such hue as is best suited to the general character of his colouring, according to the principle of chromatic equivalence. Upon this principle a bright fawn colour has been found by far the most favourable for contrasting the grey hue of the print in the hanging of engravings, and the only ground upon which they are viewed to advantage. A cool gray, or neutral, is in general best suited to the passages and approaches of the gal- lery as a preparation of the eye, but is too retiring for the exhibition of pictures in general, although it is better suited to the sculpture which commonly ushers the visitor to the gallery or painting-room. It might become a useful accessary to the study of an artist if sliding rods crossed the room diagonally, upon which a number of variously coloured and figured curtains moved beyond his subject or sitter, with which he might suit colours, or form combinations, draperies, &c. as back- grounds, or tune his eye upon feeling and principle to the colouring of his design. The utility and importance of appropriate backgrounds in portraiture, and even as auxiliaries to the ri°id academic model, have been rendered so apparent by the precepts and practice of Sir Joshua Reynolds,* and they are so efficient in imparting meaning, sentiment, and harmony, to the otherwise inane and monotonous appearance of single figures, that they need hardly be urged in favour of such accessaries to the painting-room. The principle has indeed been acted upon of late years by some of those academicians who have been elected to the honourable distinction of directing the living school of the Royal Academy as visitors, and the practice must have proved eminently conducive to the progress of the student, to whom it supplied the means of fully comprehending the action, and the art of using the figure, while he traced with correctness its form ; thus subjecting at once his hand, his eye, and his mind, to the same discipline. ' The art of seeing nature, or in other words the art of using models,' says Sir Joshua, f ' is in reality the great object — the point to which all our studies are directed.' Form, and the simple figure, are, however, principal in sculpture, and in the rigid school of the living figure ; nor should any accompaniments be allowed to infringe needlessly upon the time allotted for study, nor to run to the extreme of the minor schools ; nor should the practice of the living school be confounded with the tableau vivante of the Continent, which has been refined upon and carried to perfection by Mr. Parris in the school of the Historical Society, wherein * Sir J. R.'s Works, Note xlii. t In his 12th Discourse. rtwr ;* 264 NOTES. almost every mode of composition and variety of accompaniment are judiciously introduced in life, light, shade, and colour, under the most beautiful and ingenious arrangements. Yet these several modes of practice have the same efficient principle, under the influence of which the pencil will acquire a fidelity preservative from false and unmeaning combinations, and a habit disposing the hand and eye to taste and effect, constituting a proper foundation for the poetry, expression, and sentiment — which are the offspring of feeling and intelligence, and the highest attainments of the art. 265 INDEX. Academic figure, page 263 Accidental colours 39, 236, 237 Acetate of Copper 130 Lead 56 Aders, Mr., his collection of antient pictures, 2,74 Adventitious colours 39, 236, 237 Aerial perspective 30 Affections expressed by colours 11, 14 African Green 130 Alcohol, its uses, 198, 200, 207 Almagra 95 Amber varnish 209 Analogy of painting and poetry 4, 15, 31 colours and seasons 12 colours and sounds 14, 31, 32, 227, 235, 247, 252 Analysis of light 35, 227 Anger, colour of, 11, 12, 89 Anotta 120, 1S6, 188 Antient Cyanus, 107 Antients, colouring of the, 1 Antimony Yellow 79, 119, 184, 188 Antwerp Brown 162, 187 Blue 112 Argent, Blanc d', 69, 185 Armenian Blue 2, 107, 113 / Arrangement of colours 15,21, 28, 32,6*1,72,85 Ashes, ultramarine, 110, 170 Asphaltum l6l, 162, 187 Atticum, Sil, 9-5 Azure 106, 111 B. Background, importance of, page 263 Bartholomew, Mr., colouring of, 97 Barytic White 70 Beauty of colours 5, 10, 53, 59 Bice Blue 113 Green 130 Bistre 162, 187 Bitumen l6l Black Colour 30, 172, 225 Lake 179 Compound 179 Bone 179 Ivory 179, 187 Lamp 180, 187 Frankfort 180, 187 Vine-twig 180 Peach-stone 180 Almond, &c. 180 Blue 180 Spanish, &c. 181 Purple 181 Mineral 181, 187 Ochre, &c. 181, 187 Chalk 181, 187 Lead 182, 187 Lead drawings, to fix, 182 Bladder Green 131 Blanc de Roi 71 d'Argent 69, 185 Blood, why red, 87 Dragon's 97, 186 — 188 Blue Colour 102 Pigments 106, 184 — I92 2 L I 266 INDEX. Blue, Armenian, page 2, 107, 113 Antwerp 112, 184, 186 Cobalt 110, 185 Royal 111, 185, 186 Prussian 111, 184, 186 Berlin 111 Dumont's 111 Saxon 111 Hungary 1 1 1 Enamel 111 Vienna 111 Paris 1 1 1 Haerlem 112 Indian 112 Verditer 130, 185 Bice 113 Black 180 Intense 113, 184 Verditer 113, 185 Saunders's 113 Mountain 113, 185 Schweinfurt 1 13 Terre 113 Ochre 114 Carmine 114 Body of colours, what, 54, 6l Bole 95 Bongeval "White 71 British School 5 Brockedon, Mr., his illustration of colours, 258 Brown, Mary-Anne, a good poetical colourist, 1.9, 88, 93, 150 Brown Colour 154 Ochre 80 Vandyke 159, 187 Antwerp 162 Manganese ]60 Rubens's 160, 187 Spanish l6l Campania 160 Bone l6l, 184 Ivory l6l Egyptian 162 Field's 146, 163 Brown Chestnut, page 163, 187 Lake 163 Prussian 146, 163 Madder 146, 163 Intense 146 Pink 142, 163, 184, 18S Ink 163 Brunswick Green 130 Burnt Sienna Earth 119, 187 Carmine 137, 184, 188 Umbre 160 Verdigris 1 52 Roman Ochre 80, 187 Byron's poetic colouring 18, 76, 105, 121, 127 Carmine 100, 184, 188 Burnt 137 of Madder 101 Durable 101 Blue 114 Carnations, Oil of, 206 Carucru ]65, 186, 188 Cassel Earth 160, 187 Cassia Fistula 142, 184, 188 Cassius's Purple 136 Cendres Bleus 1 13 Chalk 71 Chemical constitution of light and colours 35 Chinese Yellow 81, 188 Lake 99 Vermilion 93 Chromascope 221, 223 Chromate of Mercury US, 1S5 Chromatic equivalents 22, 238, 249 Chrome Yellows 51, 77 Orange IIS, 135 Green 129, 187 Cinnabar 93 Citrine Colour 139 Composed 141 Pigments 142 Cleaning, picture, 216 vH INDEX. 267 Clover, Mr., his scheme of colours, page 259 Cobalt Blue 51, 110, 111 Green 129, 187 Cologne Earth 160, 187 Colour, female eye for, 19 Colours, fundamental scale of, 21 Relations of 20 Powers of 21 Perspective of 30 Physical cause of 34, 259 Semineutral 29, 154 Expression of 11, 15, 62, 73, 87, 103, 116, 123, 133, 140, 144, 149, 156, 167, 1/4 Male and female 53 Coloured Inks 9g, 163 Colouring, Beauties of, 10 of the Antients 1 Moderns 3, 256 Venetian 3, 4 British 5 Vicious extreme in 9 Practical maxims of 41, 46, 48, 108 Correggio's 48 Rubens's 29, 41, 48 Reynolds's 25, 47 Titian's 25, 49 Wilson's and Gainsborough's 49 Last attained in painting 8 Poetical 4, 5, 10, 15, 58, 63, 73, 87, 104, 116, 124, 133, 145, 149, 156, 164, 167, 173 Of Shakspeare 6, 15, 6l, 64 — 67, 72, 74, f5, 88—92, 106, 116, 124—127, 134, 145, 150, 154, 158, 167—169, 175, 176, 178 Akenside 11, 16, 64, 65, 105, 127, 133, 151 Coleridge 12 Collins 15, 48, 104, 106, 125—127, 140, 151, 157, 158 Spenser 15, 18, 63, 66, 74, 76, S9, 91,92, 106, 125, 134, 148, 169, 175 Prior, 43, 88, 106 Colouring, poetical, of Shee, page 44, 116, 196, 221 Of Milton 6, 64, 67, 85, 88, 89, 91, 104, 106, 116, 126—128, 132, 134, 140, 145, 151, 152, 156, 157, 159, 168, I69, 175—177 Rogers 64, 67, 11 6, 145, 178 Pope 64, 67, 88, 89, 116, 145 Addison 5, 64, 66, 125, 127 Dryden 64, 74, 89, 105, 106, 124, 134, 145, 168 Mason 65, 67, 159 Horace 4, 65 Middleton 65 Richardson 66 Butler 73, 90, 117, 141 Chaucer 73, 76, 89, 124, 139, 140, 174 Chapman 74 Mary-Anne Brown 19, 88, 93, 150 Byron 18, 76, 102, 106, 121, 127, 158, 168 Haller 89 Sir Wm. Jones 90 Marlowe 90, 178 Crashaw 91, 116 Charlotte Smith 104, 125 Fletcher 106 Thomson 106, 115, 134, 157, 159, 177 Mrs. Pickersgill 106, 117 Ossian 106 Rowe 116, 141 Cowper 122 Burns 124 Virgil 125 Quarles 126 Gray 127 Drummond 127 Fenton 134 Joanna Baillie 144 Drayton 145 Goldsmith 76, 158, 159 Miss Seward 158 Walter Scott 158 : \i 268 INDEX. Colouring, poetical, of A. Cunningham page \69 Sydenham 175 Duncombe 176 Young 178 Colouring, Vices of, 9, 25, 29, 41, 46, 59, 74, 87, 133, 167, 174 Colourist, pleasures of the, 10, 22 Compensatory colours 22, 238, 249 Complementary colours 22, 238, 249 Compound Pigments 25, 47, 117, 128, 136, 141, 146, 152, 159, 165, 170, 179 Orange 117 Green 128 Purple 136 Citrine 141 Russet 146 Olive 152 Brown 159 Marrone 165 Gray 170 Black 179 Constable, Mr., his practice in setting the figure, 263 Chiaroscuro 174 Remarks on Landscapes 123, 174 Constant White 70 Contrast, Principle of, 26, 247 Doctrine of, 22, 26, 238, 247 Copal Varnish 203, 208 Vehicle 208 Copper, Carbonate of, 113 Greens, 129, 185 Prussiate of, 146 Correggio's Practice 48, 213 Cousins's Tints 170 Crayon colours 192, 194 Crems White 69 Cyanide of Iron 112 Cyanus of the Antients 107 D. Damonico, 119, 187 Diagrams of colours 21, 23, 224, 249, 258 Diana, her colour, page 104, ll6 Distemper Painting 193 Colours 1 92 Doctrine of contrasts 22, 26, 238, 247 Dragon's Blood 97, 186, 188 Drawings, Black-lead, to fix, 182 Dryades, their colour, 123 Dryers 56, 130, 160, 206 Drying Oils 56, 201, 204 Prepared 205, 206 Durability of colours 44 Dutch School 4, 255 Pink 84, 188 E. Earth, Sienna, 80, 119, 187 Cologne, 160, 187 Cassel, 160 Eastlake, Mr., his setting of the figure, 263 Egg-shell White 71 Elements of light and colours 35 Emerald Green 130 Enamel Colours 191 Blue HI English Pink 84, 188 Red 97 Engraver, colouring of the, 174, 178, 180 Engravings, &c. hanging of, 263 Equivalent Colours 22, 238 Scale of 22, 249 Essential Oils 207 Etty, Mr., his practice in setting the figure, 263 Experiments on Light and Colours 221 Coloured Light 234 Shadow 239 Moon and Star-light 241 Expressed Oils 201, 204 Expression of colours 11, 15, 62, 73, 87, 103, 116, 123, 133, 140, 144, 149, 156, 167, 174 Eye for colour 11, 15, 19, 39, 226, 236, 253, 26l INDEX. 269 Eye, influence of colour on, page 59, 73, 85, 102, 115, 132, 136, 238, 262 Not cognisant of colours 236 Falsalo l6l Female Eye for colour 19 Field's Lakes 97 White Lac-varnish 204, 209 Metrochrome 221, 2-14 Chromascope 221, 223 Colours 70, 81, 82, 97, 98, 101, 106, 120, 129, 136, 137, 112, 146, 153, 163, 165, 181 Figure, Academic, 263 Fire, its effects on colours, 44, 45 Fish Oils 206 Flake White 68, 69, 185 Flemish School 4, 255 Flesh, colouring of, 48 Tints 48, 118 Flora, her colour, 173 Florentine Lake 93 Frankfort Black 180 French Green 130 Fresco 192, 193 Fundamental Scale of Colours 21 Furies, their colour, 1 73 G. Gainsborough's practice 49 Gallery, how best coloured, 262 Gall-stone 83, 1S8 Gamboge 82, 83, 188 Garance, Bleu de, 110 Laque de 98 Giallolini 78 Girtin's practice 132 Giulio Romano's Phaeton 9 Glazing and Scumbling 46, 48, 55, 190, 205 Gold, Purple of, page 136, 187 Gold-size, Japanners', 98, 206 Golden Sulphur of Antimony 119, 184, 188 Graphite 182, 187 Gray, Compound, 170 Green, Compound, 128 Varley's 128 Italian 128 Hooker's 128 Verona 129 Brunswick 130 Chrome 129, 185 Cobalt 129 Copper 129 Mineral 130, 185 Bice 130 Scheele's 131 Schweinfurt's 131 Emerald 130, 131 Mountain 130, 185 French 130 Olympian 130 Persian 130 Saxon 130 Patent 130 Marine 130 Prussian 131 Sap 131, 184 Venetian 131 Verditer 130, 185 Bladder 131 Grief, colour of, 11, 13, 174 Gum 197 Gumtion 202, 208 H. Haerlem Blue 112 Hamburgh Lake 99 Hanging of Pictures 262 Engravings 263 Harding's Tints 170 Hargreave, Mr., his scheme of colours, 259 270 INDEX. Harmony of Colouring, page 10, 14, 16, 20,22, 27, 31, 51, 59, 61, 86, 103, 116, 122, 133, 144, 149, 150, 155, 167, 174, 227, 230, 238, 249, 256 Harpies, their colour, 173 Heat, effects of on colours, 44 Hewlett, Mr., colouring of, 97 History of Colouring 1 Hogarth's practice 47 Holy Green 123 Homer's poetic colouring 18, 59 Hooker's Green 128 Mrs., Vehicle, 199 Hope, colours of, 13, 87, 88 Hues and Shades 21 Shades and Tints distinguished 28 Hungary Blue 111 Hydro-sulphuret of Antimony 119, 184 Imperial Purple 133 Indian Yellow 83 Blue 112 Red 96 Lake 100 Ink 182 Indigo 112, 184, 188 Ink, Indian, 182 Red 98 Brown 163 China 182 Instruments, New Optical, 221, 243, 244 Intense Blue 113 Brown 146 Invisible Green 131, 152 Iodine, Scarlet, 94, 186, 188 Iron, Cyanide of, 111 Phosphate of, 114, 171 affects Pigments 1 89 Italian Pink 84, 188 Green 128 Ivory Black 179 Brown 161 Japanners' Gold-size, page 98, 206 Jaune Minerale 77, 1S5 De Mars 119, 187 Jealousy, colour of, 12, 74, 126 Jews' Pitch l6l Joy, colour of, 13, 87, 88 Juno, her colours, 104 Jupiter, his colour, 133 K. Kermes Lake 99 King's Yellow 81, 188 lurcher's Scheme of Colours 259 Lac Varnish 204, 209 Vehicle 199 Lake, Yellow, 83, 84, 184, 188 Red 97 Rubric 97 Madder 97 Scarlet 99, 184, 188 Florentine 99, 184 Hamburgh 99, 184, 188 Roman 99 Venetian 99 Kermes 99, 184 Chinese 99 Liquid Madder 98 Lac 100, 184, 1S8 Field's 97 Cochineal 97, 99, 1 88 Quercitron 84, 184 Green 130 Purple 137, 184 Brown 1 63 Citrine 142 Olive 153 Black 179 Marrone 165 Lamp-black 180 - INDEX. 271 Laque Minerale, page 118, 185 Lavender Oil "207 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, his practice, 19, 48, 96 Lead, White, 68, 185 Black 182 Chromate of 77 Red $5 Orange 119 Its effects on Colours ! 88 Sulphate of 69, 185 Lemon Yellow 81, 187 Lenses 223 Lensic Prism 222 Leslie, Mr., his practice in setting the figure, 263 Light, Analysis of, 35, 227 how constituted 35 a compound substance 36 a principle of colours 37 Action of on colours 184 Perspective of 30 Light and Colours chemically constituted 35 Experiments on 222 Light and Shade 35, 224 Linseed Oil 201, 204 Drying 205 Liquid Rubiate 98 Local colour, what, 32 London White 68 Love, Colour of, 11, 13, 19, 85, 87, 88 M. Macpherson's Tints 170 Madder, Yellow, 82 Carmine 97, 101, 187 Lake 97, 187 Purple 137, 187 Liquid 98, 187 Brown 146, 187 Russet 146, 187 Madder, Intense Brown, page 146, 187 Marrone 1 65, 187 Magilp 202, 20S Malachite 131 Manganese Brown 160, 187 Marine Green 130 Marrone Colour 164 Mars, his colour, 87, 89 Martin, Mr., his scheme of colours, 259 Massicot 79, 188 Mastic Varnish 208 Maxim of Rubens 29, 41, 48 Reynolds 25, 47 Measure of Colours 245, 246 Melinum 7 1 Melos White 71 Mengs 81 Mercury, Submuriate of, 70, 186 Chromate of, 118, 185 Metamorphosis of Colours, 234 Metrochrome 221, 244 Michael Angelo 8 Milton, a poetic colourist, 18 Mineral Turbeth 78 Black 181 Green 130 Purple 137 Pitch 161 Minerale, Jaune, 77 Minerva, her colour, 104, 105 Minium 93, 95, 119 Mixed Colours 21, 25, 47, 117, 128, 136, 141, 146, 152, 159, 165, 170, 179 Modan White 71 Monochrome 252 Montpellier Yellow 77 Moral Colouring 12, 63 Morat White 71 Mountain Green 131 Mucilage 198 Mummy 162, 187 Music and Colouring, analogy of, 31, 227, 235, 247, 252 272 INDEX. N. Naiades, their colour, page 123, 125 Naples Yellow 78 Nature, the source of colouring, 15 Neptune, his colour, 123 Neutral, The, how constituted, 21 Tint 170 White 61 Black 172 Grey l66 Newton's seven primary colours, how dant, 225, 257 Nottingham White 68 Nut Oils 206 O. Ochre, Yellow 79 Stone 79 Roman 80 Brown 80 Spruce 80 de Rue 80 Red 95 Scarlet 95, 96 Indian 95 Blue 114, 187 Orange 119 Purple 137 Ocular Spectra explained 22, 39. 236, Oil, Expressed 201, 204 Olive 206 Poppy 206 Volatile 207 Linseed 201 , 204 Nut 206 of Lavender or Spike 207 Pinks 206 Turpentine 207 Drying 205, 206 Fish 206 Oils, Essential or Volatile, 207 Olive Colour 148 red u n- 237 Olive Compound, page 152 Green 152 Lake 153 Opacity, what, 37. 54, 6 1 Orange Colour 115 Vermilion 118, 187 Chrome 118, 185 Orpiment 119, 184, 188 Compound 117 Ochre 119, 187 Lead 119, 185, 188 Lake 120 Russet 146, 187 Orpiment, Yellow, 80, 188 Orange, 1 19 Red, 119 Owen's practice 48 Ox-gall 200 Oxford Ochre 79 Oyster-shell White 71 P. Painting, Schools of, 4, 255, 263 Maxims of, 25, 29, 41, 47, 48 Principle of Practice in 47 in Distemper 193 Crayon 192, 194 Oil 200 Fresco 192, 193 Water 197 Painting-Room, colour of, 262 Palette, Setting of the, 32 Paris Blue 111 White 71 Parris's School of Painting 263 Passions expressed by colours 11, 14, 74, 87, 104 Patent Green 130 Yellov* 77 Pearl White 70, 187 Permanence 44, 187 Permanent White 70 Pigments 187 5.W* INDEX. 273 Persian Red, page 96 Green 130 Perspective, Aerial, 30 of Colours 30 Phosphate of Iron 114, 171, 187 Picture-Cleaning 21 6 Pictures, Hanging of, 262 Pigments, General Qualities of, 53 White 68 Yellow 77 Red 93 Blue 106 Orange 1 17 Green 128 Purple 136 Citrine 141 Russet 146 Olive 152 Brown 159 Marrone 165 Gray 170 Black 17.9 Tables of 183 action of light on 184 affected by impure air 185 imperfect 186 most permanent 187 acted on by lead 188 acted on by iron 189 transparent 190 unaffected by heat 19 1 unaffected by lime 192 Pink, English, Dutch, and Italian, 84, 188 Madder Lake 97 Brown 142, 163 Pinks, Oil of, 206 Platina Yellows 81 Plumbago 182 Poetic Colouring 4, 10, 15, 58, 63, 73, 87, 104, 116, 124, 133, 145, 149, 156, l64, 167, 173 Poetry and Painting, analogy of, 4, 15, 31 Poets, good or bad colourists, 1 5 Poppy Oil 206 Poussin's Deluge, Colouring of, 9 Powers of Colours 22, 6l, 72, 85, 183, 248 2 Precipitate, Cassius's, page 136 Primary Colours 20, 72, 85, 102, 225, 257 Principle of Contrasts 26, 247 Prismatic spectra 39, 224, 228, 240 Prismic Lens 222 Prisms 222 Process, Indian" 199 Venetian 198 Mr. Robertson's 198 Mrs. Hooker's 199 Mr. Jones's 200 Prussian Green 131 . ' Red 97 Blue 111 Prussiate of Copper 146, 186 Purple Colour 132 Tyrian 133 Compound 136 of Gold 136, 187 Madder 137 Lake 137, 188 Ochre 137 Mineral 137 Black 165, 181 Q. Qualities of Pigments 53, 183 Quercitron Lake 84, 142 Quicksilver, Sulphuret of, 93, 118, 187 R. Raffael's practice 3 Rainbow 233 Raw Umbre 143, 187 Sienna Earth 80 Recipe for Drying Oils 56 Drying Lakes 98 Purifying Gamboge 83 Composing Colours 21, 25,47, 117, 136, 141,146,152, 159, 165, 170, 179 Hooker's Vehicle 199 Robertson's Ditto 198 Jones's Ditto 200 M 274 INDEX. Ml Recipe for Japanners' Gold Size, page 206 Red Colour 85 Chrome 95, 185 Lead 95, 185, 188 Ochre 95, 187 Indian 96, 187 Saturnine 95 Light 95, 96, 187 Venetian 95, 96, 187 Persian 96 Prussian 97 English 97 Spanish 97 Orpiment 101, 119 Relations of Colours 20 Reynolds's, Sir J., practice 25, 46, 47, 49, 81, 82, 167 Roman Lake 99 Ochre 80, 187 White 68, 69 Romano's, Giulio, Phaeton 9 Rose Pink 101, 184 Madder Lake 97, 187 Roucou 120 Rouen White ^\ Rouge 101, 165, 184 Royal Blue 111, 186 Rubens, Maxims of, 29, 41, 48 Practice of 47 Brown 160 Rubiate Liquid 98, 187 Rubric Lakes 97, 187 Rue, Ochre de, 80 Russet Colour 144, 187 Compound 146 Rubiate 146, 187 Orange 146, 187 Purple 146 S. Sanguis Draconis 97 Sap Green 131, 184, 188 Satin White 71 Saturnine Red 95 Saunders's Blue, page 1 13 Saxon Green 130 Blue 111 Scale of Colours 21, PI. I. fig, 3 of Equivalents 23, PI. 1. fig. 2 Scarlet Iodine 94, 186 Ochre 96 Lake 99 Scheele's Green 131 Schemes of Colours 258 The Author's 21, 23, 224, 249, 259 Mr. Brockedon's 258 Mr. Clover's 259 Mr. Hargreaves's 259 Harris's — Hayter's — Kircher's — La- mozzo's — Martin's — Newton's 259 Schools of Painting 4, 255, 263 Schweinfurt Blue 1 13 Green 131 Sculpture Gallery 263 Secondary Colours 21, 115 Semineutral Colours 29, 154 Sensorium, Colours belong to the, 237 Sepia 162, 187 Shade, Analysis of, 224 Shade and Light 35, 41, 174, 224, 239, 258 Shades, Hues, and Tints 28 Shadow, Colours of, 239 Shakspeare a great colourist 16 Sienna Earth 80 Burnt 1 19 Sil Atticum 95 Silver White 69 Sky, Colours of, 103, 166, 233, 239 Smalt 111, 185 Sorrow, Colour of, 11, 13, 174 Sounds and Colours, Analogy of, 31, 227, 235, 247, 252 Spanish Brown l6l White 71 Spectra, Ocular 39, 236, 237 Prismatic 39, 224, 240 Spencer a poetical colourist 63, 125 Spike, Oil of, 207 Spirit of Wine 198, 200, 207 INDEX. 275 Spruce Ochre, page 80 Standard of Colours 244 Stil de Grain 84 Stone Ochre 79 Sub-Phosphate of Iron 114 Sulphate of Lead 69 Sulphuret of Mercury 93, 118 Antimony 11 9, 186 Arsenic 80, 188 Sympathy and Antipathy of Green 54, 121 T. Tableau Vivante 263 Tables of Pigments 183 affected by light, &c. 184 by impure air, &c. 185 by lead 188 by iron 1 89 unaffected by heat 191 by lime 192 transparent 190 imperfect 186 most permanent 187 Teniers' practice 47 Terre Bleu 113 Verte 128 de Cassel 160 Tertiary Colours 21, 139, 257 Composed 21 Test of Ultramarine 109, 110 Lakes 98 Vermilions 94 Theory and Practice 32, 47, 104, 123, 140, 250, 263 Time, its Effects on Colours, 44 Tin, White 70 Tints 28 Macpherson's 170 Harding's 170 Titian's practice 3, 8, 25, 68, 213 Tone and Harmony differ 256 Transient Colours 36 Transparency and Opacity 37, 55, 6l, 62, 259 Transparent Pigments, page 190 Trees, Colours of, 122, 157 Triunity of colours, indivisible, 20, 31, 72, 85, 102, 225, 227, 235, 247, 252, 257 Troy White 71 Turbeth Mineral 78, 185, 186 Tyrian Purple 133 U. Ultramarine 106, 187 Ashes 110, 170, 187 Antiquity of 107 Test for 109, 110 Factitious 110 Dutch 1 1 1 False 111 Umbre Burnt 160 Raw 143 V. Vandyke's practice 9, 25, 48, 109, 159 Brown 159 Varley's Green 128 Varnish, Mastic 208 Copal 203, 208 Amber 209 White Lac 204, 209 Varnishes 208 Varnishing 203, 209 Vehicle, Copal, 208 Mastic 202 Lac 199, 209, 210 Hooker's 199 Jones's 200 Robertson's 19s Venetian 198 Indian 199 Vehicles 196 Water 197 Venetian Process J 98 Grounds 213 School 4, 255 Red 95, 96 Green 131 276 INDEX. Verdigris, page 130, 185, 186 Burnt 152 Verdi ter Blue 113 Green 113 Vermilion Red .93, 1 87 Orange 118, 187 Verona Green 129 Veronese's, Paul, Grounds, 213 Verte, Terre, 128, 187 Vices in Colouring 9, 25, 29, 41, 46, 59, 74, 87, 133, 167, 174 Vienna Blue 111 Viride iEris 130 Vision, New Theory of, 39, 236 Powers of Colour on, 59, 73, 85, 102, 115, 132, 136, 238, 262 Vitrified Pigments 45 Volatile Oils 207 W. Water Vehicles 197 "West's Practice 82, 96 White Colour 6l Lead 68, 185 Nottingham 68 London 68 Crems 69, 185 Pearl 70, 1&6 Tin 70, 187 Zinc 70 Silver 69 Flake 69, 185 Antimony 70, 186 Satin 71, 187 Melos71, 187 Modan71, 187 Morat, 71, 187 White Bismuth, page 70, 186 Bougeval 71 Egg-shell 71, 187 Spanish 71, 187 Oyster-shell 71, 187 Troy 71 Roman 69, 185 Rouen 71 Venetian 69, 185 Wilkie, Mr., his practice in setting the figure, 263 Wilson's Practice 31, 47, 49, 82 Wine, Spirit of, 198, 200, 207 Yellow Colour 72 Pigments 76 Chrome 51, 77, 185 Patent 77, 185, 186 Montpellier 77 Naples 78, 185 Ochre 79, 187 Orpiment 80, 1 84 King's 81, 184 Chinese 82, 184 Platina 83, 187 Madder 82 Indian 83, 184, 188 Lake 83, 184, 188 Lemon 81, 187 Z. ZafFre 111 Zinc White 70, 187 Sulphate of 56 THE END. PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. u ^^'' Tl* '.«*..,* "MMMMMb^ m vS55* T « T-.1 1 «-¥ V<\ ;~. r\ r\ 2> .-, \ Mm ICM l&R&lpi 5 , a a « mih mftftnK fe^rtn '*A/-\, A A " ', fPMfilMI; ^nr\'j *&&$ #W raft --aa^ awa^a ^AA A^AA klSfc/N « A A A lAW^ M ^tepfe«*,A, 'fWMW mam Wto » '.SAfe'SOA© mrh figg 'H»A Ar\:AA- M I*smS iai ^M/sftfSfH ■ \aaA ,aa AaA 'SaKa/^i M* i*;,A'AA : ' WW » ^MttfiJ a^m: A#AA ionH^i 'AAA' ^Aa /A \j* - ■ * si, 1 ^ i HI RH § ^ S «* k 'AAA A As : - A 1 A O'AX rl M 'MESS ^sxsb % WWwi jm&M&a ^M fe kiw H TT s,i.yWV vv ;l WWvW; WW*' « fe]MW (;W'W G'WW wy ?« K M^ Mb ipg 'Li A A i ,. VVvVKw JUHSHw ;M«VA W^M\ mm^- MMiwra syyMMy, mv a 1 . v ; fo'|||/jg{ SiWI 'MuMV:^^ JHi '<[- " H' ■ • W ' V W L- ; kV ft^V*W sAtere SIP ^fe y^te vsM w ®vWgA IMVI M«*f