Most Viewed

- Browns And The Cold Semi-neutral Grays Marrone Is Practically To
- Also Called Scarlet Chrome Is A Bright Chromate Of Lead Of An
- Black Chalk
- Composition Chemical Analysis Has Shown Several Of The Blues To Be
- Burnt Verdigris
- Belong The Dutch And Flemish Schools; The Sensible Which Aims At
- Less Known As English Red Prussian Red And Scarlet Ochre True
- Olive In Dark Green; Russet And Citrine In Dark Orange The
- Known Likewise As Raw Sienna Earth Terra Di Sienna &c Is A
- Root Of The Anchusa Tinctoria Commonly Known As Alkanet A Plant

Least Viewed

- Distilled Verdigris Or More Properly Refined Verdigris The Best Is
- Uniform Colour Thus Composed Is The Citrine Colour Of Fruit And
- Sometimes Called China Or Chinese Ink Is Chiefly Brought From
- Their Chief Source The Greens Consist Of Yellow Mixed With Copper
- Egypt The Greeks Obtained The Knowledge Of Their Ars Chromatica
- While We Avoid The Compounding Of Contrasting Colours That Is The
- Only That Of Extreme Light Objects Opaque It Follows That White Is To
- Secondary Colours Are Three Only Orange Green And Purple
- Colours With The Neutral Black Of The Various Combinations Of Black
- Have To Be Learnt For Each Pigment Has Its Own Peculiar Habitudes

The Book; Lest His Aim Be Defeated Of Reflecting In A Moderate-sized

mirror the palette as it is and might be at the present day. Arrived at
age, as it were, in its twenty-first chapter, this treatise may fitly
conclude with Black, the last of the series of colours. Let us hope the
maxim of Sir Joshua Reynolds, that success in some degree was never
denied to earnest work may apply here.

Still, by way of finale, we would offer a few remarks. In no branch of
the science, perhaps, is it more hazardous to commit oneself to a
positive dictum than in the chemistry of colours, so liable are theory
and practice to clash, and so often does the experience of one person or
one time differ from that of another. He who has turned his attention to
pigments, finds nearly every assertion must be qualified, for to nearly
every rule there is some exception, and learns that theory alone may
mislead. For example, a colour known to be fugacious may last, in
certain cases, a surprisingly long time; while, on the contrary, a
pigment permanent when used alone, may be rendered fugitive by improper
compounding. Again, what holds good of a colour produced by one process,
or employed in one vehicle or by one artist, may not be true of the same
colour made by a different mode, or used in another vehicle or by
another artist. It is because, then, colours are of every degree of
durability, from the perfectly stable to the utterly fugitive, and
because each one is liable to influence by every condition of time,
place, and circumstance, that the chemist's theory is opposed as often
to the painter's practice as the experience of artists themselves
varies. This may explain the charges of inconsistency and contradiction
which have been brought against writers on pigments, faults that lie
rather with the nature of the subject than with the authors.

Even at the risk of being tiresome, we have throughout insisted on the
choice of permanent pigments, not simply for use alone but for mixed
tints. To quote Cennini, "I give you this advice, that you endeavour
always to use ... good colours.... And if you say that a poor person
cannot afford the expense, I answer, that if you work well (and give
sufficient time to your works), and paint with good colours, you will
acquire so much fame that from a poor person you will become a rich one;
and your name will stand so high for using good colours, that if some
masters receive a ducat for painting one figure, you will certainly be
offered two, and your wishes will be fulfilled, according to the old
proverb, 'good work, good pay.'" Of a truth, if man cannot dip his brush
in the rainbow and paint with the aerial colours of the skies, he can at
least select the best pigments that earth and the sea afford him;
preferring, where he cannot get brilliancy and permanence combined,
sobriety and permanence to brilliancy and fugacity. It must be the wish
of every real artist to leave behind him a lasting record of his skill,
a permanent panorama of those hues of nature which in life he loved so
well. To effect this, genius alone is powerless: there must be first a
proper choice of materials, and next a proper use of them. The painter's
pigments are the bricks wherewith the mortar of his mind must be mixed,
either to erect an edifice that shall endure for ages, or one which will
quickly topple over like a house of cards. Now in nothing more than in
painting is prevention better than cure--indeed cure may be said to be
here out of the question: for good or for evil a picture once painted is
painted for ever. Without a strong constitution there is no hope for it;
no chemistry can strengthen the sickly frame, restore the faded colour,
stop the ravages of consumption: Science stands helpless before dying
Art.

And yet, she sighs to think, it might have been otherwise. If durable
pigments had been employed, if her counsel had been sought, this need
not have been. In the history of modern art the use and abuse of colours
would furnish a sad chapter, telling of gross ignorance, and a grosser
indifference. Happily there is promise of a healthier state of things.
When this comes, Art will be less shy to consult her sister: in the
interests of both there should be closer union. Without waiting till the
picture is finished--for then it will be too late--let her, if in doubt,
frankly display the contents of her palette and ask advice. Now, not
knowing what pigments are chosen or how they are used, never standing
by and watching the progress of the work, how can Science lend her aid?
She would willingly, for she herself needs help: at present her
knowledge is limited, not so much of the chemistry of colours as of the
properties of pigments. She seeks to mix her pound of theory with an
ounce of practice, and craves a warmer welcome to the studio. For any
approximation to the truth to be arrived at, facts must be noted with
the conditions under which they occur, not by one sister alone nor by
the other alone, but by both. In future, Art and Science should go hand
in hand, mutually dependent on each other, mutually trustful of each
other, working with and for each other, earnestly and patiently.


TTITLE ADDENDUM.

With the present rapid progress of applied chemistry, an addendum in a
work of this kind is quite excusable. Even while the book is being
printed some fact may be announced which the author or editor would wish
to insert. In our case this has happened. Very recently there has been
introduced in France as a pigment

TTITLE TUNGSTEN WHITE,





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