The Chemistry Of Paints And Painting | by Arthur H. Church
In the present volume the materials and methods of the painter of pictures are viewed mainly from the chemical standpoint. An attempt has been made to treat in orderly sequence the various kinds of painting-grounds, the constituents of vehicles and varnishes, the pigments themselves, and the chief processes of painting. Although the artistic side of the numerous problems discussed has not been neglected, the book is in no way intended to teach manipulation to art students. It has been written with the view of explaining to artists, whether they be accomplished masters or commencing students, the chief chemical and physical characters of the materials with which they deal and of the operations they practise. In many instances a sketch of the processes for preparing certain pigments and varnishes is given, not in order to turn the painter into a colour-maker or a varnish-manufacturer, but rather that he may acquire a clearer insight into the nature and properties of the most important constituents entering into the composition of his pictures...
Title | The Chemistry Of Paints And Painting |
Author | Arthur H. Church |
Publisher | Seeley, Service & Co. Limited |
Year | 1915 |
Copyright | 1915, Seeley, Service & Co. Limited |
Amazon | Paint & Ink Formulations Database |


By Sir Arthur H. Church, K.C.V.O., F.R.S., M.A., D.Sc, F.S.A. Sometime Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts in London
Fourth Edition. Revised And Enlarged
To Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart., P.R.A., Who Has Always Shown A Deep Interest In Its Subject, And Has Greatly Encouraged Its Author, This Book Is, By Permission, Dedicated.
Preface- This handbook first appeared in the spring of 1890; two years afterwards a second and revised edition was published. In 1901, when the work had been for some time out of print, a thorough revision of ...
Preface To The First Edition- In the present volume the materials and methods of the painter of pictures are viewed mainly from the chemical standpoint. An attempt has been made to treat in orderly sequence the various kinds of pa...
Bibliographical Notes- Blockx, J., 'Peinture ŕ l'Huile.' Pp. iv, 98. Gand, 1881. Cennini, Cennino, 'The Book of the Art.' Translated into English by Mrs. C. J. Herringham, with Notes on Medićval Methods by the Translator. ...
Introduction- The materials employed by 'picture-makers' are now very numerous. Some of the old pigments, and painting-grounds, and methods, have indeed fallen more or less completely into disuse; but, on the other...
Part I. Painting-Grounds. Chapter I. Paper, Vellum, Ivory- As paper is used as the painting-ground for the vast majority of works executed in water-colours, and as this method of painting offers but slight protection to the pigments employed against hostile i...
Water- It should be noted that the percentages of water shown in these analyses vary considerably by reason of variations in the humidity, temperature, and pressure of the atmosphere to which the different p...
Ash- The ash or mineral matter in paper may be derived from three sources, namely, traces of the original mineral substances taken up by the flax plant from the soil, and still remaining associated with th...
Fibre- What is put down as fibre in the analyses of paper previously cited, is a substance, or group of substances, to which the name of cellulose is given by chemists. Cellulose consists of the three elemen...
Wood-Pulp, Esparto, And Straw-Pulp- Paper-making The technology of paper-making cannot be discussed here, but a few references to the chemicals employed in the process of manufacture may be usefully given at this point. Amongst these c...
Chapter II. Plaster, Gesso, Stone, Slate, Etc- The painting-grounds to be considered in this chapter consist mainly of mineral substances. However their constituents may be varied, in accordance with the process to be used in painting upon them, t...
Buon' Fresco- A good mixture for the first application to the moistened wall consists of 2 parts (by weight) of clean sharp sand to one of lime-putty. When one or more coats of this mixture have been duly laid and ...
Fresco-Secco And Tempera- For fresco-secco the same ground as that required for true fresco may be used, but it is allowed time to dry and harden. So long as it contains any caustic lime this ground is unfitted for work in tem...
Stereochromy- The ground for stereochromy has been modified several times since the first introduction of this method of water-glass painting. Originally it was recommended to use an undercoat containing 2 parts of...
Spirit-Fresco- The ground recommended by the late Mr. Gambier Parry for that modified form of varnish-painting to which he gave the name of 'Spirit-Fresco' is identical with that required for true fresco. All the us...
Chapter III. Panel- Wood, as a backing for the painting-ground of works in tempera and oil, presents some advantages over plaster and canvas. Its chief merit lies, perhaps, in its comparative immunity from mechanical inj...
Chapter IV. Canvas- The usual, and probably the best fibre for the manufacture of canvas for painting is unbleached flax - that is, linen; hemp and cotton are decidedly inferior. The material is woven in different ways, ...
Canvas. Continued- The majority of pictures nowadays are painted on canvas, though it must be admitted that, especially in respect of mechanical and chemical durability, it is a very unsatisfactory material. Its ...
Part II. Vehicles And Varnishes. Chapter V. Oils- The common usage of the term 'oil' is wider and less definite than that sanctioned by chemists. We must exclude from the category of true oils petroleum and the liquid paraffins, spirit of turpentine ...
Vehicles And Varnishes. Oils. Part 2- Much linseed now comes from the Argentine, Canada, and the United States, as well as from India and Russia. The percentage of oil in linseed varies between 28 and 45: by cold-pressure 20 per cent. is...
Vehicles And Varnishes. Oils. Part 3- This last phenomenon, however, does not seem to be inevitable, for it occurs when light is excluded; and this yellowing or embrowning of the hardened oil may often be remedied by subsequent exposure t...
Vehicles And Varnishes. Oils. Part 4- During recent years many improved methods of treating raw linseed oil have been devised. The 'boiling' has been carried out in aluminium vessels in lieu of those of iron, which become much corroded th...
Vehicles And Varnishes. Oils. Part 5- The superiority of the highly siccative oils prepared with borate of manganese (or the oxalate, resinate, or linoleate) over those in the manufacture of which lead compounds are used, is so decided th...
Poppy Oil- This oil is obtained from the seed of the opium-poppy, Papaver somniferum. It is of a very pale straw-colour, often almost colourless, and is nearly free from taste and smell. By nitration through hot...
Nut Oil- This oil is obtained from the kernels of the common walnut, Juglans regia. Leonardo da Vinci directs it to be made from the peeled kernels in order to avoid the chance of darkening its colour, and als...
1. Action Of Pigments On Oils- The most common action is a physical one, in which the opacity of a pigment is gradually lessened in course of time by the more complete interpenetration of the oil between the particles. Thus yellow ...
Chapter VI. Resins, Waxes, And Solid Paraffins- In commercial parlance resins are incorrectly termedgums. The true gums (Chapter VIII (Gum, Starch, Dextrin, Honey, And Glycerin).) are either soluble in water or swell up in that liquid, but resins a...
Resins, Waxes, And Solid Paraffins. Part 2- It is probable that true amber consists mainly of a single resin (85 to 90 per cent. of the whole) represented by the empirical formula nC10H16O. Small quantities of two other resins which are soluble...
Resins, Waxes, And Solid Paraffins. Part 3- Kauri resin is sometimes spoken of as dammar, but this name properly belongs to the resins produced by other trees, not by Dammar a australis. White or Singapore dammar is the resin of Dammara orienta...
Turpentines, Oleo-Resins, And Balsams- There is a group of substances, many of them derived from coniferous plants, which are, or have been, included under the term balsam. Strictly speaking, this designation should be limited to those res...
Wax- The true waxes, unlike the oils described in Chapter V., are not glycerides, and do not therefore yield glycerin when they are saponified - that is, turned into soaps by the action of alkalies. Ordina...
Chapter VII. Yolk And White Of Egg; Size; Glue- The materials described in the present chapter owe their peculiar properties - at least, in great measure - to the presence of chemical compounds which contain the element nitrogen. Now, this element ...
Yolk And White Of Egg; Size; Glue. Continued- Now, 9 parts of lecithin with 22 parts of oil make up nearly one-third of egg-yolk, or 31 parts of oily or fatty matter per 100, as against 15 parts of albuminoid matter, or vitellin and albumen taken...
Chapter VIII. Gum, Starch, Dextrin, Honey, And Glycerin- The term gum is properly applied to a number of noncrystalline, structureless substances, of vegetable origin. They consist essentially of so-called hydrates of carbon, and are either soluble in cold ...
Gum, Starch, Dextrin, Honey, And Glycerin. Continued- Starch comes next in our list. This important food-substance occurs in commerce in a condition so nearly pure that there is no need to describe its character. For the limited uses to which it is put i...
Chapter IX. Water-Glass, Lime - And Baryta-Water- The name water-glass appears to have been first applied to those silicates of potash and of soda which are soluble in water by Professor J. N. von Fuchs, in 1825; but Glauber, so early as 1648, made a...
Chapter X. Solvents And Diluents- The liquids to which attention is directed in the present chapter are, with very few exceptions, not miscible with water. Of water itself it is not necessary to say anything beyond this, that distille...
Solvents And Diluents. Part 2- The last distillate, when a small portion of it is shaken up with its own bulk of benzene, should mix perfectly with the latter, causing no turbidity. But it should be borne in mind that absolute alco...
Solvents And Diluents. Part 3- Besides these observations another will have been made - different specimens of spirit of turpentine will have been found to differ much as to the rate at which these changes have taken place. Some sa...
Terpenes- From the above-named liquids a number of terpenes have been isolated. Among the better known of these the following may be mentioned. 1. Pinene 1. Pinene, with a boiling-point of 160 C. It exis...
Petroleum-Spirit- When native petroleum and the similar materials obtained in the distillation of bituminous shales, etc., are submitted to fractional distillation, the more volatile portions which come over first cons...
Oils- Oil of Spike Lavender Oil of Spike Lavender is obtained by distillation from the flowers of a species of lavender, Lavandula spica. Its specific gravity varies from .905 to .918: it dissolves in thre...
Chapter XI. Siccatives Or Dryers- The terms 'siccatives' and 'dryers' are applied to three classes of substances. Perhaps the most correct or appropriate application of these words is to those metallic compounds which are used in orde...
Chapter XII. Varnishes And Vehicles- When an oil, such as linseed, walnut, or poppy, has been purified and made more quickly drying by one or other of the methods already described, it is often called 'varnish.' It has acquired the prop...
Mastic Varnish- This is usually prepared by dissolving mastic in spirit of turpentine, although other volatile oils and even absolute alcohol may be employed. In order to prevent the mastic from agglutinating togethe...
Mastic Varnish. Part 2- The preparation of fat or oil varnishes with the harder resins is generally attended with considerable difficulty; but there is as we have already mentioned, one way in which the difficulty may be les...
Mastic Varnish. Part 3- An ingenious process for rendering hard copals soluble in oil without roasting them in the ordinary way has been recently devised and patented by H. Terrisse. It is based upon the fact that the solid ...
Part III. Pigments. Chapter XIII. White Pigments- Flake-White: White Lead - Céruse - Blanc d' Argent - Blanc de Plomb - Bleiweiss - Kremserweiss. White lead was known to the ancients. A face-powder or cosmetic, found, in its original pottery-box of ...
Lead Sulphate- Many attempts have been made to utilize the sulphate of lead (PbSO4) as a pigment. This compound, which is nearly insoluble in water and in dilute acids, is almost, if not entirely, destitute of poiso...
Lead Oxychloride- Pattinson's white (PbClHO) does not possess any advantage, as a white pigment for artists' use, over the ordinary flake-white. Similar verdicts may be pronounced as to the eligibility of several other...
Zinc-White: Chinese White - Blanc De Zinc - Zinkweiss- The substitution of carbonate of zinc for white lead seems to have been first suggested by Courtois of Dijon in 1787. After several unsuccessful attempts to introduce either the carbonate or the oxide...
Baryta-White: Permanent White - Blanc Fixe - Permanent Weiss- The mineral known as heavy spar, or barytes, has been used as a white paint, particularly as an adulterant for white lead. However finely it may be ground, it is always very inferior in body and cover...
Chapter XIV. Yellow Pigments- Yellow Ochre: Roman Ochre - Golden Ochre - Mineral Yellow - Brown Ochre - Oxford Ochre - Ocre jaune - Gelber Ocker. The distinction between the yellow ochres and the red ochres, whether natural or ar...
Yellow Pigments. Part 2- Yellow ochre is little subject to adulteration, for it is too cheap a pigment to make it worth while to substitute other substances for it. But sometimes the golden and richer coloured varieties have ...
Yellow Pigments. Part 3- The loose friable lumps into which the powder had aggregated were distinctly paler on the outside than in the interior, while the parts of the contents of the bottles which had been most exposed to li...
Aureolin: Cobalt Yellow - Jaune De Cobalt - Kobaltgelb- Origin And Composition This remarkable artificial yellow pigment was discovered by Fischer. It is a compound of the nitrites of cobalt and potassium. Usually it is free from water, but it sometimes c...
Gamboge: Gomme-Gutte - Gummigutt- Origin This gum-resin is produced by several species of Garcinia. Siam gamboge comes from G. Hanburyi (Hook, f.); Ceylon gamboge from G. Morella (Desv.). There are other species from which the same p...
Indian Yellow: Piuri, Purree, Peori - Jaune Indien - Indischgelb- This remarkable pigment is obtained at Monghyr, a town in Bengal, from the urine of cows which have been fed upon mango-leaves. It generally occurs in the bazaars of the Panjáb in the form of large ba...
Yellow Lake: Brown Pink - Citrine Lake - Yellow Madder - Italian Pink - Quercitron Lake - Gelber Lack- Origin The sources of yellow lake are numerous, but the best kind is obtained from quercitron bark from Quercus tinctoria, Qu. nigra, and Qu. citrina, three species of North American oak. A hot-water...
Chrome Yellow: Chrome - Chrornate Of Lead - Jaune De Chrome - Chromgelb- This pigment, when of a pure yellow hue, is the neutral lead chromate. By associating it with an additional quantity of lead oxide it may be obtained of various orange and reddish orange hues. It may ...
Vanadium Yellow- It has been proposed to employ the beautiful golden-bronze crystals of meta-vanadic acid as a pigment. They possess, when finely ground, an intense colour, like that of a very rich golden ochre, but l...
Pure Orange: Marigold - Alizarin Yellow - Alizarin Orange- Under the above names a pigment of great richness and beauty has been introduced. It is a kind of lake, and consists of a coal-tar colour known to chemists as -nitro-alizarin thrown down upon an...
Chapter XV. Red Pigments- Vermilion: Cinnabar - Vermilion - Zinnober. The mineral cinnabar, or mercuric sulphide, occurs in many parts of Europe, and abundantly in China, and is extensively worked in New Almaden in California...
Red Pigments. Part 2- It is the chief material used in colouring red rubber. Vermilion prepared from the mineral or native cinnabar is probably less liable to change than the artificial products, whether obtained by the d...
Red Pigments. Part 3- The European madder-plant, a native of Greece, belongs to the tribe Galieć, of the order Rubiaceć; it is the Rubia tinctorum of Linnćus. Several other species of this genus are used or grown in India ...
Red Pigments. Part 4- The best artificial alizarin of commerce occurs as a yellowish powder, presenting the aspect of raw sienna. It may, however, be obtained in yellow or orange red crystals, either by repeated crystalliz...
Mineral Lake: Pink-Colour - Potters' Pink - Laque MinéRale - Minerallack- Attempts have been made to obtain mineral pigments of absolute permanence in order to acquire substitutes for the reds and purples of vegetable origin. None of them equals in intensity and splendour o...
Light Red: Burnt Ochre - Rouge Anglais - Brun Rouge - Englischrot- Light red is, or ought to be, yellow ochre burnt - that is, calcined. The different varieties of yellow ochre yield, as might be expected, products having various hues and tints of this rather pale an...
Venetian Red: Rouge - Crocus - Colcothar - Caput Mortuum Vitrioli - Venetianischrot- Originally Venetian red consisted of a native ferric oxide or red hćmatite, less purplish in its tints and washes than Indian red. But of recent years the name appears to have been transferred to a pa...
Indian Red: Persian Red - Indian Red Ochre - Indischrot- Indian red is a variety of red ochre, or red hćmatite, containing about 95 per cent. of ferric oxide, and having a slightly purplish hue. It varies somewhat in quality, and often requires sifting thro...
Red Ochre: Red HćMatite - Red Iron Ore - Scarlet Ochre - Red Chalk - Ruddle - Bole - Sinoper - Sinopis - Rubrica - Miltos - Terra Rosa - Arrabida Red - Bolus- The pigments above-named are native ferric oxide (or iron peroxide) associated with variable proportions of mineral impurities such as clay, chalk, and silica. They differ from the yellow and brown oc...
Indian Lake: Lac Lake - Lack-Lack- Lac is a resinous secretion produced by certain plants when punctured by the larvć of the Coccus lacca, an East Indian hemipterous insect. Amongst the trees which the insect chiefly attacks are Butea ...
Carmine And The Cochineal Lakes: Carmin - Laque Cramoisie, Or Crimson Lake - Purple Lake, Etc. - Karmin- Cochineal consists of the dried wingless females of a species of coccus (C. cacti) which feeds upon several kinds of Opuntia, or cactus. The best quality comes from Tene-riffe, and contains about half...
Burnt Carmine- This preparation should rather be called 'roasted carmine.' It is obtained by carefully heating the carmine made from cochineal. It possesses a beautiful hue, but is quite as fugitive as the product w...
Red Lead: Minium - Saturnine - Mine Rouge, Mine Orange - Mennige - Rosso Saturno- This beautiful orange-red pigment approaches in composition a compound of two molecules of protoxide of lead with one molecule of binoxide, and may be approximately represented by the formula Pb3O4. T...
Cobalt Red: Rose De Cobalt - Cobalt Violet - Kobaltrot- This little-used pigment should consist of the oxides of magnesium and cobalt. It is prepared at a high temperature and is quite permanent. One method of making this pigment involves the use of magnes...
Chapter XVI. Green Pigments. Terre Verte: Green Earth - Terre De Verone - GrüNe Erde - Terra Verde- There are two rather indefinite minerals, probably not really distinct - namely, glauconite and celadonite - which furnish the raw material from which the artists' pigment, generally known as terre ve...
Green Oxide Of Chromium: Chromium Sesquioxide - True Chrome Green - Opaque Oxide Of Chromium - Vert De Chrome - Grimes Chromoxyd- The so-called native oxide of chromium, or chrome ochre, is a mere greenish clay, containing not more than 10 per cent. of chromium oxide. But another mineral (from Okhansk, in Siberia) is of a deeper...
Viridian: Emerald Oxide Of Chromium - Vert Pannetier - Vert De Guignet - Vert Emeraude - Mittler's Green - Feuriges Chromoxyd- About the year 1838 Pannetier and Binet began to make a beautiful chromium green by means of a secret method. Many years afterwards M. Guignet discovered and patented a process by which this admirable...
Cobalt Green: Rinmann's Green - Vert De Cobalt - Vert De Zinc - KobaltgrüN- It has long been known that the oxide or a salt of zinc, moistened with a solution of cobalt nitrate, and then strongly heated before the blow-pipe, gives a porous mass of a beautiful green hue. This ...
Emerald Green: Cupric Aceto-Arsenite - Schweinfurt Green - Vert Paul VéRončSe - Schweinfurter GrüN- This pigment was discovered in 1814 during the course of experiments made with the object of preparing an improved Scheele's green. It may be prepared by half a dozen slightly differing processes, but...
Scheele's Green: Cupric Arsenite - Swedish Green - Mitis Green - Scheeles GrüN- This pigment, discovered in 1778, is an arsenite of copper with an excess of copper oxide. It is best prepared by dissolving, in separate portions of hot water, white arsenic and blue vitriol. The sol...
Malachite: Green Verditer - Green Bice - Mountain Green - Green Carbonate Of Copper - Vert De Montagne - Berg-GrüN - MalachitgrüN- This green copper mineral was employed as a paint by the ancients. It often accompanies the blue carbonate, and occurs in many European, Asiatic, African, and American localities. The mines at Ekateri...
Verdigris: Basic Copper Acetate - Vert-De-Gris - Verdet De Montpellier - GrüNspan- This green copper pigment was called by the writers of the fourteenth century 'viride Grćcum,' or, more simply, 'viride,' 'viride terrestre' being used for green-earth - that is, 'terre verte.' 'Vert-...
Chapter XVII. Blue Pigments. Ultramarine: Lapis Lazuli Blau - Lasurstein Blau - Outremer - Bleu D'azur- There are at least three mineral species, closely allied in chemical composition, and generally presenting a more or less marked blue colour, which contain as their essential constituents the five ele...
Artificial Ultramarine: New Blue - French Blue - Permanent Blue - Gmelin's Blue - Guimet's Blue - KüNst-Liches Ultramarin- In the year 1814 a blue coloration, subsequently proved to be due to ultramarine, was noticed in the soda (black-ash) furnaces of St. Gobain. About fourteen years afterwards a method of making the sam...
Cobalt: Cobalt Blue - Bleu De ThéNard - Kobaltblau- Excluding smalt, which owes its colour to a cobalt silicate, there are at least three pigments which go under the name of 'cobalt' or 'cobalt blue.' The best known of these is a combination of alumina...
Cceruleum: Cerulium - Cerulean Blue - Coelinblau - Bleu CéLeste- When oxide of tin is moistened with cobalt nitrate solution and strongly heated, a greenish-blue mass is obtained, which, after powdering and washing, constitutes one of the varieties of the pigment k...
Prussian Blue: Turnbull's Blue - Antwerp Blue - Berlin Blue - Prussiate Of Iron - Chinese Blue - Saxon Blue -Bleu De Berlin - Pariser-Blau- Although the chemical constitution of this pigment can hardly be said to have been absolutely ascertained, yet it is generally believed that there are at least three different though closely allied ch...
Cyanine: Leitch's Blue- A mixture of Prussian blue and cobalt blue has been sold under the name of cyanine. It would seem from some recent experiments made with this mixed pigment that it is fairly permanent, even in water-c...
Indigo- Indigo has been used either as a pigment or a dye from very early times in India and in Egypt. It is referred to under the name of indicum by Pliny; later on the Byzantine writers called it azorium Ro...
Indigo. Continued- An identical experiment in an ordinary glazed frame resulted in a reduction of tone from 10 to 1, while the residual hue was a greenish grey. The effect, if any, of the several iron reds, s...
Smalt: Royal Blue - Dumont's Blue - Zaffre - Bleu De Smalte - Smalte - Zaffer- Glass and vitreous mixtures containing cobalt, and of a rich blue colour, have been known for ages, although copper, not cobalt, was the colouring principle of most of the antique materials of this cl...
Chessylite: Blue Verditer - Bice - Mountain Blue - Azurite - Cendres Bleues - Bergblau- This copper mineral differs from malachite in containing less hydrate, or more carbonate of the metal, its composition being represented by the formula 2CuCO3, CuH2O2. Its best-known locality is Chess...
Egyptian Blue- A beautiful and permanent blue pigment, generally known as Egyptian blue, has been studied by many chemists. It is found on objects of Egyptian origin from the time of the fourth Dynasty onwards, and ...
Manganese Violet: Mineral Violet - Permanent Violet - NüMbergerviolett- This pigment is rarely met with on the palette of the artist; it is, however, quite permanent and has a truer violet hue than cobalt violet, which is redder as well as brighter. Its preparation is som...
Chapter XVIII. Brown Pigments. Raw Umber: Levant Umber - Terre D'Ombre - Umbraun - Umbra - Terra Ombra- This earth is found in several localities; the best variety has come for some time past from Cyprus. A considerable number of Cypriote specimens, of several nuances, some excellent, were shown in the ...
Raw Sienna: Terre De Sienne - Terra Di Siena - Rohe Sienna- This earth, which is found chiefly in Tuscany and the Hartz, is a particularly rich variety of yellow ochre, and contains a large proportion of a ferric hydrate. The late G. H. Hurst ('Chem. News,' v...
Burnt Sienna- The roasting or calcination of raw sienna produces a very great change in its hue as well as in the depth of its colour. The ferric hydrate of the raw earth becomes wholly converted into ferric oxide,...
Caledonian Brown- This brown, although a natural earth, presents very much the appearance of burnt sienna. It contains a small quantity of combined moisture. It consists mainly of the brown hydrates and oxides of manga...
Vandyke Brown- Three brown pigments pass in commerce under the name of Vandyke brown. The first is made by calcining certain very ferruginous earths or brown ochres; the second is nothing more than a dark-brown vari...
Cappagh Brown: Euchrome - Mineral Brown- This earth was found on the estate of Lord Audley, in the Cappagh Mine, which was opened in the year 1814, and is situated about ten miles west of the town of Skibbereen, in the county of Cork. In com...
Bistre: Bister - Brauner Lack - Russbraun- Bistre is prepared from the tarry soot of certain woods, especially from that of beech-wood, by the following process: The soot is finely ground and sifted, and then the powder is digested with succes...
Asphaltum: Bitumen - Mineral Pitch - Antwerp Brown - Mummy - Mumie- Asphalt, asphaltum, or mineral pitch, has long been used as a pigment. The best known is that from the Dead Sea (Lacus asphaltites). Other abundant sources of this carbonaceous mineral occur in Trinid...
Prussian Brown- This pigment, as usually met with in commerce, contains a considerable quantity of a soluble salt of potash, and is not fitted for the use of artists. But this impurity need not be present, as it may ...
Chapter XIX. Black Pigments. Indian Ink: Chinese Ink - Japanese Ink - Encre De Chine - Chinesische Tusche- This ink has been prepared in China for at least 2,000 years. It consists essentially of a very fine lamp-black, associated with gelatin, and scented with musk, camphor, cloves, or rose-water. The lam...
Lamp-Black: Noir De Lampe - Noir De FuméE - Noir De Houille - Russ - L Ampenschwartz- When resins, resinous woods, fatty oils and fats, paraffin and paraffin oil, or coal-tar oils, are burnt with an insufficient supply of air, a considerable part of the carbon they contain may be depos...
Charcoal-Black: Blue-Black - Vine-Black - Frankfort-Black - Noir De Vigne - Rebschwartz- When non-resinous woods and woody tissues are strongly heated in crucibles or other almost completely-closed vessels, the residue contains the greater part of the carbon of the original material, and ...
Ivory Black: Noir D'Ivoire - Elfenbeinschwartz- Waste ivory, in the form of turnings, shavings, and sawdust, if charred in closed vessels, leaves a black residue, which, however, consists essentially of bone-earth (calcium carbonato-phosphate), sta...
Black Lead: Plumbago - Graphite - Graphit- The material of which so-called black-lead pencils are made is essentially nothing but one of the three forms in which the element carbon occurs; diamond is another; lamp-black may be taken as a good ...
Sepia- The dark-brown colouring-matter from the ink-bag of Sepia officinalis, Loligo tunicata, and other species of cuttlefish common in the Mediterranean and Adriatic, has not been thoroughly investigated f...
Chapter XX. Classification Of Pigments- The painter naturally classes pigments according to their colour, or more exactly according to what are called the constants of colour - namely, hue, brightness and purity. He also takes into account ...
Classification Of Pigments. Continued- One of the chief lessons to be learnt from this classification is this, that the members of each class, as a general rule, exert no action upon one another. This is explained easily. The oxides of Gro...
Chapter XXI. Tables Of Permanent, Fugitive, And Alterable Pigments- By several different methods, data may be obtained which enable us to classify pigments - roughly, it is true - in accordance with their varying degrees of stability. Such data are derived partly from...
Tables Of Permanent, Fugitive, And Alterable Pigments. Continued- In closing this chapter it may be useful to state that the pigments to which a place in our Class I. has been assigned have stood the very severe test of long exposure to direct sunlight. On a subsequ...
Chapter XXII. Selected And Restricted Palettes- It is by no means easy to construct a palette which shall be at once artistically and scientifically perfect. For it is impossible to exclude every pigment which is susceptible of change, and it is un...
Selected And Restricted Palettes. Continued- Yellow ochre. Raw sienna. Vermilion. Rose madder. Purple lake. Cobalt blue. Raw umber. Vandyke brown. Ivory black. The following are water-colour palettes: Alfred W. Hunt, seventeen pigments, and ...
Restricted Palettes- So far, then, as regards selected and restricted palettes of oil colours. Some modifications must be made in our list in order to devise corresponding palettes of useful and enduring water-colours. In...
Part IV. Methods And Results. Chapter XXIII. Painting-Methods- As the grounds, vehicles, and pigments employed in painting have been already described in Parts I., II., and III. of this volume, it will not be necessary to do more in the present chapter than give ...
I. Tempera-Painting, Or Painting In Distemper- I. Tempera-painting, or painting in distemper, is generally assumed to include two, if not three, methods of procedure, in which different vehicles or media are employed. These vehicles all contain a ...
2. In Fresco-Painting- 2. In fresco-painting - both buon' fresco and fresco secco - the ground must not only be wet, but caustic. In true fresco the pigments are applied to the last and freshly-spread coat of plaster before...
3. Stereochromy- 3. In stereochromy, or water-glass painting, a process introduced more than sixty years ago, the fixative employed is an alkaline silicate dissolved in water. From time to time different experimenters...
4. Oil-Painting And Spirit-Fresco- The essential characteristic of these methods is to be found in the use of a binding material which is in itself insoluble in water. The painting-ground employed should be dry, and free from alkali an...
4. Oil-Painting And Spirit-Fresco. Continued- An important precaution to be observed in the 'conduct' of a painting during its progress is based upon the two actions just referred to, namely, the oxidation of the oil during its hardening, and the...
5. Water-Colour Painting- 5. Water-colour Painting. - The usual binding material in this method is gum; glycerin and honey are also employed to some extent. Raw honey should never be used, but only one of the sugars it contain...
6. Pastel, Charcoal, Plumbago, Silver-Point- The common characteristic of all the processes which form our sixth group is the absence of any vehicle or binding material. The usual ground on which drawings in the above-named substances are execut...
Chapter XXIV. The Study Of Old Paintings And Drawings- The study of old pictures, with the view of discovering the causes of the physical and chemical changes which have taken place in them, is fraught with interest. The material on which they are execute...
The Study Of Old Paintings And Drawings. Part 2- This substance - that is, the entire mass of the white-lead ground in oil which has become solid, tough, and hard - seems to contain a small percentage of a lead-soap, formed probably out of the free ...
The Study Of Old Paintings And Drawings. Part 3- Fra Giovanni Angelico (1387-1445) No. 663. The translucent reds and purples in this work have faded somewhat; the green, which appears to be malachite - 'green bice' - has stood. On the whole this ex...
The Study Of Old Paintings And Drawings. Part 4- We may now pass on to some instructive examples preserved in the National Portrait Gallery: Marc Gheeraedts (1561-1635) No. 64. In this portrait, painted probably in 1614, while the vermilion has st...
Chapter XXV. Conservation Of Pictures And Drawings- It is generally conceded that a finished oil painting is best kept in such a position that it is exposed to daylight of just sufficient intensity for it to be well seen, the direct beams of the sun be...
Conservation Of Pictures And Drawings. Part 2- Thus the ventilation of the system is arranged for, yet dust is excluded. To hermetically seal a framed drawing, to the entire exclusion of all moisture and all air, is not possible. That under such c...
Conservation Of Pictures And Drawings. Part 3- The question of the lighting of a gallery or room where pictures are to be displayed has been touched upon already at the beginning of the present chapter. We would now add that actual skylights are n...
Conservation Of Pictures And Drawings. Part 4- When the varnish of an old picture is practically intact, but the surface is begrimed with soot and dirt, it should not be cleansed by the direct application of water, much less by the use of a soluti...
Chapter XXVI. Trials Of Pigments- The testing of pigments for genuineness and for purity-has been discussed incidentally in Chapters XIII. to XIX. of the present volume. Though genuineness and purity* have often an important bearing u...
Trials Of Pigments. Continued- The chief paints which were unaffected, at all events, so far as some specimens were concerned, by the exposure, are included in the following list: Yellow ochre, raw sienna, deep cadmium, Mars red, l...
W. N. Hartley's Experiments With Pigments- On September 4, 1886, the late Sir W. N. Hartley read, before the British Association at Birmingham, a paper on 'The Fading of Water Colours.' His trials as to the effect on pigments of a comparativel...
Mr. W. Simpson's Experiments With Pigments- Some washes of water-colour, of thirty-one different kinds, were made upon cards by the late Mr. W. Simpson. He so cut the cards as to divide each coloured strip in half; one section was preserved in ...
Mr. W. Simpson's Experiments With Pigments. Part 2- Of course, exposure on a wall facing nearly south constituted a very severe test, yet the circulation of air In the tubes was more advantageous to the pigments than would have been the steamy heat of ...
Mr. W. Simpson's Experiments With Pigments. Part 3- Dr. Russell and Sir William Abney add, indeed, the proviso, 'If painted with any but the more fugitive colours.' But this condition cannot be said to have been fulfilled by the works in question; for ...
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