Field's Chromatography Part 21

is likewise furnished by gentle calcination. It may be directly prepared by mixing boiling aqueous solutions of equal parts of crystallised verdigris and a.r.s.enious acid. An olive-green precipitate is immediately formed, which is apt, without due precaution, to pa.s.s into an emerald green. A durable copper colour.

240. _Olive Terre Verte._

We have obtained a very beautiful olive from terre verte by simply changing its hue. In oil, especially, the colour so produced would be found of service for autumn foliage, or richly painted foregrounds. A simple original pigment, consisting wholly of the earth, it resembles ordinary terre verte in being unaffected by strong light or impure air, and uninjured by admixture; but differs from it in not darkening by time. Semi-transparent, of sober richness and drying well in oil, it is, according to its powers, a perfectly unexceptionable colour, of strict stability.

Of the two olive colours in common use, olive lake and olive green, the first is generally semi-stable, and apt to blacken; while the second is usually fugitive, and liable to fade: both are compounds. The palette, therefore, possesses no original olive pigment, good or bad. A glance at the numbered italicised olives will show that the doubtful mixtures referred to might with advantage be superseded. It is clear that the olive pigments which the palette does not know, are better than those with which it is acquainted.

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE SEMI-NEUTRAL, BROWN.

As colour, according to the regular scale descending from white, ceases properly with the last of the tertiaries, olive, in theory the neutral black would here form a fitting conclusion. Practically, however, every coloured pigment, of every cla.s.s or tribe, combines with black as it exists in pigments--not simply being deepened or lowered in tone thereby, but likewise defiled in colour, or changed in cla.s.s. Hence there arises a new series or scale of coloured compounds, having black for their basis, which, though they differ not theoretically from the preceding order inverted, are yet in practice imperfect or impure. These broken compounds of black, or coloured blacks and greys, we have distinguished by the term, semi-neutral, and divided them into three cla.s.ses: Brown, Marrone, and Gray. What tints are with respect to white, they are with regard to black, being, so to speak, black tints or shades.

The first of the series is BROWN, a term which, in its widest acceptation, has been used to include vulgarly every kind of dark broken colour, and is, in a more limited sense, the rather indefinite name of a very extensive cla.s.s of colours of warm or tawny hues. Accordingly there are browns of every denomination except blue; to wit, yellow-brown, red-brown, orange-brown, purple-brown, citrine-brown, russet-brown, &c.

But there is no such thing as a blue-brown, nor, strictly, any other coloured brown in which blue predominates; such predominance of a cold colour at once carrying the compound into the cla.s.s of gray, ashen, or slate. Brown comprises the hues called dun, hazel, auburn, feuillemort, mort d'ore, &c.; several of which have been already mentioned as allied to the tertiary colours.

The term _brown_, then, denotes rightly a warm broken colour, of which _yellow_ is a chief const.i.tuent: hence brown is in some measure to shade what yellow is to light. Hence, also, proper quant.i.ties of either the three primaries, the three secondaries, or the three tertiaries, produce variously a brown mixture. Browns contribute to coolness and clearness by contrast when opposed to pure colours, and Rubens more especially appears to have employed them upon this principle; although the same may be said of t.i.tian, Correggio, Paulo Veronese, and all the best colourists. Being a sort of intermedia between positive colours and neutrality, browns equally contrast colour and shade. This accounts for their vast importance in painting, and the necessity of preserving them distinct from other colours, to which they give foulness in mixture; and to this is due their use in backgrounds and in relieving of coloured objects.

The tendency in the compounds of colours to run into brownness and warmth is one of the common natural properties of colours which occasions them to deteriorate or defile each other in mixture. Brown by consequence is synonymous with foul or dirty, as opposed to fair or clean; and hence brown, which is the nearest of the semi-neutrals in relation to light, is to be avoided in mixture with light colours. Yet is it an example of the wisdom of nature's Author that brown is rendered, like green, a prevailing hue, and in particular an earth colour, as a contrast which is harmonized by the blueness and coldness of the sky.

This tendency will likewise explain the use of brown in harmonizing and toning, as well as the great number of natural and artificial pigments and colours so called. It was the fertility and abundance of browns that caused our great landscape-colourist Wilson, when a friend went exultingly to tell him that 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." Nevertheless, fine transparent browns are obviously very valuable.

If red or blue in excess be added to brown, it falls into the other semi-neutral cla.s.ses, 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. That term, therefore, should be confined to the semi-neutral colours, compounded of, or like in hue to, either the primary _yellow_, the secondary orange, or the tertiary _citrine_, with a _black_. The general contrast or harmonizing colour of such compounds will consequently be more or less purple or blue.

The number of browns is great, as may be seen by the following list.

This list, however, is good, and includes a considerable proportion of permanent pigments.

241. ASPHALTUM,

_Asphalt_, _Bitumen_, _Mineral Pitch_, _Jew's Pitch_, _Antwerp Brown_, _Liquid Asphaltum_, &c., is a sort of mineral pitch or tar which, rising liquid to the surface of the Lacus Asphalt.i.tes or Asphaltic Lake (the Dead Sea) concretes there by the natural action of the atmosphere and sun, and, floating in ma.s.ses to the sh.o.r.es, is gathered by the Arabs.

The French give it an additional name from the region of the lake, to wit, Bitumen of Judea; and with the English, from the same cause, it has the alias of Jew's pitch. Asphaltum is not so called, however, after the lake, as is a.s.serted by a writer in the Encyclopaedia: it is just the reverse--Pliny says, "The Asphaltic lake produces nothing but bitumen (in Greek, asphaltos); and hence its name."

A substance resembling asphalt is found at Neufchatel in Switzerland, and in other parts of Europe. A specimen of the native bitumen, brought from Persia, and of which the author 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 turpentine, but ground easily as a pigment in pale drying oil, affording a fine deep transparent brown colour, resembling that of commercial asphaltum; dried firmly almost as soon as the drying-oil alone, and worked admirably both in water and oil. Asphaltum may be used as a permanent brown in water, for which purpose the native is superior to the artificial. The former, however, is now seldom to be met with, the varieties employed on the palette being the residua of various resinous and bituminous matters, distilled for the sake of their essential oils. These residua are all black and glossy like common pitch, which differs from them only in having been less acted upon by fire, and thence in being softer. At present asphaltum is prepared in excessive abundance as a product of the distillation of coal at the gas manufactories, and is chiefly confined to oil-painting, being first dissolved in turpentine, which fits it for glazing and shading. Its fine brown colour and perfect transparency are lures to its free use with many artists, notwithstanding the certain destruction that awaits the work on which it is much employed, owing to its tendency to contract and crack by changes of temperature and the atmosphere; but for which, and a slight liability to blacken, it would be a most beautiful, durable, and eligible pigment. The solution of asphaltum in turpentine, 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. If common asphaltum, as usually prepared with turpentine, be used with some addition of Vand.y.k.e brown, umber, or Cappah brown ground in drying oil, it will gain body and solidity which will render it much less disposed to crack. Nevertheless, asphaltum is to be regarded in practice rather as a dark varnish than as a solid pigment, and all the faults of a bad varnish are to be guarded against in employing it.

It is common to call the solution in turpentine _Asphaltum_, and the mixture with drying-oil _Bitumen_: the latter is likewise known as _Antwerp Brown_. A preparation for the use of water-colour artists is employed under the name of _Liquid Asphaltum_.

242. BISTRE

is extracted by watery solution from the soot of wood fires, whence it derives a strong pyroligneous scent. It is a very powerful citrine-brown, washes well, and has a clearness suited to architectural subjects. Its use is confined to water-colour painting, in which it was much employed by the old masters for tinting drawings and shading sketches, before the general application of Indian ink to such purposes.

Of a wax-like texture, it is perfectly durable, but unfitted for oil, drying therein 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 evaporation, yields a fine bistre, similar to the Scotch. All kinds of bistre attract moisture from the atmosphere.

243. BONE BROWN

and _Ivory Brown_ are obtained by roasting bone and ivory until by partial charring they become of a brown colour throughout. Though much esteemed by some artists, they are not quite eligible pigments, being bad driers in oil, the only vehicle in which they are now used.

Moreover, their lighter shades are not permanent either in water or oil when exposed to the action of strong light, or mixed in tint with white lead. The palest of these colours are the most opaque: the deepest are more durable, and most so when approaching black. Neither bone nor ivory brown is often employed, but the former may be occasionally applied in forming clear, silvery, warm grays, in combination with zinc white.

244. BURNT UMBER

is what its name denotes, and has a deeper shade with a more russet hue than the raw umber. A quiet brown, it affords clear and warm shadows, but is apt to look rather turbid if used in great depth. It washes and works capitally in water, and dries quickly in oil, in which it is employed as a siccative. Perfectly stable in either vehicle, it may sometimes be subst.i.tuted for Vand.y.k.e brown, is eligible in fresco, and invaluable in buildings. Where the lakes of madder require saddening, the addition of burnt umber increases their powers, and improves their drying in oil. It contains manganese and iron, and may be produced artificially. The old Italians called it _falsalo_.

245. CALEDONIAN BROWN

is a permanent native pigment, the use of which is confined to oil. A magnificent orange-russet brown of considerable transparency, it is marked by great depth and richness, and will be found serviceable where a powerful brown of the burnt Sienna cla.s.s is required.

246. CAPPAH BROWN,

or _Cappagh Brown_, is likewise a colour peculiar to oil. It is a species of bog-earth or peat, mixed with manganese in various proportions, and found on the estate of Lord Audley at Cappagh, near Cork. The specimens in which the peat earth most abounds are of light weight, friable texture, and dark colour; while those which contain more of the metal are heavy and paler.

As pigments, the peaty Cappah brown is the most transparent and rich in colour. A prompt drier in oil, its surface rivels during drying where it lies thick. The other and metallic sort is a more opaque, a lighter and warmer brown pigment, which dries rapidly and smoothly in a body or thick layer. The first may be regarded as a superior Vand.y.k.e brown, the second as a superior umber. The two extreme kinds should be distinguished as light and deep Cappah browns; the former excellent for dead colouring and grounds, the latter for glazing and graining. These pigments work well in oil and varnish; they do not, however, keep their place while drying in oil by fixing the oil, like the driers of lead, but run. Under the names of _Euchrome_ and _Mineral Brown_, they have been introduced into commerce for civil and marine painting.

247. Ca.s.sEL EARTH,

_Terre de Ca.s.sel_, or, corruptly, _Castle Earth_, is specially an oil pigment, similar to burnt umber but of a more russet hue. It is an earth containing bitumen, a substance which, with pit-coal, lignite or brown coal, jet, petroleum or rock oil, naphtha, &c., is looked upon as a product of the decomposition of organic matter, beneath the surface of the earth, in situations where the conditions of contact with water, and almost total exclusion of atmospheric air, are fulfilled. Deposited at the bottom of seas, lakes, or rivers, and subsequently covered up by acc.u.mulations of clay and sand, the organic tissue undergoes a kind of fermentation by which the bodies in question are slowly produced. The true bitumens appear to have arisen from coal or lignite by the action of subterranean heat; and very closely resemble some of the products yielded by the destructive distillation of those bodies.

Rich as is the tone of colour of Ca.s.sel earth, it is apt to lose this in some measure on exposure to light. Merimee remembers to have seen a head, the brown hair of which had been painted partly with the earth alone, and partly with a mixture of the earth and white; yet the hair where the white was employed was darker than that painted solely with the brown, the white having fixed the colour. To compensate for its thus fading, it should be mixed with pigments that are permanent, such as umber and lamp black. Like all bituminous earths, it needs the strongest drying oil. By calcination, a greater degree of intensity may be imparted to the colour, and perhaps a little more solidity. In landscapes it is of much service for the most vigorous portions of foregrounds and the trunks of trees, as well as for painting cavernous rocks or deep recesses in architecture. Compounded with burnt lake and a little Prussian blue, it gives a black the most profound.

248. CHALON'S BROWN

is a water-colour pigment, transparent and inclining to red; deep, full, and very rich. On exposure to light it becomes less russet, but is otherwise strictly stable.

249. COLOGNE EARTH,

incorrectly called _Cullen's Earth_, is a native bituminous earth, containing less bitumen than Ca.s.sel earth, and therefore drying more quickly. Darker than that variety, it is less transparent, and covers better. In its general qualities it resembles Vand.y.k.e brown, except that in combination with white, it affords a range of cooler brown tints.

Useful for the shadows of buildings, it does not wash so well as sepia, and is preferred occasionally on that account. By some it has been called durable, by others branded as fugacious. According to Bouvier, brown hair represented by this colour has been known to disappear in six months, all the brown vanishing, and nothing remaining but a few black lines of the sketch. As it is similar in composition to Ca.s.sel earth, the safest course would be to mix it with umber, and not to employ it alone. Calcined, it acquires a reddish hue.

250. INDELIBLE BROWN INK.

Although this cannot be cla.s.sed as a pigment, yet, being very useful in water-colours, it may be proper to describe its qualities. The ink is a rich brown fluid, and, as its name imports, is indelibly fixed on the paper as soon as it is dry; thus allowing the artist to work or wash over it repeatedly, without its being disturbed. If diluted with water to its faintest tint, it still continues to retain its indelible properties undiminished. It is generally used with a reed pen, and employed chiefly in architectural details and outlines.

Various brown inks, princ.i.p.ally solutions of bistre and sepia, were adopted in sketching by Claude, Rembrandt, and many of the old masters.

In modern times, a beautiful transparent brown for water-colour artists, known as _Liquid Prout's Brown_, has been extensively employed. This contains less fixative than the indelible ink, and is the vehicle with which nearly all Samuel Prout's drawings were executed.

251. LEITCH'S BROWN

is a permanent pigment peculiar to water painting. A most beautiful olive brown, soft and rich, it is admirably adapted for autumnal foliage tints and the like, either alone or compounded with burnt Sienna or cadmium orange. Transparent and clear in its washes, this is a most serviceable colour in landscape generally.

252. MIXED BROWN

can be produced in endless variety, either by adding a warm colour to black, such as yellow, orange, or citrine, or else by combining the three primaries, secondaries, or tertiaries in suitable proportions. By consulting the lists given of permanent pigments belonging to those cla.s.ses, and by referring to the chapter on Black, it will be seen that no difficulty exists in obtaining durable mixed browns when required.

For example, there may be formed from the primaries, a compound of aureolin, rose madder, and ultramarine; or from the secondaries, a mixture of cadmium orange, viridian, and madder purple. Of course, as with other mixed tints, the brown hue can be furnished not only by direct compounding of the colours on the palette, but by laying one colour over the other on the paper or canva.s.s, or by stippling.