Of Lead &c
: ON COLOURS AND PIGMENTS INDIVIDUALLY.The heaviest and whitest of these are the best, and in point of colour
and body, are superior to all other whites. When pure and properly
applied in oil and varnish, they are comparatively safe and durable,
drying well without addition; but excess of oil discolours them, and in
water-painting they are changeable even to blackness. Upon all vegetable
lakes, except those of madder, they have a destructive effect; and are
and orange leads, king's and patent yellow, massicot, and orpiment. With
ultramarine, however, red and orange vermilions, yellow and orange
chromes, yellow and orange and red cadmiums, aureolin, the ochres,
viridian and other oxides of chromium, Indian red &c., they compound
with little or no injury. Lead colours must not be employed in
water-colour or crayon painting, distemper, or fresco. The whites of
lead are carbonates of that metal, with two exceptions:--Flemish white
or the sulphate, and Pattison's white or the oxychloride. In using all
pigments of which lead is the basis, cleanliness is essential to health.
White lead, by which we must be understood to mean the carbonate, always
contains when commercially prepared a certain proportion of hydrated
oxide. The less of the latter there is present, the better does the
white cover, and the less liable is it to turn brown. The products
formed by precipitation have proved to be inferior in body: otherwise,
pure mono-carbonate of lead-oxide, obtained by mixing solutions of
carbonate of potash and a lead-salt, might be best adapted for a
pigment. However, such a carbonate has been lately produced by Mr.
Spence's process of passing carbonic acid gas into a caustic soda or
potash solution of lead, and for this white an opacity is claimed equal
to that of the ordinary compound.
Great as is the opacity of white lead, it is apt to lose that property
in some measure in course of time, and become more or less transparent.
If, over a series of dry oil-colour rubs of varied hues, there were
brushed sufficient white lead paint to utterly obscure them, after some
years those rubs would indistinctly appear, and by degrees become more
and more visible, until at last their forms--if not their very
colours--could be recognised. From this it would seem that white lead
must slowly but surely part with some of its carbonic acid, and be at
length converted into dicarbonate, a compound possessing less carbonic
acid, and less coating power.
Impure air, or sulphuretted hydrogen, browns or blackens white lead,
converting it partially or wholly into sulphide. It would appear from
the recent investigations of Dr. D. S. Price, that white lead is less
liable to be thus affected, when the pictures in which it is used are
exposed to a strong light; also, that when such pictures have so
suffered, a like exposure will restore them. We have ourselves noticed
the rapidity with which an oil rub of white lead that has been damaged
by foul gas, regains its former whiteness when submitted to air and
sunshine. The action of drying oils has been likewise proved to be very
powerful upon sulphide of lead, an exposure to light for a few days only
being sufficient to change a surface of it, coated with a thin layer of
boiled linseed oil, into a white one. Probably, these agents may have a
similar effect upon other pigments injured by sulphuretted hydrogen, and
many of the colours in paintings may be restored by treating them with
boiled linseed oil, and submitting them to a strong light. That the
result is due to oxidation, there can be no doubt. Indeed, the eminent
French chemist, M. Thenard, was consulted some years back upon the means
of bringing to their original whiteness the black spots which had formed
upon a valuable drawing, by the changing of the white lead, and
employed for that purpose oxygenated water. He had ascertained its power
of converting the black sulphide of lead into the white sulphate, and,
by touching the spots with a brush dipped in the fluid, soon succeeded
in restoring the drawing to its primitive state. Here, again, the use of
the agent might doubtless be extended to other colours, to which foul
air is inimical.
In oil painting white lead is essential in the ground, in dead
colouring, in the formation of tints of all colours, and in scumbling,
either alone or mixed with other pigments. It is also the best local
white, when neutralized with ultramarine or black; and it is the true
representative of light, when warmed with Naples yellow, or orange
vermilion or cadmium, or with a mixture of the yellow and either of the
orange pigments, according to the light.
Ordinary white lead is often mixed with considerable quantities of heavy
spar, gypsum, or chalk. These injure it in body and brightness, dispose
it to dry more slowly, keep its place less firmly, and discolour the oil
with which it is applied, as well as prevent it dissolving completely in
boiling dilute potash-ley, a test by which pure white lead may be known.
The adulteration of pigments, which we have in some instances found
practised to a large extent abroad, is comparatively unfrequent in our
own country, so far at least as regards the superior class of colours
employed by artists. As a rule, such colours when manufactured in
England may be fairly assumed to be genuine; and certainly the
respectable colourmen of the present day are not in the habit of
sophisticating them. We must bear testimony, indeed, to the zeal with
which they purvey, regardless of necessary expense, the choicest and
most perfect materials. This should be a matter of congratulation to the
painter, who must of necessity rely on the faith and honesty of his
colour-dealer; for if he were ever so good a chemist, it would be
impossible for him to analyse each pigment before proceeding to use it.
The fault must rest with himself, therefore, if, through a mistaken
economy, he do not frequent the best houses and pay the best prices. Of
a surety, the colours of the artist are not among those things in which
quality can, or should, be sacrificed to cheapness.
TTITLE BLANC D'ARGENT, OR SILVER WHITE.
More
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Lake Mineral Green Patent Green Mountain Green Marine
... Lately Called Factitious Ultramarine Is A Specially Fine Preparation
of M. Guimet, presenting the nearest approach to the natural product of any artificial ultramarine, both in transparency, purity of hue, and chemical characteristics. Equalling in depth and power the ordinary French ultramarine, it possesses greater c... Latent Colour Not Immediately Apparent Apart From The Beauty Which A
wealth of colour imparts, those pigments imbued with it are, as a rule, the most permanent. And not unnaturally so, for the more colour there is present, the longer it takes to be affected, either by exposure or impure air. Colour within colour, there... Lazuline Lazulite Blue And Lazurstein This Most Costly Most
permanent, and most celebrated of all pigments, is obtained by isolating ... Lazurium As We Are Told Is Made It Has Been Common To Confound
... Leaning To Blue The Names Of Violet Lilac Mauve &c Blue Is
a colour which 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; while purple itself is the harmonizing contrast of ... Leithner's Blue Hungary Blue Dutch Ultramarine Zaffre Or
... Less Known As English Red Prussian Red And Scarlet Ochre True
Venetian red, that is, the red of the Venetians, was probably brought from India, and similar to our modern Indian red. The Venetian red of the present day, however, is an artificial product, containing no earthy base, and therefore improperly classed... Light Colours; Thus It Blues White Greens Yellow Purples Red
... Light Compounded With The Primary Red It Constitutes The Secondary
... Light Does Upon Opacity Or Reflecting Power Opacity Is Therefore
the antagonist of transparency, and qualifies pigments to cover in dead-colouring, or solid painting, as well as to combine with transparent colours in forming tints; and hence it is that semi-transparent pigments are suited in a mean degree both for ... Likewise Called Lac Lake This Is Obtained From The Lac Or Lacca Of
India, a resinous secretion which seems to depend upon the puncture of a ... Likewise Known As Spruce Ochre And Ocre De Rue Or More Correctly
... Liquid Asphaltum &c Is A Sort Of Mineral Pitch Or Tar Which Rising
liquid to the surface of the Lacus Asphaltites or Asphaltic Lake (the Dead Sea) concretes there by the natural action of the atmosphere and sun, and, floating in masses to the shores, is gathered by the Arabs. The French give it an additional name fro... Liquid Indian Ink Is A Solution For Architects Surveyors &c
TTITLE IVORY BLACK is ivory charred to blackness by strong heat in closed vessels. Differing chiefly through want of care or skill in preparing, when well made it is the richest and most transparent of all the blacks, a fine neutral colour perfec... Liquid Sepia Seppia Or Animal Aethiops Is Named After The Sepia
or cuttle-fish, also called the ink-fish, from its affording a dark liquid, which was used as an ink and pigment by the ancients. All the species of cuttle-fish are provided with a dark-coloured fluid, sometimes quite black, which they emit to obscure... Litharge Is Merely Fused Massicot Old Writers Speak Of Litharge Of
silver and litharge of gold, oxides of lead, pale and reddish yellow respectively. Commercial litharge, especially that which is foreign, contains sometimes a considerable proportion of oxide of copper and iron. The principal impurity, however, is gen... London And Nottingham White Flemish White Pattison's White
... Lose Sight Of That The Colour Of Shadow Is Always Transparent And
... Madder Or Madder Lake Speaking Of Pink Roses Mrs Duffield Remarks
that "the local colour is best imitated with pink madder," and the Messrs. Rowbotham observe "this heather may be best represented by cobalt and madder lake." In trade catalogues several names are often given, as in this instance, to one and the same ... Many Colours Are Apt To Change From The Action Of White Lead And Other
lead pigments, &c., principally those which are altered by light and air. Many, too, cannot safely come into contact with iron, or ferruginous pigments; especially the yellows of arsenic, the lakes of cochineal, and the blues and greens of copper. ... May Be Said Of Chinese Lake
TTITLE 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 respect from preceding cochineal lakes--an observation which ... Mineralogique Of Paris Are Two Splendid Specimens Of The Stone In
which is seen the transition from the azure to the white. According to the quantity and quality of blue present, the lapis varies from an almost uniform tint of the deepest indigo-blue to grayish-white, dotted and streaked at intervals with pale blue.... Minium Or Saturnine Red Is An Ancient Pigment By Some Old Writers
confounded with cinnabar, and termed Sinoper or Synoper. It is an oxide of uncertain composition, prepared by subjecting massicot to the heat of a furnace with an expanded surface and free accession of air. Of a scarlet colour and fine hue, it is warm... Mixing Colours With Colours He Produces Compound Colours Or Hues
... Mixture With Drying-oil Bitumen: The Latter Is Likewise Known As
... More Directly Of The Secondaries Purple And Green In Each Of Which
blue is a constituent: hence blue occurs twice in the latter mode of forming olive, while red and blue enter therein singly and subordinately. Blue is, therefore, in every instance the archeus or predominating colour of olive; its perfect or middle hu... Mountains Of Kernhausen Whence It Is Sometimes Called Hungary Green
It is prepared from malachite, a beautiful copper ore employed by jewellers, and is a hydrated dicarbonate 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 ... Mummy Brown Or Egyptian Brown Is A Bituminous Product Mixed With
animal remains, brought from the catacombs of Egypt, where liquid bitumen was employed three thousand years ago in embalming. By a slow chemical change, it has combined during so many ages with substances which give it, as a rule, a more solid and las... Native Cinnabar Or Vermilion The Yellows Are Said To Have Been In
many cases, vegetable colours; but it is likely earths and ochres were ... Native Ultramarine Natural Ultramarine Real Ultramarine True
... Neutral Colours Are Three Only White Black And Grey According
to the laws of Optics, the two first comprise all other colours synthetically, and afford them all by analysis. These are sometimes called "extreme" colours, grey being their intermediate. ... Note Here The Difference Between Gray As Spelt With An A And Grey As
... Numerous Colours Are Likewise Injured By Lime And Fire And Cannot
therefore be employed in fresco, or enamel painting. Of substances which may act deleteriously on colours, there remain the ... Ochre Oxford Ochre Stone Ochre Di Palito &c Are Native
earths, consisting chiefly of silica and alumina in combination with iron, which latter forms the principal colouring matter. They are among the most ancient of pigments, and their permanency is proved by the state of the old pictures. In a box of col... Of Late Years In The German Coelin Known Here As Cerulian Blue And
Coeruleum. What is chiefly wanted, however, is a colour combining the wonderful depth, richness, and transparency of Prussian blue with the strict stability of ultramarine. A permanent Prussian blue would be the most valued gift the palette could rece... 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. When pure and properly applied in oil and varnish, they are comparatively safe and durable, drying well without addition; but excess o... Of Shades Between The Extremes Of Light And Dark As Each Compound
... Of Shades To This Belong All The Powers Of Chiaroscuro By Which Term
the painter denotes the harmonious effects of light and shade; and though they form the simplest part of colouring, yet they cannot be separated from it--light and shade, the chiaroscuro, being a distinct and important branch of painting. A third mode... Of The Bixa Orellana And Appears Generally To Contain Two Colouring
matters, a yellow and a red, which are apt to adhere to each other and produce orange. Anotta dissolves with difficulty in water, but readily in alcohol and alkaline solutions, from which last it may be thrown down as a lake by means of alum. Being, h... Of The Gold Coast The Cape And Natal Turacine The Name Proposed
for it, is noticed here only because it is the first animal or vegetable pigment, with copper as an essential element, which has been hitherto isolated. The colour is extracted by solution in an alkali, and precipitation by an acid, and is changed on ... Of These There Are Three Tints Deep A So-called Pale And Lemon
TTITLE DEEP CADMIUM. Cadmium Yellow is comparatively a recent introduction, the metal itself not having been discovered till 1818. The cadmium yellows of commerce are (the chromate excepted) all sulphides, and therefore not affected by impure air... Of Those Pigments Would Do The Rich Yellowness Entirely Disappearing
and the sober-coloured earth being left behind. * * * * * From several metals besides those mentioned, yellows more or less vivid and durable may be obtained--from tin, nickel, cerium, molybdenum, &c.; but we do not... Of Which Black And White Have Been Stated To Be The Opposed
... Olive And Is Also The Prime Colour Or Archeus Of The Neutral Black
... Olive In Dark Green; Russet And Citrine In Dark Orange The
tertiaries have, therefore, the same order of relation to black that the primaries have to white; and we have black primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, inversely, as we have white primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, directly. In other words, w... Once Known As Persian Red Is Brought From Bengal It Is A Natural
earth rich in peroxide of iron, of a purple russet hue and good body, and valued when fine for the clearness and soft 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 ... Only That Of Extreme Light Objects Opaque It Follows That White Is To
be kept as much as possible out of shadow, and black, for the same reason, out of colour. In their stead, whenever it is necessary to cover, opaque tints may be employed, glazed over with transparent colours. Such practice would also be more favourabl... Opacity Is A Fine Tone; But It Must Be Remembered That Transparency
is the character of the sunset or sunrise, and hence arises the difficulty of employing such opaque colour effectively." Before the introduction of cadmium red, this and the following pigment were the best and only unexceptionable orange-reds known. I... Opaque Contrary And Vice Versa: Indeed In Practice All These Must
be in some measure combined. Such are some of the powers of contrast in colouring alone, and such is the diversity of art upon which skill in colouring depends. It must not be forgotten, however, that contrasts or extremes, whether of light and sha... Opaque Oxide Of Chromium Green Oxide Of Chromium Chrome Oxide
... Or Brun De Mars Is Either A Natural Or Artificial Ochre Containing
iron, or iron and manganese. Of much richness and strict permanence, it resembles raw umber in being a brown with a citrine cast, but is generally marked by a flush of orange which is not so observable in the latter pigment. TTITLE MIXED CITRINE. ... Or Burnt Terra Di Sienna Is Calcined Raw Sienna Of A Rich
transparent brown-orange or orange-russet colour, richer, deeper, and more transparent than the raw earth. It also works and dries better, has in other respects the qualities of its parent colour, and is a most permanent and serviceable pigment in pai... 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 th... Or Carmine Vermilion Partakes Of A Crimson Hue And Is Adapted
mixed with white, for the rose and lilac-tints of some complexions. Like other vermilions, however, the colour needs much nicety of management; and it must not be attempted to further enrich it by admixture of cochineal lakes. Those colours, as we hav... Or Coeruleum Under The Name Coelin There Has Of Late Years Been
imported from Germany the cobalt blue with a tin base to which reference has just been made. This comparatively new pigment--which likewise contains or is mixed with gypsum, silica, and sometimes magnesia--has the distinctive property of appearing a p... Or Ferricyanide Of Iron Is Formed By Adding The Red Prussiate Of
potash to a protosalt of iron. This blue is lighter and more delicate than ordinary Prussian blue, and is believed to resist the action of alkalies longer. It is a question whether the common Prussian blue obtained by oxidizing the precipitate yielded... Or Field's Carmine Like That Of Cochineal Is The Richest And Deepest
lake prepared, containing most colouring matter and least base. It differs from the paler products chiefly in transparency and intensity, and is the only durable carmine for painting either in water or oil; for both which it is qualified by texture wi... Or French Blue Is A Rich Deep Colour But Less Transparent And Vivid
than the preceding variety, which is preferable in unmixed tints. For compound hues, French blue is sufficiently well adapted, and is extremely useful. With aureolin and burnt Sienna, or Vandyke brown, it affords valuable autumn greens; and with lamp ... Or French Veronese Green Is A Comparatively Recent Introduction
similar in colour and general properties to the following; beside which, however, it appears dull, muddy, and impure. It is often adulterated with arsenic to an enormous extent, which interferes with its transparency, mars its beauty, and renders it o... Or Green Earth Is A Sober Bluish Green With A Grey Cast It Is A
species of ochre, containing silica, oxide of iron, magnesia, potash, and water. Not bright and of little power, it is a very durable pigment, being unaffected by strong light or impure air, and combining with other colours without injury. It has not ... Or Indian Blue Was Known To The Ancients Under The Name Of Indicum
whence its present appellation. In modern Europe, it first came into extensive use in Italy; but about the middle of the sixteenth century, the Dutch began to import and employ it in considerable quantity. Present in the woad plant, which is a native ... Or Iodine Scarlet Is An Iodide Of Mercury Having The Body And
opacity of vermilion, and being as much inferior to it in permanence as it is superior in brilliancy. Of all artistic pigments, it is at once the most dazzling and the most fugitive, and should have no place on the palette. If used, it should be with ... Or L500 For The Production Of Artificial Ultramarine By The Societe
... Or Lamblack Is A Smoke Black Being The Soot Procured By The Burning
of resins or resinous woods. It is a pure vegetal charcoal of fine texture, not quite so intense nor so transparent as the black made from ivory, but less brown in its pale tones. It has a very strong body that covers readily every underlay of colour,... Or Masticot Is A Protoxide Of Lead Varying From The Purest And Most
tender straw colour to a dull orange yellow, and known as Light, Yellow, and Golden Massicot. It has in painting all the properties of white lead, from which it may be prepared by gentle calcination in an open furnace. In tint with that pigment, howev... Or Mineral Grey As It Is Often Improperly Spelt Is Obtainable From
the lapis lazuli, after the blue and ash have been worked out. So derived, it is a refuse article, worthless if the stone has been skilfully exhausted of its ultramarine. As this is now generally the case, the best mineral gray is no longer a waste pr... Or More Correctly Semi-neutral Tint Is A Compound Shadow Colour Of
a cool character. It is permanent, except that on exposure the gray is apt to become grey, a change which may be prevented by a slight addition of ultramarine ash. So protected, it becomes serviceable in landscape for the extreme distance, which, it m... Or Mountain Green Is Met With In Cumberland And Is Also Found In The
... Or Penley's Neutral Orange Is A Permanent Compound Pigment Composed
of yellow ochre and the russet-marrone known as brown madder: it is chiefly valuable in water-colour. Paper, being white, is too opaque to paint upon, without some wash of colour being first passed over it; otherwise the light tones of the sky are apt... Or Queen's Yellow Is A Subsulphate Of Mercury Of A Beautiful Lemon
yellow colour, but so liable to change by the action of light or impure air, that it cannot be used safely, and hardly deserves attention as a pigment. ... Or Quercitron Yellow Is What Its Name Implies It Is Dark In
substance, in grains of a glossy fracture, perfectly transparent, and when ground is of a beautiful yellow colour. In painting it follows, and adds richness and depth to, gamboge in water, and goes well into varnish; but any lead used in rendering oil...