SUMMARY
A FEW simple rules, together with the simple Palette would insure paintings that are absolutely permanent. Haste in finishing a picture often produces bad results. It is said of the great French artist Henner that he often had as many as forty or fifty pictures in his studio in the process of painting. He would lay in the foundation and then place the picture face to the wall to dry. It was weeks before he got back to the first picture again, when he would start outlining the figures. It was weeks again before he came back to the beginning and finished his pictures—in the meantime, of course, each succeeding coat having had time to dry through and through. And this, more than anything else, is the principal reason why his paintings are in such perfect condition to-day. I cite him as a man who had the instinct to paint with simple colors; and, although he was a prolific user of Madder Lake, he always used it as a glaze over the ordinary ground. Most of his smaller pictures were painted on Academy-Board or Composition-Board, and I have no doubt that his pictures will retain their pristine condition for centuries.
On the other hand, we have such a great painter as Josef Israels, who paid little or no attention to the materials which he used, with the result that many of his pictures are badly cracked and have darkened considerably in the shadows.
Once a painter is familiar with the colors which are permanent, he or she can proceed unconsciously without any technical interference and produce results which will stay.
There is a decided inclination at the present time towards impasto painting, in which colors are piled up to the thickness sometimes of a centimeter, and a plastic effect is sought by this means. This is a dangerous proceeding, excepting in the hands of one who has a distinct knowledge of how colors dry. Lamp Black and Graphite, for instance, will take many years to dry thoroughly hard. Zinc White, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Sienna, Indian Red and Red Lead or Orange Mineral will dry hard and brittle, with the ultimate danger of falling off the canvass. Then again, the pigments I have just mentioned, like Lamp Black, and which take years to harden, will crack any hard drying pigment which is placed over them, because in drying, the slow drying colors wrinkle and contract, and a hard drying color placed over them, not having sufficient elasticity will be torn asunder, and a small crack, which may widen into a fissure, will take place. The whole idea of permanent painting, then, simmers itself down to one of sense and judgment. No one has ever seen a Water Color painting which is cracked. This is due entirely to the fact that the pigment is so thin that it cannot crack. Linseed Oil, when exposed to the air for several years, changes into what is known as fat oil. This is a thick, ropey, pale material of the consistency of honey, and when used too freely dries with a film similar to that of a withered apple. Placed in a warm place, instead of baking, it shrivels up and wrinkles.
Blakelock and Ryder poured thick coats of varnish over their pictures when the paint was insufficiently dry, with the result that many of their paintings to-day show cracks and fissures, due to this practice. Blakelock used a very heavy-bodied Linseed Oil, which was so viscous that it flowed down in many places and formed “curtains,” and teardrops.
Blakelock painted with fat oil, and many of his pictures show this wrinkling effect, and as no varnish is added to fat oil, the chances are it will remain absolutely permanent, if used thinly or sparingly.