LAKES.
There are several pigments of this denomination, varying in colour and appearance according to the substances used and modes of preparation. Usually they are in the form of drops, and their colours are in general bright yellow, very transparent, and not liable to change in an impure atmosphere—qualities which would render them very valuable, were they not soon discoloured and even destroyed on exposure to air and light, both in water and oil. In the latter vehicle, they are bad driers, like most lakes, and they do not stand the action of white lead and other metallic pigments. If used, therefore, it should be as simple as possible. Of these lakes, the following are the best; but it must be borne in mind that, as not one of them is permanent, the compounds they afford are of necessity unstable.
34. YELLOW LAKE
Is a bright transparent yellow, a difficult drier, and liable to be destroyed by light. It affords beautiful foliage tints, and would, if it could be depended on, be of extreme value in what is called "glazing."
35. ITALIAN PINK,
Also called English and Dutch Pink, is an absurd name for a stronger and richer kind of yellow lake, warmer in tint and more powerful than the preceding. It is a rich transparent yellow, yielding a variety of fine foliage tints by admixture with indigo and sepia in different proportions. These three colours with burnt sienna will produce almost every variety of sunny foliage. It gives likewise good olive greens with lamp black.
36. QUERCITRON LAKE,
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 oils siccative, browns it, and for the same reason it is useless in tints.
37. LEMON YELLOW,
Or chromate of baryta, is exceedingly difficult to make well. Upon the mode of manufacture depend not only the beauty of the colour but its stability. If properly and carefully prepared, it is of a vivid lemon tint, deep or pale, very clear, very pure and permanent. It also washes well, and is entirely free from the slightest tinge of orange. This may be pronounced the only chromate which possesses durability, not being liable to change by damp or foul air, by the action of light or the steel palette-knife, or by mixture with white lead and other pigments, either in water or oil, in both of which it works pleasantly. Lemon yellow is chiefly adapted to points of high light, and has a peculiarly happy effect when glazed over greens in both modes of painting. In water it exceeds gamboge in brightness, and compounded therewith improves its beauty. This mixture also goes readily into oil; indeed it is the best and easiest way of rendering gamboge diffusible as an oil colour—simple emulsion of the gamboge in a little water, and trituration of the lemon yellow therewith, being all that is requisite for the purpose.