Hence citrine, according to its name, which is that of a class of colours and used commonly for a dark yellow, partakes in a subdued degree of all the powers of its archeus yellow. In estimating, therefore, its properties and effects in painting, it is to be regarded as participating of all the relations of yellow. By some this colour is improperly called brown, as almost all broken colours are. The harmonizing contrast of citrine is a deep purple, which may be seen beautifully opposed to it in nature, when the green of summer declines. As autumn advances, citrine tends towards its orange hues, including the colours termed aurora, chamoise, and others before enumerated under the head of yellow. It is the most advancing of the tertiary colours, or nearest in relation to light; and is variously of a tender, modest, cheering character.
To understand and relish the harmonious relations and expressive powers of the tertiary colours, require a cultivation of perception and a refinement of taste for which study and practice are needed. To a great extent the colourist, like the poet, is born not made; but although he must have an innate sense of the beautiful and the true, hard work alone, with his head, his eyes, and his hands, will enable him to learn and turn to account the complex beauties and relations of tertiary colours. They are at once less definite and less generally evident, but more delightful—more frequent in nature, though rarer in common art, than the like relations of the secondaries and primaries. There is very little pure colour in the world: now and then a gleam dazzles us, like a burst of sunshine through grey mists; but as a rule, nature prefers broken colours to absolute hues. Most pure in spring, most full in summer, most mellow in autumn, most sober in winter, her tints and shades of colour are always more or less interlaced, from white and the primaries to the semi-neutral and black.
Of original citrine-coloured pigments there are only a few, unless we include several imperfect yellows which might not improperly be called citrines. The following are best entitled to this appellation:—
223. BROWN PINK,
Brown Stil de Grain, Citrine Lake, or Quercitron Lake is usually prepared from the berries of Avignon (ramnus infectorius), better known as French, Persian, or Turkey berries; but a more durable and quicker drying species is obtained from the quercitron bark. If produced from the former, it must be branded as fugitive, but if from the latter, it may be termed semi-stable. In either case it is a lake, precipitated from the alkaline decoction by means of alum, in such proportions that the alkali shall not be more than half saturated. The excess of soda or potash employed imparts a brown hue; but the lake being in general an orange broken by green, falls into the class of citrine colours, sometimes inclining to greenness, and sometimes towards the warmth of orange. It works well both in water and oil, in the latter of which it is of great depth and transparency, but its tints with white lead are very fugitive, and in thin glazing it does not stand: the berry variety dries badly. A fine rich colour, more beautiful than eligible, it is popular in landscape for foliage in foregrounds. Modified by admixture with burnt Sienna or gamboge, it yields a compound which, with the addition of a small quantity of indigo, gives a warm though not very durable green. In many of the Flemish pictures the foliage has become blue from the yellowish lake, with which the ultramarine was mixed, having faded.
It has been remarked that the alteration made by time in semi-stable pigments is not so observable when they are employed in full body. Their use generally has been deprecated, but in shadows such vegetable colours as brown pink are sometimes of advantage, as they are transparent, lose part of their richness by the action of the air, and do not become black. Moreover, if mixed with pigments which have a tendency to darken, they mitigate it very much. This last, indeed, is the most legitimate purpose to which semi-stable pigments whose colour fades on exposure can be put.
224. MARS BROWN,
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.
225. MIXED CITRINE.
What has been before remarked of the mixed secondary colours is more particularly applicable to the tertiary, it being more difficult to select three homogeneous substances of equal powers as pigments than two, that shall unite and work together cordially. Hence the mixed tertiaries are still less perfect and pure than the secondaries; and as their hues are of extensive use in painting, original pigments of these colours are proportionably estimable to the artist. Nevertheless there are two evident principles of combination, of which he may avail himself in producing these colours in the various ways of working; the one being that of combining two original secondaries; and the other, of uniting the three primaries in such a manner that the archeus shall predominate. Thus in the case of citrine, either orange and green may be directly compounded; or yellow, red, and blue be so mixed that the yellow shall be in excess.