One German manufacturer of considerable reputation mentions seventy-nine varieties of Green; one hundred and twenty-three varieties of Yellow; one hundred and seventy-nine of Red; seventy-five of Brown; seventy-nine of Blue; thirty-two of Black and twelve of White. There is absolutely no license for the manufacture of such an enormous variety of pigments, when, at most a dozen will do. All in all, one German catalogue contains five hundred and seventy-nine varieties of colors.

In addition to these, there are probably a number of others that are sold under proprietary names, and I ask any painter who has the slightest skill, whether it is necessary to have more than one or two Greens to produce any and every shade that he may desire. If he is a painter of any skill, there is no need for him to have all of these Greens, some of which are good—most of which are fugitive. In addition to the one or two Greens which he may have on his palette, various mixtures of Yellow and Blue give various tones and shades of Green. I have singled out Green as an example of the multiplicity of colors that exists.

The same repetition and duplication of pigments will be found under the Yellows, Reds, Blues and Blacks.

As far as Whites are concerned, there are a large number of proprietary Whites; and, in addition, there are Silver White, Zinc White, Flake White, White Lead, Permanent White, &c.; whereas, the only two necessary on the painter’s palette are Zinc White and Flake White (White Lead), and perhaps, occasionally, Permanent White (Blanc Fixe).

The more colors that are presented to the painter, the more embarrassed he will become as to which he really ought to use. Painters make the one serious mistake of attempting to get immediate results. It was told of Sir Joshua Reynolds that he would not use permanent Vermilion in order to obtain flesh tints; for, he said he wanted certain warm tones produced by mixtures of Lakes and other pigments, so that when his pictures were finished they would be pleasing to him. The results showed that even during his lifetime they were displeasing to his patrons, and particularly to him, but yet he would not learn the lesson that the multiplicity of the application of pigments involved.

It is very unfortunate that the artificial coal tar dyes are so beautifully brilliant and give such immediately enticing results. It is equally unfortunate that when these artificial colors are exposed to our civilized atmosphere, which contains chemical substance due to the gases of cooking and of manufacture, many of these pigments are attacked. They tone down, and not only do they oftimes lose their brilliancy, but frequently they lose the characteristic shades for which they were employed. Then, again, sunlight, as we all know, has a deleterious effect on all of the organic pigments, and darkness has an equally deleterious effect on many of the varnishes and all the drying oils.

Sir Joshua Reynolds must have glazed his portraits with a great variety of Lakes, including Madder; and, where he used vegetable Lakes and Carmine as a glaze, the faces have assumed, in time, a ghost-like appearance.

THE SIMPLE PALETTE

THE average painter can get along perfectly with ten colors. In fact, the skilful artist can paint practically any picture he wants with Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White. The Red, in this instance, would be a bright iron oxide, sold under the name of Venetian Red or Light Indian Red. The Yellow would be Medium Cadmium. The Blue would be Ultramarine Blue. The Black would be Lamp Black. The White would be Zinc White.