IF you take up any art dealer’s catalogue, you will find more than a hundred varieties of colors; and, among them, the vast majority should not be used by the average painter. But, there is a legitimate use for them in commercial painting. In sketching, for advertising purposes or for book illustration, brilliant colors are permissible, where half-tone reproductions are desired; and, under the circumstances, it would be well for the painter to know exactly what he is using. The average painter does not know that Cremnitz White, Flake White and White Lead are identical in composition. Nor, does he know that Silver White and Zinc White are the same. In many of the States of the United States, laws have been enacted which compel manufacturers of house paints to label each container as to its true composition. If a man is buying a ready-mixed paint and is supposed to be getting a mixture of Zinc Oxide, White Lead, Linseed Oil and Drier, the label must so state, and I have advocated for a long time that artists’ tube colors ought to be labeled as to their true composition.
A color, for instance, like Zinnober Green, which is purely and simply a name that trades on the reputation of Zinnober Red,[3] should be labeled as to composition. This is a mixture of Prussian Blue, Chrome Yellow and White, and is only permanent when used alone on surfaces, excepting plaster or Portland Cement concrete. The painter would then know what to use and what to avoid. It must be understood that I am not condemning the manufacture of the brilliant aniline tube colors entirely, because there is some legitimate use for them; but, it is my object to attempt to educate the painter in a simple Palette, so that he may be sure of the lasting qualities of his art.
PALETTE KNIVES
PAINTERS should adopt horn palette knives instead of steel palette knives. To illustrate the reason for this—if Naples Yellow be taken and smoothed out with a steel knife, the Naples Yellow turns Brown and Black in streaks, because there is a chemical action between the steel and the chemical composition of the Naples Yellow. This is true of many colors; and where painters are inclined to do some painting with knives instead of brushes, it is preferable to use a horn or hard rubber knife, because no decomposition can possibly take place.
BITUMEN
BITUMEN and its homologues, such as Vandyke Brown, Cassel Brown and Asphaltum, should, under no circumstances, be used by any artistic painter. If you will look up the literature of photography before the days of the daguerreotype, photographs were taken on Bitumen, because it was so sensitive to the light that within a day a negative or positive imprint could be obtained by coating a sheet of silver or glass with a Bitumen solution. Where the light acted on the Bitumen it became Black and insoluble, and where the light did not strike it, it remained Brown and soluble. More damage has been done to artistic painters by the use of Bituminous pigments than by any other.
Dupré and Jacque, of the Barbizon School, are two examples of painters whose work deteriorated through the use of Bitumen. It may be true that a pleasing effect is obtained when Bitumen is employed as a glazing material, but in time the picture darkens, and restoration is impossible—first, because of the solubility of certain parts of the Bitumen that have not been acted upon by light; and second, because any attempt to remove the part that has turned Black destroys the original painting.
Vandyke Brown and Cassel Brown contain Bituminous materials, and Asphaltum is the same thing as Bitumen.
TEMPERA COLORS
TEMPERA Colors, or Tempera Painting, existed long before Oil Colors were known, and Tempera Medium was used five thousand years ago by the Egyptians in their painting. Egyptian coffins and sarcophagi were painted with both glue size and egg tempera. It is well known that the Egyptians manufactured very excellent grades of glue either by boiling parchment or bones and hides of animals. They were excellent cabinet makers and used glue very largely in joining pieces of wood. In the great museum at Cairo there are to-day many samples of furniture glued together with Egyptian glue, which are still in excellent condition. It is, however, more than likely that little or no binder was used when the pigments were applied on the various tombs or temples, even to those built about 1500 years later, like the Temple of Karnak. We all know that the climate of Egypt is exceedingly dry and therefore no rain can wash off or disintegrate a cold water paint made by means of pigment and glue. The Nile clay and Nile mud largely used in building are slightly alkaline and in many respects similar to the adobe mud in New Mexico and Arizona. This mud contains a small percentage of free lime, and any earthy substance which contains free lime will in time act like a weak cement and become firmly bound. It is therefore my opinion that many of the decorations made by the Egyptians were made without any binder other than the lime naturally found in the soil, and in a few cases the glue was used. I also judge, from the nature of the implements used, that the pigments were rubbed into the surface and they in time became part of the surface.