Field's Chromatography: or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by ArtistsField, George
Science
Field's Chromatography: or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
Field, George
Color; Colors; Painting -- Technique
or _French Veronese Green_, is a comparatively recent introduction,
similar in colour and general properties to the following; beside which,
however, it appears dull, muddy, and impure. It is often adulterated
with arsenic to an enormous extent, which interferes with its
transparency, mars its beauty, and renders it of course rankly
poisonous.
178. VIRIDIAN
is a still later addition to the palette, and the only permanent green
which can be described as gorgeous, being not unlike the richest velvet.
Pure and clear as the emerald, it may be called the Prussian Blue of
Greens, of such richness, depth, and transparency is it. In hue of a
bluish-green, its deepest shades verge on black, while its light tints
are marked by transparent clearness unsurpassed. No compound of blue and
yellow will afford a green at once so beautiful and stable, so gifted
with the quality of light, and therefore so suited for aerial and liquid
effects. Used with aureolin, it gives foliage greens sparkling with
sunshine; and, fitly compounded, will be found invaluable for the glassy
liquidity of seas, in painting which it becomes incumbent to employ
pigments more or less transparent. "The general failing in the
representation of the sea is, that instead of appearing liquid and thin,
it is made to bear the semblance of opacity and solidity. In order to
convey the idea of transparency, some object is often placed floating on
the wave, so as to give reflection; and it is strange that we find our
greatest men having recourse to this stratagem. To say it is not true in
all cases, is saying too much; but this we do assert, that as a general
principle it is quite false, and we prove it in this way: water has its
motion, more or less, from the power of the wind; it is acted upon in
the mass, and thus divided into separate waves, and these individually
have their surface ruffled, which renders them incapable of receiving
reflection. The exception to this will be, where the heaving of the sea
is the result of some gone-by storm, when the wind is hushed, and the
surface becomes bright and glassy. In this state, reflections are
distinctly seen. Another exception will be in the hollow portion of the
waves, as they curl over, and dash upon the shore."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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