Brun Rouge: 17th Century

I am interested in duplicating the palette described by Roger de Piles in his book, Les Elémens de Peinture pratique. The basic palette comprises these colors: 1. White lead. 2. Yellow ocher. 3. Brown red. 4. Lake. 5. Stil de grain. 6. Green earth. 7. Umber. 8. Bone or ivory black. My interest is to provide hues that closely resemble the colors found on this 17th century palette, but not only the hues, the undertones and the paint consistency. It is rather easy to mimic a hue with a combination of pigments, but much more difficult the undertones and nearly impossible the paint consistency. The latter can only be done successfully by using the same pigment, at least as far as we can determine from literary sources.

Natural Pigments already has a White lead, Yellow ochre, Lake, Green earth, Umber and Bone black, but I am unsure about the hues and tones meant by the term brun rouge (brown red) and Stil de grain. I understand what is meant by these names, but there are a large number of variations possible with these pigments.

I begin my research with the name brun rouge and attempt to find what this name represented in the 17th century when de Piles wrote his treatise. In reviewing the literature on pigments and painting treatises, it appears that the term Brun rouge used by de Piles is used interchangeably with rouge Anglais and rouge d'Angleterre, and light red, burnt ocher and brown red. De Piles assigns brun rouge to the category of natural iron oxide earth pigments:

L'ocre ou brun rouge; c'est une terre naturelle, ainsi que les couleurs suivantes. L'ocre jaune est de même nature: elle devient rouge quand on la brûle; au contraire l'ocre rouge devient jaune: pour les calciner, on les met au feu dans une boîte de fer. Il en est de même de l'ocre de rut, qui fait un jaune obscur; c'est une espece de limon qui se trouve dans les ruisseaux des mines de fer; lorsqu'elle est calcine, elle prend une fort belle couleur. (de Piles, 190)

Ocher or brown red is a natural earth, like the following colors. Yellow ocher is of the same nature: it turns red when it is burnt; on the contrary, red ocher turns yellow: to calcine, it is put in the fire inside an iron box. Likewise for ocher of rut, which makes a dark yellow; it is a kind of silt that can be found in the streams of iron mines; when it is calcined, it takes a very beautiful color.

As an aside, it interesting that in one instance he recommends the addition of dryers to brun rouge:

On imprime ensuite la toile avec quelque couleur simple & amie des autres couleurs, comme du brun rouge broyé à l'huile, médiocrement épais, dans lequel on met quelque siccatif, qui est pour l'ordinaire un peu de mine rouge ou de blanc de plomb bien broyé, pour le faire plutôt sécher. (de Piles, 127)

Then paint the canvas with some simple color and compatible with other colors, like brown red ground in oil, hardly thick, in which there is some dryer, that is red lead or white lead ground well, to make it dry faster.

Many sources agree on the nature of the pigment brown red, as Thorpe describes:

Light red, Burnt ochre, Brun rouge, also, is calcined yellow ochre. The period of heating is 10 hours. This pigment is an opaque, permanent, and innocuous colour, of a scarlet tint, tempered by shades of brown and grey. (Thorpe, 274)

Church adds to this description of the pigment:

Light red possesses a considerable degree of opacity. Its hue may be defined as a scarlet, modified by a little yellow and grey. It is perfectly permanent and without action upon other pigments. (Church, 179)

Others have described the hue and undertone of brun rouge as that between Indian red, which has cold purplish undertones, and red ocher with warm undertones. A 19th century author, Laughton Osborn, recounts the use of brun rouge as given by the French painter Bouvier:

It is found native; but is obtained also by calcining the ochre or ochres, No. 5. A very vigorous color, it must be employed discreetly, for its intensity increases in oil, and its energy makes it easily overpower its allies. Therefore, do not employ it in any clear and bright part, especially not in the lights of carnations, nor even in the lighter shadows. Reserve it for all your dark and vigorous shades and touches, particularly those of the nostrils, and of the mouth (adding thereto a great deal of deep crimson lake), as well as for the strongest shadows, mixed with Roman Ochre, and intense Ultramarine, with a third of the best blue-black to finish the flesh.

It is good for many other cases, too long to enumerate, as in draperies of a dusky red or brown, and even in the shadows of bright-red drapery, adding-in sometimes Vermilion, sometimes Madder-Lake, according to circumstances. This detail will be further extended when we come to treat of the First-Palette or Deadcoloring, and also of finishing. (Osborn, 16-17)

Osborn identifies No. 5 as brown ocher or Roman ocher, which he describes as a dark yellow.

Later it appears the term brun rouge was applied to an artificial iron oxide color, as indicated by the following passage in a 19th century book:

For English red or colcothar:
Colcothar is also produced by the wet way, in mixing a solution of sulphate of iron with another of carbonate or, better still, bicarbonate of soda. There is formed a soluble sulphate of soda, and a precipitate of carbonate of protoxide of iron, which is soon transformed into hydrated sesquioxide of iron. This is washed, dried, and calcined at a red heat in clay crucibles. It is said that, when the precipitation is effected in hot liquors, the colcothar is finer, more velvety, and deeper in color. (Riffault, 424)

The name red-brown was applied in the 19th century to an iron-lead oxide mixture as the same author continues:

Red-brown is quite a handsome reddish substance, very durable, but little used. It is obtained by fusing in a clay crucible, 1 part of red oxide of iron and 10 parts of litharge or red lead, which have been thoroughly mixed. After cooling, the mixture is ground. (Riffault, 426)

The conclusion from a review of literature reveals that in the 17th century brun rouge or brown red was a natural iron oxide earth pigment, such as a red ocher, that had scarlet half-tints (undertones) subdued with brown and gray, that was found naturally as such or calcined from a dark yellow ocher. Among the extensive list of pigments available from Natural Pigments that could fit that description, Venetian red comes to mind as being a good match.

Sources
Arthur Herbert Church. The chemistry of paints and painting. Seeley and Co., Limited, 1901.

Laughton Osborn, Pierre Louis Bouvier. Handbook of young artists and amateurs in oilpainting: being chiefly a condensed compilation from the celebrated manual of Bouvier, with additional matter selected from the labors of Merimée, de Mmontabert and other distinguished continental writers in the art in seven parts. John Wiley, 1849.

Jean René Denis Riffault des Hêtres, Armand Denis Vergnaud, G. Alvar Toussaint, François Malepeyre. A practical treatise on the manufacture of colors for painting: comprising the origin, definition, and classification of colors; the treatment of the raw materials etc. Translated by A. A. Fesquet. H.C. Baird, 1874.

Thomas Edward Thorpe. A Dictionary of applied chemistry. Vol. 4. Longmans, Green and Co., 1913.

I would like to thank Paul Rhoades for his suggestions regarding my English translation of Roger de Piles text.

Terra-Merita: Turmeric Lake Pigment

Terra-merita is a vegetable color, produced by the decoction of an Indian root (curcuma longa).

This above reference (Osborn 1849) describes the pigment produced from the plant known in culinary as turmeric. The yellow-orange extract is prepared from the root of the curcuma longa plant by drying and powdering, then by solvent extraction, typically with ethyl acetate. The resulting powder is 18 times stronger in the essential ingredients than is the common spice, which is simply a powdered form of the dried root. Curcuma longa extract is a polyphenol that is oil-soluble in its natural state. The extract is without flavor and aroma. It readily colors any substance if there is oil present.

A search on the term terra-merita reveals that it refers to the principal colorant in turmeric with the chemical name of (1E,6E)-1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-phenyl)hepta-1,6-diene-3,5-dione (C₂₁H₂₀O₆), CAS Number 91884-86-5 and Colour Index Natural Yellow 3 (75300).

The pigment is described by Riffault in the following (Riffault 1874):

Curcuma or terra merita.
This root is also known under the names of Souchet, Indian saffron, Curcuma rotunda, and C. longa (Lin.), according as it is round or elongated. These two kinds come from the East Indies, and differ but slightly. The elongated one is more commonly found in the trade, and is cylindrical, twisted, nearly as thick as the little finger, and orange-yellow inside. Its fracture resembles wax, the thin envelope is like shagreen, its taste is hot and bitter, and the smell is analogous to that of ginger.

The round curcuma forms ovoid tubercles, nearly as big as English walnuts, and, when newly gathered, united with filaments. The envelope is gray, and presents many circular rings. The properties of this curcuma are the same as those of the preceding one. Berthollet once examined a sample of curcuma from Tabago, and found it superior to that generally met in the trade, not only as to the size of its roots, but also in the greater proportion of its coloring principle.

This substance is of a deep color, and no other yellow is brighter, but it is not lasting (fast). Common salt and sal ammoniac are the best mordants to fix this color, although they darken it towards a brown. A small proportion of hydrochloric acid is also recommended. The best roots are very fragrant, heavy, compact, and saffron-yellow. Their quality is best judged when fresh and whole, although they are employed dry and powdered. Painters use curcuma for painting floors.

From an analysis by Vogel and Pelletier, the composition of curcuma is —
Yellow coloring matter, or curcumin,
Brown " "
Substance analogous to extracts,
Lignin,
Amylaceous fecula,
Gum in small proportions,
Bitter and fragrant volatile oil,
Chloride of sodium.

It is with ether that is extracted the neutral substance of a splendid yellow color, although not very fast, which is called curcumin.

In order to give more durability and greater depth to the orange-yellow color of curcuma, it is often mixed with Avignon berries and carthamus.

Obviously, this is a fugitive pigment, which would be expected of a natural organic colorant.

Source
Laughton Osborn, Pierre Louis Bouvier. Handbook of young artists and amateurs in oilpainting: being chiefly a condensed compilation from the celebrated manual of Bouvier, with additional matter selected from the labors of Merimée, de Mmontabert and other distinguished continental writers in the art in seven parts. John Wiley, 1849. p. 52.

Jean René Denis Riffault des Hêtres, Armand Denis Vergnaud, G. Alvar Toussaint, François Malepeyre. A practical treatise on the manufacture of colors for painting: comprising the origin, definition, and classification of colors; the treatment of the raw materials etc. Translated by A. A. Fesquet. H.C. Baird, 1874. p. 365-366.

Vermilion in Fresco Painting

I was researching the historical process of encaustic painting, when I came across a reference to vermilion (Smith 1891):

Pliny and Vitruvius (vii. 9) both describe a process which Donner thinks has some bearing on the present question, viz. the so-called καϋσις, by which the vermilion fresco paint on walls was protected from damage by sun or air. The painting was spread with a mixture of olive-oil and "Punic wax" melted, and, this done, the burning (καϋσις) took place: a cauterium, filled with hot wood-ashes, or a heated metal rod (ραβδίου), was passed over the surface to level it (ut peraequetur).

I looked up the reference in Vitruvius to better understand the process described (Vitruvius 1914):

3. But anybody who is more particular, and who wants a polished finish of vermilion that will keep its proper colour, should, after the wall has been polished and is dry, apply with a brush Pontic wax melted over a fire and mixed with a little oil; then after this he should bring the wax to a sweat by warming it and the wall at close quarters with charcoal enclosed in an iron vessel; and finally he should smooth it all off by rubbing it down with a wax candle and clean linen cloths, just as naked marble statues are treated.

4. This process is termed γάυωσις in Greek. The protecting coat of Pontic wax revents the light of the moon and the rays of the sun from licking up and drawing the colour out of such polished finishing.

Applying wax over the surface would prevent moisture from entering the fresco from the face (but not, of course, through the wall) and it is perhaps the moisture that causes vermilion to alter its color. Modern authors recommend steeping vermilion in lime water before painting with it in buon fresco to prevent its alteration, but this recommendation does not offer logical basis of preventing alteration in vermilion.

Sources
William Smith, William Wayte, George Eden Marindin. A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. J. Murray, 1891. p. 393.

Vitruvius Pollio. Ten books on architecture. Translated by Morris Hicky Morgan. Illustrated by Herbert Langford Warren. Harvard University Press, 1914. p. 216-217.

17th Century Palettes: Stil de grain

In his book, Les Elémens de Peinture pratique, Roger de Piles describes a typical palette of the 17th century:

In oil painting are usually used eight principal colors: almost all others are derived and are composed of a mixture of these. They are arranged in a range roughly this way. 1. White lead. 2. Yellow ochre. 3. Reddish brown. 4. Lake. 5. Stil de grain. 6. Green earth. 7. Umber. 8. Bone or ivory black. These are the names of the eight colors and the order in which they are almost always placed
on the palette.

An engraving of the palette arrangement (fig. 8) is included in the book published in 1767 (shown here).

According to de Piles, the lightest colors were always placed nearest the thumbhole on the palette. The position of each color on the palette helps us to understand their relative tones. For example, stil de grain, is a lake pigment made with unripe buckthorn berries. Osborn (1845) states that this pigment is prepared with "a calcareous or marly earth, alum and a decoction of Avignon berries." The pigment is very transparent, making bright yellow tints, but a masstone that is yellow brown.

The rhamnus berries (Rhamnus catharticus) is the base of stil de grain lake (also called Buckthorn lake). The principal coloring component of the lake is quercitrin. Field (1841) states that this preparation is a fugitive yellow, the darker variety of which is called brown-pink.

The plant berries are steeped in lye (potash), then precipitated with alum to create a translucent yellow lake pigment. Different hues can be attained by the addition of tin, copper or iron salts. The temperature also has an effect on the resulting color: a lemon yellow lake is obtained up to 50° C, and a darker, orange-colored lake is obtained at 100° C.

Most of our experiments making this lake resulted in a pigment that was a lemon yellow and could not positioned on the palette in the fifth place, but closer to the yellow ocher. It appears that the lake was possibly mixed with bitumenous earth in the 17th century to make a darker toned pigment.

This is easy to understand when we read what Osborn (1845) wrote about the lake pigment:

Stil de grain is the name given by the French to a yellow color produced by a decoction of Avignon berries (graines) precipitated by alum, and of different shades according to the preparation, which is made, for the base, of different proportions of Troy White (a species of chalk or marle, found in the environs of Troyes in France.)* A writer we have often quoted says that the stils de grain, composed of the oxide of lead and the Avignon berry, are of more solidity. Brown (or English) Stil de grain is prepared with a calcareous or marly earth, alum, and a decoction of Avignon berries: a treacherous pigment, like the yellow stil.

Osbron describes various preparations and it follows that many different tones were made with the lake pigment as a base. Lead oxide or litharge gives the lake pigment a more opaque and earthy color that would be subsequently less fugitive. Calcareous earth gives the lake pigment more solidity or opacity and better body in oil paint. If the earth possessed a darker tone the result would be closer to the stil de grain of Roger de Piles palette.

Roger de Piles on Oil Painting

The following is my tranlsation of chapter 4 (incomplete) of Roger de Piles' Les Elémens de Peinture pratique.

Roger de Piles. Oeuvres Diverses de M. de Piles de L’Académie Royale de Peintute et Sculpture. Tome Troisieme. Contenant Les Elémens de Peinture pratique. A Amsterdam et a Leipzig, Chez Arkstée & Merkus, Libraires. Et Se Vend a Paris, Chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, Libraire Du Roi Pour l’Artillerie & Le Génie, à l’Image Notre-Dame (1767). Tome III. Elémens de peinture pratique, avec l’idée du Peintre parfait: De Peinture. I. Part. (page 97–113).

CHAPTER IV.
Oil painting.

This species of painting is modern in comparison to others, but it has considerable advantages in that it mimics nature more perfectly, by both the union and mixing of its colors, by the force and vivaciousness of its colors, as well as by the beauty and the delicacy of its execution. It can do everything in its effect when viewed closely, it gives time to finish and soften anything you want, and to make changes with ease and edit what you do not like, and when it is not entirely clear what is already accomplished: Finally, it is unique to the largest and the smallest. There is no doubt that it would be the most perfect of all ways to paint, if the colors did not darken at a later time; but they always increasingly turn brown and incline toward a yellow-brown, which comes from the oil with which all colors are crushed and incorporated. The biggest convenience of this work is to see first of all what is being done as it should appear in the painting, because the colors do not change in oil after drying as those in tempera; in addition oil painting has the merit to resist moisture when the color is well dry, thereby lasting a very long time. The reflection or shining of its colors is still a considerable disadvantage in that it prevents their effect, unless the painting surface is not exposed to direct light, so they can be placed in all large exhibitions, with which light is favorable.

Arrangement of colors on the palette.

As we have seen before, we arrange the shades of colors in ranges at the top of the palette, observing to place the lightest colors nearest to the thumb and in small piles separated from each other. With the colors placed in order in rows, we take the palette in the left hand and support it on the thumb in a hole made for it at the bottom. In the same hand, we hold the brushes that will be used. The same hand can also hold the finger stick (mahl stick—Ed.) or the hand-support, and the torch brush, which is a small piece of cloth used to wipe the ends of brushes, and the knife, which mixes the colors on the palette when they are needed.

In oil painting are usually used eight principal colors: almost all others are derived and are composed of a mixture of these. They are arranged in a range roughly this way. 1. White lead. 2. Yellow ochre. 3. Brown red. 4. Lake. 5. Stil de grain. 6. Green earth. 7. Umber. 8. Bone or ivory black. These are the names of the eight colors and the order in which they are almost always placed on the palette. See fig. 8.

These colors are sold crushed, and to keep long and clean, they are kept in portion of a pig bladder, which makes it handy and flexible by rubbing with a little water, and in small packages bound with a string. To make use of the color, it is withdrawn through a small hole made with a big pin and, by pressing the package, you can bring out roughly the amount that must be used on to the palette.

There are other colors that are sold in powder and that temper with the knife on the palette by mixing with a little oil, only when needed. These colors are ultramarine, German blue ash (azurite), vermilion, massicot, carbon black, and others that are not of great importance and through use learn to know.

Of tints and mixtures of colors.

It is not possible to give rules on the mixture of colors, but with use and a little practice you can learn more than from long speeches, but in order to provide those who are starting to paint all the facilities that depend on us, we recommend to copy their first head from one that is beautiful, fresh and well-colored; this is the best advice we can give them, because good beginnings leave long time impressions in the mind of the things copied. There are painters who, having started to copy in gray tones, do so for their remaining lives. Suppose that it is a question of copying a head of fresh and live flesh tones.

Before beginning to paint, all the major shades that are needed to imitate what you want to copy should be placed on the palette with the tip of the knife. The shades are made by taking a little of the principal colors that are at the top of the range with the tip of the knife and mix them together until we have found the shades that we seek. The natural flesh tones have their light, their shadows and their reflections or halftones, but to imitate these three degrees the painter mixes the colors, making different shades on the palette. They arrange them in order to each other, below the eight principal colors, always putting the brightest nearest the thumb holding the palette: as we have already said, these shades should be mixed with the knife, which would be the wrong way to do with a brush.

Returning to the proposed head: it has its light, its shadows and halftones. To imitate the light, there are usually four light shades. The first is composed of white and a little yellow; the second, white, vermilion and lake, the latter two being added in very small quantities. The third is like the second, by putting a little more lake and vermilion; the fourth, like the third, by mixing a little more of the last two colors. It may be here that we want to make a fifth shade darker than the latter. These shades are set forth in a single row; the halftones and shadows placed underneath.

There are usually three halftones: make the first by mixing white with some yellow, some lake and a little ultramarine. The second, like the first, make by diminishing the white and increasing the three others. The third, as the second, make by further decreasing the white and similarly increasing the three other colors.

The shades for shadows start from the halftones: just make two. The first consists of lake, yellow ocher and ultramarine, making sure to use yellow in larger quantities than the other two. The second is best with stil de grain, lake and a little bone black. Let’s now show a summary of the arrangement of all these colors on the palette, as seen in fig. 9.

The eight principal colors occupy places at the top of the palette. The eight colors are, as we have already said, white lead, yellow ocher, brown red, lake, stil de grain, green earth, umber, bone black; you can add carbon black that for some uses is better than another. The shades to paint the flesh tones place below these principal colors and arrange in two rows: those for light values above and those for halftones and shadows below, always observing to put lighter colors nearest the thumbhole. Between these two rows, it is worthwhile putting a little yellow, because you will need it often, and it is more convenient to take it from this place with a brush while painting than to blend with hues from which it was prepared. It is marked by an E in figure 9.

For the other colors, such as fine lake and vermilion, ultramarine and massicot, put them where you want, however, for more convenience, put the vermilion next to and below the white, as seen in A, all it takes to become saturated is a very small amount and that has little business in flesh tones. The massicot might well be placed below and next to a bit of yellow ocher, as in B; the fine lake is marked C, below and a little beside the coarse lake; and ultramarine in the place marked D.

We should not pretend that all these shades are in the places as they should be to produce the effect we desire, and to make the head exactly as the original we propose to imitate. They are made up only to facilitate the mixture that we should paint with next. Because when something does not tint the color you want, we must put the brush aside and what it lacks, and finally make it as it should be, increasing or decreasing one or another color.

As regards the mixture of colors and the effect they produce with each other, there is little that experience cannot teach you. I will warn you, however, that unless umber can serve you, it spoils the other colors, and it is good only to make brown backgrounds, brown draperies, and to use in a few places.

When you have some cloth or some other thing to paint, which has its light, its shadows and halftones, they must be prepared on the palette with four or five shades, mixing with the main color on which you wish to paint drapery, a light color for the light, and a brown color for the shadows and that by degrees. It should be noted, as has already been said, that the lightest hues on the palette place nearest to the side of the thumbhole, and the other colors then away as they become darker.

Manner of sketching and dead-coloring a painting.

As an oil painting is usually painted on canvas or on walls where the picture is brown, one begins to sketch by tracing the outline of figures and draperies with a pencil made of white chalk, which can be easily erased with a white cloth or a sponge moistened with a little water. Then retrace the same contours with a hue that is the local color of each thing: for example, flesh tones; lake is used with a bit of green earth or umber, or some other color that serves the union, which promptly dries and that is not incompatible. Retrace the contours of similar looking draperies with one of their hues: then complete the void with other colors, the lights and shadows, and finally make the underlayers of the picture—the so-called proper dead-coloring (I will use the term "underpainting" interchangeably in this text—Ed.). Let this painting dry, after which we can finish with the same colors or lighter or darker colors. Start from the top of the picture, from left to right, as when writing, if the painting is very high on rollers, or built if it is mounted on stretcher bars.

We can make an observation here that makes use of certain oil colors in the underpainting with common colors sparing those colors of too great a price. For example, when one wants to finish a drapery with fine lake, you can use common colors in the underpainting. Similarly, a drapery that we must finish with the best ultramarine can be started in underpainting with the most common ultramarine. Finally, instead of ultramarine in the first hue shade and even in halftones, we can use willow charcoal, which is a little bluish, or bone black in the underpainting, and then finish with ultramarine, but the practice is not so good and the tints not so fresh.

This picture underpainting serves only to cover the canvas with colors and to see the effect, but it must be done properly and all colors must be as well placed as possible: for this purpose, it is necessary that the design be well fixed before starting the picture. For if one puts a finishing brown on light, unlike red on blue, or colors very different from one on another, the last layers still lose their sparkle upon drying. When one wants to make changes, it requires repainting several times to give more substance to the last color, which must remain.

The fact that some colors seem fresh at a point or they do not retain their long-time beauty and their brilliance sometimes creates turmoil for the painter. Placing colors together, he finds that some alter and corrupt others, dulling, so to speak, their edge and their liveliness. That is why we must use them cleanly and in layers, as we just said, the main colors each in their place, without blending with a small paintbrush or with a wide brush and to preserve individuality between the two; finally, we unite rather than by applying friction. Another critical attention is not to mix colors together that are incompatible, or are able to corrupt others with their extreme heaviness, such as black, or their poor quality, such as lampblack, verdigris and a few others that we must use by hand, if one is to use force. And even when it is necessary to give more power to some parts of a painting, you must wait until it is dry, if you want to apply colors that can harm the paint layers. There are painters who do all these observations, they are nevertheless very necessary to keep the beauty of colors.

Those who work with judgment, every color is applied with small strokes without haste, the flesh tones they make thicker, covering and recovering several times, what painters call well thickened. The oil colors have the advantage of being able to mingle easily with the handling of the brush, but it is feared that with the strength to torment colors you do not do lose their freshness, especially in flesh tones, and that they do not become dirty and earthy. That is why in order not to spoil the shades of colors by drowning them in each other; there are painters who end up breaking up individual shades, which admirably succeeds in master works.

To avoid this problem, there are two things to observe: the first is to get accustomed to paint and blend colors promptly and with lightness of brush, with strength, if possible not pass the same place twice. The second is that, after so slightly mixing colors together, we must take care not to brush over pure and fresh colors, which are correct for the places where they are placed, and which are the same tones as those that have already been painted and mixed underneath. To learn how to paint with strength, there is nothing better to do than to copy a few works of Corregio and Van Dyck for the lightness of brush strokes, and others, Paul Veronese and Rubens, for the purity of colors.

Color applied over a painting, when it is pure, without touching others underneath; retain their brightness in the passage of time. That is why we do not approve the use by a few painters who finish their pictures over the underpaintings by putting some color and much oil, as if glazing; sometimes using oil of turpentine to make color more easily: it is true that this way expedites the work, but it is a dangerous practice to follow. Indeed, these pictures do not seem to be more than colored fog and without any vivacity, because too much oil, mainly that of turpentine, absorbed and killed the colors.

It is unnecessary to point out that, to paint in good grace, one must use a brush as long as is possible and be right in his seat, however without constraint, and at a reasonable distance from one’s work; one paints much more freely. On the contrary, there is nothing more than bad grace to use a short brush and too close to the nose, as they say, on one’s work.

Today is the first day.

I've created this blog to share thoughts regarding painting materials and techniques and progress on our work at Natural Pigments with our friends and customers.

Today, I translated chapter four of Roger de Piles' Les Elémens de Peinture pratique in to English. It is an imperfect translation, but a good start on understanding 17th century painting techniques and materials. Roger was a French painter, engraver, art critic and diplomat who lived in the latter part of the 17th century. He introduced the term "clair-obscur" (chiaroscuro) to highlight the effect of color in accentuating the tension between light and dark in a painting. He defended the works of Rubens and ranked him highest among a list of 56 major painters of his time with whose work he had acquainted himself.

The chapter entitled, De la Peinture à huile, discusses oil painting technique with an emphasis on the layout of the artist's palette. The most important colors on the palette at that time were White lead. 2. Yellow ochre. 3. Reddish brown. 4. Lake. 5. Stil de grain. 6. Green earth. 7. Umber. 8. Bone or ivory black. To this palette the artist of this period would also add ultramarine (lapis lazuli), German blue ash (azurite or verditer), vermilion, massicot (lead-tin yellow or lead monoxide), and carbon black, such as vine black.