ON THE SEMI-NEUTRAL, BROWN.
As colour, according to the regular scale descending from white, ceases
properly with the last of the tertiaries, olive, in theory the neutral
black would here form a fitting conclusion. Practically, however, every
coloured pigment, of every class or tribe, combines with black as it
exists in pigments--not simply being deepened or lowered in tone
thereby, but likewise defiled in colour, or changed in class. Hence
there arises a new series or scale of coloured compounds, having black
for their basis, which, though they differ not theoretically from the
preceding order inverted, are yet in practice imperfect or impure. These
broken compounds of black, or coloured blacks and greys, we have
distinguished by the term, semi-neutral, and divided them into three
classes: Brown, Marrone, and Gray. What tints are with respect to white,
they are with regard to black, being, so to speak, black tints or
shades.
The first of the series is BROWN, a term which, in its widest
acceptation, has been used to include vulgarly every kind of dark broken
colour, and is, in a more limited sense, the rather indefinite name of a
very extensive class of colours of warm or tawny hues. Accordingly there
are browns of every denomination except blue; to wit, yellow-brown,
red-brown, orange-brown, purple-brown, citrine-brown, russet-brown, &c.
But there is no such thing as a blue-brown, nor, strictly, any other
coloured brown in which blue predominates; such predominance of a cold
colour at once carrying the compound into the class of gray, ashen, or
slate. Brown comprises the hues called dun, hazel, auburn, feuillemort,
mort d'ore, &c.; several of which have been already mentioned as allied
to the tertiary colours.
The term _brown_, then, denotes rightly a warm broken colour, of which
_yellow_ is a chief constituent: hence brown is in some measure to shade
what yellow is to light. Hence, also, proper quantities of either the
three primaries, the three secondaries, or the three tertiaries, produce
variously a brown mixture. Browns contribute to coolness and clearness
by contrast when opposed to pure colours, and Rubens more especially
appears to have employed them upon this principle; although the same may
be said of Titian, Correggio, Paulo Veronese, and all the best
colourists. Being a sort of intermedia between positive colours and
neutrality, browns equally contrast colour and shade. This accounts for
their vast importance in painting, and the necessity of preserving them
distinct from other colours, to which they give foulness in mixture; and
to this is due their use in backgrounds and in relieving of coloured
objects.
The tendency in the compounds of colours to run into brownness and
warmth is one of the common natural properties of colours which
occasions them to deteriorate or defile each other in mixture. Brown by
consequence is synonymous with foul or dirty, as opposed to fair or
clean; and hence brown, which is the nearest of the semi-neutrals in
relation to light, is to be avoided in mixture with light colours. Yet
is it an example of the wisdom of nature's Author that brown is
rendered, like green, a prevailing hue, and in particular an earth
colour, as a contrast which is harmonized by the blueness and coldness
of the sky.
This tendency will likewise explain the use of brown in harmonizing and
toning, as well as the great number of natural and artificial pigments
and colours so called. It was the fertility and abundance of browns that
caused our great landscape-colourist Wilson, when a friend went
exultingly to tell him that he had discovered a new brown, to check him
in his characteristic way, with--"I'm sorry for it: we have gotten too
many of them already." Nevertheless, fine transparent browns are
obviously very valuable.
If red or blue in excess be added to brown, it falls into the other
semi-neutral classes, marrone or gray. The wide acceptation of the term
brown has occasioned much confusion in the naming of colours, since
broken colours in which red, &c. predominate, have been improperly
called brown. That term, therefore, should be confined to the
semi-neutral colours, compounded of, or like in hue to, either the
primary _yellow_, the secondary orange, or the tertiary _citrine_, with
a _black_. The general contrast or harmonizing colour of such compounds
will consequently be more or less purple or blue.
The number of browns is great, as may be seen by the following list.
This list, however, is good, and includes a considerable proportion of
permanent pigments.
241. ASPHALTUM,
_Asphalt_, _Bitumen_, _Mineral Pitch_, _Jew's Pitch_, _Antwerp Brown_,
_Liquid Asphaltum_, &c., is a sort of mineral pitch or tar which, rising
liquid to the surface of the Lacus Asphaltites or Asphaltic Lake (the
Dead Sea) concretes there by the natural action of the atmosphere and
sun, and, floating in masses to the shores, is gathered by the Arabs.
The French give it an additional name from the region of the lake, to
wit, Bitumen of Judea; and with the English, from the same cause, it has
the alias of Jew's pitch. Asphaltum is not so called, however, after
the lake, as is asserted by a writer in the Encyclopædia: it is just the
reverse--Pliny says, "The Asphaltic lake produces nothing but bitumen
(in Greek, asphaltos); and hence its name."
A substance resembling asphalt is found at Neufchâtel in Switzerland,
and in other parts of Europe. A specimen of the native bitumen, brought
from Persia, and of which the author made trial, had a powerful scent of
garlic when rubbed. In the fire it softened without flowing, and burnt
with a lambent flame; did not dissolve by heat in turpentine, but ground
easily as a pigment in pale drying oil, affording a fine deep
transparent brown colour, resembling that of commercial asphaltum; dried
firmly almost as soon as the drying-oil alone, and worked admirably both
in water and oil. Asphaltum may be used as a permanent brown in water,
for which purpose the native is superior to the artificial. The former,
however, is now seldom to be met with, the varieties employed on the
palette being the residua of various resinous and bituminous matters,
distilled for the sake of their essential oils. These residua are all
black and glossy like common pitch, which differs from them only in
having been less acted upon by fire, and thence in being softer. At
present asphaltum is prepared in excessive abundance as a product of the
distillation of coal at the gas manufactories, and is chiefly confined
to oil-painting, being first dissolved in turpentine, which fits it for
glazing and shading. Its fine brown colour and perfect transparency are
lures to its free use with many artists, notwithstanding the certain
destruction that awaits the work on which it is much employed, owing to
its tendency to contract and crack by changes of temperature and the
atmosphere; but for which, and a slight liability to blacken, it would
be a most beautiful, durable, and eligible pigment. The solution of
asphaltum in turpentine, united with drying oil by heat, or the bitumen
torrefied and ground in linseed or drying-oil, acquires a firmer
texture, but becomes less transparent and dries with difficulty. If
common asphaltum, as usually prepared with turpentine, be used with some
addition of Vandyke brown, umber, or Cappah brown ground in drying oil,
it will gain body and solidity which will render it much less disposed
to crack. Nevertheless, asphaltum is to be regarded in practice rather
as a dark varnish than as a solid pigment, and all the faults of a bad
varnish are to be guarded against in employing it.
It is common to call the solution in turpentine _Asphaltum_, and the
mixture with drying-oil _Bitumen_: the latter is likewise known as
_Antwerp Brown_. A preparation for the use of water-colour artists is
employed under the name of _Liquid Asphaltum_.
242. BISTRE
is extracted by watery solution from the soot of wood fires, whence it
derives a strong pyroligneous scent. It is a very powerful
citrine-brown, washes well, and has a clearness suited to architectural
subjects. Its use is confined to water-colour painting, in which it was
much employed by the old masters for tinting drawings and shading
sketches, before the general application of Indian ink to such purposes.
Of a wax-like texture, it is perfectly durable, but unfitted for oil,
drying therein with the greatest difficulty.
A substance of this kind collects at the back of fire-places in cottages
where peat is the constant fuel burnt; which, purified by solution and
evaporation, yields a fine bistre, similar to the Scotch. All kinds of
bistre attract moisture from the atmosphere.
243. BONE BROWN
and _Ivory Brown_ are obtained by roasting bone and ivory until by
partial charring they become of a brown colour throughout. Though much
esteemed by some artists, they are not quite eligible pigments, being
bad driers in oil, the only vehicle in which they are now used.
Moreover, their lighter shades are not permanent either in water or oil
when exposed to the action of strong light, or mixed in tint with white
lead. The palest of these colours are the most opaque: the deepest are
more durable, and most so when approaching black. Neither bone nor ivory
brown is often employed, but the former may be occasionally applied in
forming clear, silvery, warm grays, in combination with zinc white.
244. BURNT UMBER
is what its name denotes, and has a deeper shade with a more russet hue
than the raw umber. A quiet brown, it affords clear and warm shadows,
but is apt to look rather turbid if used in great depth. It washes and
works capitally in water, and dries quickly in oil, in which it is
employed as a siccative. Perfectly stable in either vehicle, it may
sometimes be substituted for Vandyke brown, is eligible in fresco, and
invaluable in buildings. Where the lakes of madder require saddening,
the addition of burnt umber increases their powers, and improves their
drying in oil. It contains manganese and iron, and may be produced
artificially. The old Italians called it _falsalo_.
245. CALEDONIAN BROWN
is a permanent native pigment, the use of which is confined to oil. A
magnificent orange-russet brown of considerable transparency, it is
marked by great depth and richness, and will be found serviceable where
a powerful brown of the burnt Sienna class is required.
246. CAPPAH BROWN,
or _Cappagh Brown_, is likewise a colour peculiar to oil. It is a
species of bog-earth or peat, mixed with manganese in various
proportions, and found on the estate of Lord Audley at Cappagh, near
Cork. The specimens in which the peat earth most abounds are of light
weight, friable texture, and dark colour; while those which contain more
of the metal are heavy and paler.
As pigments, the peaty Cappah brown is the most transparent and rich in
colour. A prompt drier in oil, its surface rivels during drying where it
lies thick. The other and metallic sort is a more opaque, a lighter and
warmer brown pigment, which dries rapidly and smoothly in a body or
thick layer. The first may be regarded as a superior Vandyke brown, the
second as a superior umber. The two extreme kinds should be
distinguished as light and deep Cappah browns; the former excellent for
dead colouring and grounds, the latter for glazing and graining. These
pigments work well in oil and varnish; they do not, however, keep their
place while drying in oil by fixing the oil, like the driers of lead,
but run. Under the names of _Euchrome_ and _Mineral Brown_, they have
been introduced into commerce for civil and marine painting.
247. CASSEL EARTH,
_Terre de Cassel_, or, corruptly, _Castle Earth_, is specially an oil
pigment, similar to burnt umber but of a more russet hue. It is an earth
containing bitumen, a substance which, with pit-coal, lignite or brown
coal, jet, petroleum or rock oil, naphtha, &c., is looked upon as a
product of the decomposition of organic matter, beneath the surface of
the earth, in situations where the conditions of contact with water, and
almost total exclusion of atmospheric air, are fulfilled. Deposited at
the bottom of seas, lakes, or rivers, and subsequently covered up by
accumulations of clay and sand, the organic tissue undergoes a kind of
fermentation by which the bodies in question are slowly produced. The
true bitumens appear to have arisen from coal or lignite by the action
of subterranean heat; and very closely resemble some of the products
yielded by the destructive distillation of those bodies.
Rich as is the tone of colour of Cassel earth, it is apt to lose this in
some measure on exposure to light. Mérimée remembers to have seen a
head, the brown hair of which had been painted partly with the earth
alone, and partly with a mixture of the earth and white; yet the hair
where the white was employed was darker than that painted solely with
the brown, the white having fixed the colour. To compensate for its
thus fading, it should be mixed with pigments that are permanent, such
as umber and lamp black. Like all bituminous earths, it needs the
strongest drying oil. By calcination, a greater degree of intensity may
be imparted to the colour, and perhaps a little more solidity. In
landscapes it is of much service for the most vigorous portions of
foregrounds and the trunks of trees, as well as for painting cavernous
rocks or deep recesses in architecture. Compounded with burnt lake and a
little Prussian blue, it gives a black the most profound.
248. CHALON'S BROWN
is a water-colour pigment, transparent and inclining to red; deep, full,
and very rich. On exposure to light it becomes less russet, but is
otherwise strictly stable.
249. COLOGNE EARTH,
incorrectly called _Cullen's Earth_, is a native bituminous earth,
containing less bitumen than Cassel earth, and therefore drying more
quickly. Darker than that variety, it is less transparent, and covers
better. In its general qualities it resembles Vandyke brown, except that
in combination with white, it affords a range of cooler brown tints.
Useful for the shadows of buildings, it does not wash so well as sepia,
and is preferred occasionally on that account. By some it has been
called durable, by others branded as fugacious. According to Bouvier,
brown hair represented by this colour has been known to disappear in six
months, all the brown vanishing, and nothing remaining but a few black
lines of the sketch. As it is similar in composition to Cassel earth,
the safest course would be to mix it with umber, and not to employ it
alone. Calcined, it acquires a reddish hue.
250. INDELIBLE BROWN INK.
Although this cannot be classed as a pigment, yet, being very useful in
water-colours, it may be proper to describe its qualities. The ink is a
rich brown fluid, and, as its name imports, is indelibly fixed on the
paper as soon as it is dry; thus allowing the artist to work or wash
over it repeatedly, without its being disturbed. If diluted with water
to its faintest tint, it still continues to retain its indelible
properties undiminished. It is generally used with a reed pen, and
employed chiefly in architectural details and outlines.
Various brown inks, principally solutions of bistre and sepia, were
adopted in sketching by Claude, Rembrandt, and many of the old masters.
In modern times, a beautiful transparent brown for water-colour artists,
known as _Liquid Prout's Brown_, has been extensively employed. This
contains less fixative than the indelible ink, and is the vehicle with
which nearly all Samuel Prout's drawings were executed.
251. LEITCH'S BROWN
is a permanent pigment peculiar to water painting. A most beautiful
olive brown, soft and rich, it is admirably adapted for autumnal foliage
tints and the like, either alone or compounded with burnt Sienna or
cadmium orange. Transparent and clear in its washes, this is a most
serviceable colour in landscape generally.
252. MIXED BROWN
can be produced in endless variety, either by adding a warm colour to
black, such as yellow, orange, or citrine, or else by combining the
three primaries, secondaries, or tertiaries in suitable proportions. By
consulting the lists given of permanent pigments belonging to those
classes, and by referring to the chapter on Black, it will be seen that
no difficulty exists in obtaining durable mixed browns when required.
For example, there may be formed from the primaries, a compound of
aureolin, rose madder, and ultramarine; or from the secondaries, a
mixture of cadmium orange, viridian, and madder purple. Of course, as
with other mixed tints, the brown hue can be furnished not only by
direct compounding of the colours on the palette, but by laying one
colour over the other on the paper or canvass, or by stippling.
253. MUMMY,
_Mummy Brown_, or _Egyptian Brown_, is a bituminous product mixed with
animal remains, brought from the catacombs of Egypt, where liquid
bitumen was employed three thousand years ago in embalming. By a slow
chemical change, it has combined during so many ages with substances
which give it, as a rule, a more solid and lasting texture than simple
asphaltum. Generally resembling the latter in its other properties and
uses as a pigment, mummy is often substituted for it, being less liable
to crack or move on the canvass. It must be remembered, however, that
mummy varies exceedingly both in its composition and qualities; and as
from its very nature and origin nothing certain can be said of it, but
little reliance should be placed on this brown. Mummy belongs to the
class of pigments which are either good or bad, according as they turn
out. On the whole, we agree with the American artist, who has been more
than once quoted in these pages, that nothing is to be gained by
smearing one's canvass with a part, perhaps, of the wife of Potiphar.
With a preference for materials less frail and of a more sober
character, we likewise hold with Bouvier, that it is not particularly
prudent to employ without necessity these crumbled remains of dead
bodies, which must contain ammonia and particles of fat in a concrete
state and so be more or less apt to injure the colours with which they
may be united. The use of mummy is now confined to oil, in which, says
Mr. Carmichael, a mixture of mummy and bitumen will dry and never crack.
If this be the case, the compound would be preferable to either
separate.
254. PRUSSIAN BROWN
is an iron oxide, containing more or less alumina, and prepared by
calcining an aluminous Prussian blue, or treating an aluminous
ferrocyanide of peroxide of iron with an alkali. Possessing the nature
and properties of burnt Sienna, it is transparent, permanent, and dries
well in oil. Of an orange hue, it is neither so rich nor so powerful as
that pigment, and is better employed as a glaze than in body.
255. SEPIA,
_Liquid Sepia_, _Seppia_, or _Animal Æthiops_, is named after the sepia
or cuttle-fish, also called the ink-fish, from its affording a dark
liquid, which was used as an ink and pigment by the ancients. All the
species of cuttle-fish are provided with a dark-coloured fluid,
sometimes quite black, which they emit to obscure the water, when it is
wanted to favour their escape from danger, or, by concealing their
approach, to enable them with greater facility to seize their prey. The
liquid consists of a mass of extremely minute carbonaceous particles,
intermixed with an animal gelatine or glue, and is capable of being so
widely spread, than an ounce of it will suffice to darken several
thousand ounces of water. From this liquid, brought chiefly from the
Adriatic, but likewise obtainable from our own coasts, is derived the
pigment sepia, as well as, partially, the Indian ink of the Chinese.
Sepia is a powerful dusky brown, of a fine texture, transparent, works
admirably in water, combines cordially with other pigments, and is very
permanent. It is much used as a water-colour, and for making drawings in
the manner of bistre and Indian ink; but is not employed in oil, as it
dries therein very reluctantly. Extremely clear in its pale tints, and
perhaps the best washing colour known, sepia must be used with caution,
or otherwise heaviness will be engendered in the shades, so strong is
its colouring property. Mixed with indigo, or, preferably, Prussian blue
and black, it is eligible for distant trees, for a general shadow tint
in light backgrounds, and for the shade of white linen or white
draperies. With madder red it forms a fine hue, somewhat resembling
brown madder, and with crimson lake and indigo gives an artistically
excellent black. Sometimes alone and sometimes in combination with lamp
black, or madder red and Prussian blue saddened by the black, it will be
found useful in dark foreground boats, rocks, near buoys, sea-weed, &c.
Compounded with aureolin, sepia yields a series of beautiful and durable
neutral greens for landscape; and mixed with Prussian blue, affords low
olive greens, which may be deepened into very cool dark greens by the
addition of black. For hills and mountains in mid-distance, sepia
combined with cobalt and brown madder is of service; or, for the dark
markings and divisions of stones in brooks and running streams, the same
compound without the cobalt. Mixed with purple madder, it furnishes a
fine tint for the stems and branches of trees; and with French blue and
madder red gives a really good black. Compounds of sepia and yellow
ochre, gamboge, raw Sienna, or cobalt and aureolin, are severally
useful. A rich and strong brown is formed by the admixture of madder
red, burnt Sienna, and sepia; a tint which may be modified by omitting
the sepia or the Sienna, or reducing the proportions of either. For
Dutch craft, this tint and its variations are of great value. A wash of
sepia over green very agreeably subdues the force of the colour.
256. WARM SEPIA
is the natural sepia warmed by mixture with other browns of a red hue,
and is intended for drawings where it would be difficult to keep the
whole work of the same tint, unless the compound were made in the cake
of colour.
257. ROMAN SEPIA
is a preparation similar to the preceding, but with a yellow instead of
a red cast.
258. VANDYKE BROWN.
This pigment, hardly less celebrated than the great painter whose name
it bears, is a species of peat or bog-earth of a fine, deep,
semi-transparent brown colour. The pigment so much esteemed and used by
Vandyke is said to have been brought from Cassel; an assertion which
seems to be justified by a comparison of Cassel earth with the browns of
his pictures. Gilpin in his Essays on Picturesque Beauty, remarks that
"In the tribe of browns--in oil-painting, one of the finest earths is
known, at the colour shops, by the name of Castle-earth, or Vandyke's
brown." The Vandyke brown of the present day is a bituminous ochre,
purified by grinding and washing over. Apt to vary in hue, it is durable
both in water and oil, but, like all bituminous earths, dries tardily as
a rule in the latter vehicle. Clear in its pale tints, deep and glowing
in shadows, in water it has sometimes the bad property of working up:
for this reason, where it is necessary to lay on a great body of it,
the moist tube colour should be preferred to the cake. With madder red,
the brown gives a fine tint, most useful as a warm shadow colour; and
with Prussian blue, clear, very sober neutral greens for middle
distances. In banks and roads, Vandyke brown is the general colour for
dragging over the surface, to give roughness of texture: compounded with
yellow ochre, it affords a good ground tint, and with purple madder a
rich shadow colour. In sunrise and sunset clouds, a mixture of the brown
with cobalt yields a cold neutral green, adapted for those clouds at the
greatest distance from the sun. For foliage tints, aureolin, French
blue, and Vandyke brown, will be found of service; or as a glaze over
such tints, the yellow and the brown. With raw Sienna, brown madder,
Payne's gray, gamboge, and Roman ochre, this brown is useful. In a
water-colour winter scene, when the trees are denuded of foliage, the
net work of the small branches at the tops of them may be prettily given
with cobalt and Vandyke brown, used rather dry, and applied with a brush
having its hairs spread out either by the fingers or by drawing them
through a fine-tooth comb before working. Grass is likewise represented
readily by this means, and so are small trees on the summit of a cliff
or in like positions.
The Campania Brown of the old Italian painters was a similar earth.
259. VERONA BROWN,
a pigment peculiar to oil painting, is a native ferruginous earth. A
citrine brown of great service in tender drab greens, it forms with
terre verte and the madder lakes rich autumnal tints of much beauty and
permanence.
260. YELLOW MADDER,
_Cory's Yellow Madder_, or _Cory's Madder_, is classed among the browns
for the same reason that Italian Pink was ranked among the yellows. It
was stated in the eighth chapter that no true madder yellow, brilliant
and pure, exists as a pigment at the present day, and certainly this
preparation can lay no claim to the title. Except in name, it is an
orange-brown of the burnt Sienna hue, and might therefore with more
reason have been called Orange Madder. It is a good and permanent
colour, rich and transparent, at present used only in oil, we believe,
and chiefly as a glaze.
* * * * *
261. _Cadmium Brown_.
By igniting the white carbonate of cadmium, among other methods, a
cinnamon-brown oxide is obtainable, of a very clear and beautiful colour
if the process be well conducted. It is, however, not eligible as a
pigment, owing to the rapidity with which the oxide is acted upon by the
air. In water, especially, we have found this brown so eagerly absorb
carbonic acid from the atmosphere as to become in a few months once more
a carbonate, and as purely white as before. The same result is
observable when the powder is exposed: some shown at the International
Exhibition of 1862, on a glass stand, had to be removed, its label
marked 'Cadmium Brown' being at last found attached to a sample of
cadmium white. In oil, the conversion takes place less readily, that
vehicle having the property of protecting, to some extent, pigments from
oxidation. It is curious that even in a book a water-rub of the brown
slowly but surely changes to white.
262. _Catechu Browns._
Catechu is an extract of the Khair tree or _acacia catechu_ of Bombay,
Bengal, and other parts of India. With the exception of such earthy
matters as are communicated to it during the preparation, or are added
purposely as adulterants, catechu is entirely soluble both in water and
alcohol. An aqueous solution has a reddish-brown colour, and gives the
following results:--protosalts of iron thrown down olive-brown and
persalts greenish-brown precipitates; salts of tin and lead yield
brownish-yellow and brick-coloured deposits respectively; while acetate
of copper or bichromate of potash furnishes brown residues. To our
knowledge, none of these have been introduced as pigments, but a brown
prepared by Dr. Lyon Playfair some years back from the catechu bark has
been described as exceedingly rich, transparent, and beautiful; and
recommended for painting _if not too thinly applied_.
263. _Chrome Browns_
are produced by various methods of several hues, tints, and shades, both
by wet and dry processes. We have obtained them by many methods, of
different degrees of permanence. Some very intense in colour have stood
well, while others paler and more delicate have gradually greened, but
none possessed the strict stability of the green oxides. Presuming a
paucity of browns, these preparations of chromium would be worth further
attention; but, with the objection of being--for browns--somewhat
expensive, they have the far more fatal objection of not being wanted.
264. _Copper Brown_,
varying in hue, is obtainable, in the form of prussiate, &c., but cannot
be recommended, however made.
265. _French Prussian-Brown._
According to Bouvier, a colour similar to that of bistre, and rivalling
asphaltum in transparency, is produced by partially charring a
moderately dark Prussian blue; neither one too intense, which gives a
heavy and opaque brownish-red, nor one too aluminous and bright, which
yields a feeble and yellowish tint. Yielding to a rapture we cannot
wholly share, he describes its qualities in the warmest terms. In his
opinion, it has the combined advantages of asphaltum, mummy, and raw
Sienna, without their drawbacks. "I cannot," he says, "commend too
highly the use of this charming bistre-tint: it is as beautiful and good
in water as in oil, perfectly transparent, of a most harmonious tone,
and dries better than any other colour suitable for glazing. Closely
resembling asphaltum in tint as well as in transparency, this brown is
preferable to it in every point of view." As the colour is very quickly
and easily obtained, the artist can judge for himself of its proper
value. M. Bouvier's process is, to place upon a clear fire a large iron
spoon, into which, when red hot, some pieces of the Prussian blue are
put about the size of a small nut: these soon begin to crackle, and
throw off scales in proportion as they grow hot. The spoon is then
removed, and allowed to cool: if suffered to remain too long on the
fire, the right colour will not be produced. When the product is crushed
small, some of it will be found blackish, and the rest of a yellowish
brown: this is quite as it should be. Chemically, the result is a
mixture of oxide of iron and partly undecomposed or carbonised
prussiate.
266. _Gambogiate of Iron._
Dr. Scoffern read a paper at the Meeting of the British Association of
Science, in 1851, describing this combination as a rich brown, like
asphaltum, but richer, as well as more durable in oil. It has not been,
however, employed as a pigment, or at least is not at present.
267. _Hypocastanum_,
or Chestnut Brown, is a brown lake prepared from the horse-chestnut.
This now obsolete pigment is transparent and rich in colour, warmer than
brown pink, and very durable both in water and oil; in the latter of
which it dries moderately well.
268. _Iron Browns_,
native or artificial, are well represented on the palette, but nothing
would be easier than to increase their number. Of all metals, iron is
the richest source of colour, capable of affording all colours with the
exception of white. None of them, however, are so numerous as the
browns, a description of which would fill this chapter. Suffice it to
state they are obtainable of every hue, tint, and shade, and are
generally permanent. They are made on a large scale and sold under
various names for house-painting, &c.
269. _Manganese Brown_
is an oxide of manganese, which is quite durable both in water and oil,
and dries admirably in the latter. A fine, deep, semi-opaque brown of
good body, it is deficient in transparency, but might be useful for
glazing or lowering the tone of white without tinging it, and as a local
colour in draperies, &c.
270. _Nickel Brown._
A very pleasing yellowish brown is obtainable from nickel, bright and
clear in its pale washes, and of some richness in oil. Unless thoroughly
washed, it has a tendency to greenness in time.
271. _Ochre Browns._
The slight affinity of sulphur for yellow ochre, with its merely
temporary effect thereon, was observed in the eighth chapter, where
allusion was made to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphide of
ammonium on the earth. Sulphur alone, and in the dry state, ignited with
yellow or other native ochres converts them into browns, varying in hue,
and of greater or less durability. Those browns, however, which we have
made by this process, although standing well in a book, have not
withstood exposure to light and air. They have all become pale, whitish,
or of a drab cast, evidently through the oxidation of the sulphur, or
rather the sulphide of iron formed during the calcination. Practically,
therefore, ochres have an antipathy to sulphur, moist or dry, by itself
or in combination; and are, so to speak, the disinfectants of the
palette. Ever waging war against sulphurous vapours, the native earths
serve to protect a picture from the damaging influence of impure air,
whether they be used alone, or employed in admixture with such pigments
as are injured thereby.
272. _Purple Brown_
is a refuse manufacture from Indian red washings. A dull, heavy, coarse
colour, it belongs to the class of common pigments which are
unexceptionable for decorative painting, but scarcely suited to the
higher branches of art. As this work professes simply to treat of
artistic pigments, that have been, are, or might be, more than a passing
reference to those colours exclusively adopted by house-painters, &c.,
would be out of place.
273. _Rubens' Brown_,
still in use in the Netherlands under this appellation, is an earth of
a lighter colour and more ochrous texture than the Vandyke brown of
English commerce: it is also of a warmer or more tawny hue than the
latter pigment. Beautiful and durable, it works well both in water and
oil, and much resembles the brown employed by Teniers.
274. _Uranium Brown._
Yellow, red, orange, green, have been previously noticed as being
derived from uranium, and to this list of colours may now be added
brown. A warm rich hue of the utmost intensity may be produced, which
possesses considerable permanence, although not equal to that of uranium
yellow.
275. _Zinc Brown._
A yellow-brown, so yellow that it might fairly have been classed with
the ochrous colours of that denomination, is made by combining zinc with
another metal by the aid of heat. Experience tells us that it is,
chemically, a thoroughly good and stable pigment. Safely to be used in
admixture, it is a clear, bright colour, affording good greens by
compounding with blue. Of no great power, and semi-opaque, this
yellow-brown or brown-yellow is superior to some of the pigments at
present used, but is probably too much like them in hue and other
properties to be of any special value.
* * * * *
Besides the preceding, there are those browns of a citrine or russet
cast which are elsewhere described, such as raw umber, madder brown, &c.
Moreover, there are numberless other varieties, obtainable from most of
the metals, from many organic substances, and from a combination of the
two. Of all colours, a 'new' brown is the most easily discovered:
success may not be met with in seeking a yellow, red, or blue, or an
orange, green, or purple; but it is strange if in the course of one's
experiments a brown does not turn up. No difficulty, therefore, would
have been found in greatly extending the present list; but it was felt
that no advantage could have accrued by further multiplying the notices
of a colour, with which we are already furnished so abundantly by nature
and art, and which is capable of being produced in such profusion by
admixture.
With the exception of ivory and bone browns, and perhaps Cassel and
Cologne earths, all the browns commonly employed may be considered more
or less durable.