J. M. Barrie

Black is the last and lowest in the series or scale of colours descending—the opposite extreme from white—the maximum of colour. To be perfect, it must be neutral with respect to colours individually, and absolutely transparent, or destitute of reflective power as regards light; its use in painting being to represent shade or depths, of which black is the element in a picture and in colours, as white is of light.

As there is no perfectly pure and transparent black pigment, black deteriorates all colours in deepening them, as it does warm colours by partially neutralizing them, but it combines less injuriously with cold colours. Though black is the antagonist of white, yet added to it in minute portion, it in general renders white more neutral, solid, and local, with less of the character of light. Impure black is brown, but black in its purity is a cold colour, and communicates a coolness to all light colours; thus it blues white, greens yellow, purples red, and cools blue. Hence the artist errs with ill effect who regards black as of nearest affinity to hot and brown colours, and will do well to keep in mind—"The glow of sunshine and the cool of shade."

It is a fault of even some of our best colourists, as evinced by their pictures, to be too fond of black upon their palettes, and thence to infuse it needlessly into their tints and colours. With such it is a taste acquired from the study of old pictures; but in nature hardly any object above ground is black, or in daylight is rendered neutral thereby. Black, therefore, should be reserved for a local colour, or employed only in the under-painting properly called grounding and dead colouring. As a local colour, black has the effect of connecting or amassing surrounding objects, and is the most retiring of all colours, a property which it communicates to other colours in mixture. It heightens the effect of warm as well as light colours, by a double contrast when opposed to them, and in like manner subdues that of cold and deep colours. In mixture or glazing, however, these effects are reversed, by reason of the predominance of cold colour in the constitution of black. Having, therefore, the double office of colour and of shade, black is perhaps the most important of all colours to the artist, both as to its use and avoidance.It may be laid down as a rule that the black must be conspicuous. However small a point of black may be, it ought to catch the eye, otherwise the work is too heavy in the shadow. All the ordinary shadows should be of some colour—never black, nor approaching black, they should be evidently and always of a luminous nature, and the black should look strange among them; never occurring except in a black object, or in small points indicative of intense shade in the very centre of masses of shadow. Shadows of absolutely negative grey, however, may be beautifully used with white, or with gold; but still though the black thus, in subdued strength, becomes spacious, it should always be conspicuous: the spectator should notice this grey neutrality with some wonder, and enjoy, all the more intensely on account of it, the gold colour and the white which it relieves. Of all the great colourists, Velasquez is the greatest master of the black chords: his black is more precious than other people's crimson. Yet it is not simply black and white that must be made valuable, rare worth must be given to each colour employed; but the white and black ought to separate themselves quaintly from the rest, while the other colours should be continually passing one into the other, being all plainly companions in the same gay world; while the white, black, and neutral grey should stand monkishly aloof in the midst of them. Crimson may be melted into purple, purple into blue, and blue into green, but none of them must be melted into black.

All colours are comprehended in the synthesis of black, consequently the whole sedative power of colour is comprised in black. It is the same in the synthesis of white; and, with like relative consequence, white includes all the stimulating powers of colour in painting. It follows that a little white or black is equivalent to much colour, and hence their use as colours requires judgment and caution. By due attention to the synthesis of black, it may be rendered a harmonizing medium to all colours, to all which it lends brilliancy by its sedative effect on the eye, and its powers of contrast: nevertheless, we repeat, it must be introduced with caution when hue is of greater importance than shade. Even when employed as a shadow, without much judgment in its use, black is apt to appear as local colour rather than as privation of light; and black pigments obtained by charring have a tendency to rise and predominate over other hues, subduing the more delicate tints by their chemical bleaching power upon other colours, and their own disposition to turn brown or dusky. For these reasons deep and transparent colours, which have darkness in their constitution, are better adapted as a rule for producing the true natural and permanent effects of shade. Many pictures of the early masters, and especially of the Roman and Florentine schools, evince the truth of our remarks; and it is to be feared the high reputation of these works has betrayed their admirers into this defective employment of black.

Black substances reflect a small quantity of white light, which receives the complementary of the colour contiguous to the black. By 'complementary' is meant that colour which is required with another colour to form white light; thus, green is the complementary of red, blue of orange, and yellow of violet, or vice versÂ; because green and red, blue and orange, and yellow and violet, each make up the full complement of rays necessary to form white light. Briefly digressing, we give the following mode of observing complementary colours:—Place a sheet of white paper on a table opposite to one of two windows admitting diffused daylight[C] into a room; take a piece of coloured glass and so place it that the coloured light transmitted through it falls over the surface of the paper; then put an opaque object on the paper close to the coloured glass. The shadow of this object will not appear black or of the colour of the glass, as might be supposed, but of its complementary colour; thus if the glass is red, the colour of the shadow will be green, although the whole of the paper surrounding it appears red. Similarly, if the glass is blue, the shadow will appear orange; if it is green, the shadow will appear red; and so with other colours. It is absolutely essential, however, to the success of this experiment, that the paper be also illuminated with the white light admitted from the other window.

It has been said that black substances reflect a small quantity of white light, which receives the complementary of the colour contiguous to the black. If this colour is deep, it gives rise to a luminous complementary, such as orange, or yellow, and enfeebles the black; while the other complementaries, such as violet or green, strengthen and purify it. In colours associated with black, if green is juxtaposed therewith, its complementary red, added to the black, makes it seem rusty. Those colours which best associate with black are orange, yellow, blue, and violet. It would be well to remember that black, being always deeper than the juxtaposed colour, entails contrast of tone, and tends to lower the tone of that colour.

Most of the black pigments in use are obtained by charring, and owe their colour to the carbon they contain. As the objects of vegetal and animal nature may be blackened through every degree of impurity by the action of fire, black substances more or less fitted for pigments abound. The following are the chief native and artificial black pigments, or colours available as such:—

289. BLACK LEAD,

Plumbago, or Graphite, contains in spite of its name no lead, being simply a species of carbon or charcoal. In most specimens iron is present, varying in quantity from a mere trace up to five per cent, together with silica and alumina. Sometimes manganese and titanic acid are likewise found. It is curious that carbon should occur in two distinct and very dissimilar forms—as diamond, and as graphite; one, white, hard, and transparent; the other, black, soft, and opaque: the artist, therefore, who uses a pigment of plumbago, paints with nothing more or less than a black diamond. The best graphite, the finest and most valuable for pencils, is yielded by the mine of Borrowdale, at the west end of Derwent Lake, in Cumberland, where it was first wrought during the reign of Elizabeth. A kind of irregular vein traverses the ancient slate-beds of that district, furnishing the carbon of an iron-grey colour, metallic lustre, and soft and greasy to the touch. Universally employed in the form of crayons, &c. in sketching, designing, and drawing, until of late years it was not acknowledged as a pigment: yet its powers in this respect claim a place for it. As a water-colour, levigated in gum in the usual manner, it may be effectively used with rapidity and freedom in the shading and finishing of pencil drawings, or as a substitute therein for Indian ink. Even in oil it may be employed occasionally, as it possesses remarkably the property of covering, forms very pure grey, dries quickly, injures no colour chemically, and endures for ever. These qualities render it the most eligible black for adding to white in minute quantity to preserve the neutrality of its tint.

Although plumbago has usurped the name of Black Lead, there is another substance more properly entitled to this appellation, and which may be used in the same way, and with like effects as a pigment. This substance is the sulphide of lead, found native in the beautiful lead ore, or Galena, of Derbyshire. An artificial sulphide can be prepared by dry and wet processes, which is subject to gradual oxidation on exposure to the air, and consequent conversion into grey or white. Neither variety can be compared to graphite for permanence, although the native is preferable to the artificial.

Plumbago, or the so-called Black Lead, is often adulterated to an enormous extent with lamp black.

290. BLUE BLACK,

Charcoal, Liege, or Vine Black, is a well-burnt and levigated charcoal prepared from vine twigs, of weaker body than ivory or lamp black, and consequently better suited to the grays and general mixed tints of landscape painting, in which it is not so likely to look black and sooty as the others may do. Of a cool neutral tint, it has, in common with all carbonaceous blacks, a preserving influence on white when duly mixed therewith; which it owes, chemically, to the bleaching power of carbon, and, chromatically, to the neutralizing and contrasting power of black with white. Compounded slightly with blue black, and washed over with zinc white, white lead may be exposed to any ordinary impure atmosphere with comparative impunity. It would be well for art if carbon had a like power upon the colour of oils, but of this it is deficient; and although chlorine destroys their colour temporarily, they re-acquire it at no very distant period.

Alone, blue black is useful as a cool shade for white draperies; and compounded with cobalt, affords a good gray for louring clouds.

291. BRITISH INK

is a compound black, preferred by some artists to Indian ink, on account of its not being liable to wash streaky, as the latter does: at the same time it is not so perfectly fixed on the paper as Indian ink.

292. INDIAN INK,

sometimes called China or Chinese Ink, is chiefly brought from China in oblong cakes, of a musky scent, ready prepared for painting in water. Varying considerably in body and colour, the best has a shining black fracture, is finely compact, and homogeneous when rubbed with water, in which, when largely diluted, it yields no precipitate. Without the least appearance of particles, its dry surface is covered with a pellicle of a metallic appearance. When dry on the paper, it resists the action of water, yet it will give way at once to that action, when it has been used and dried on marble or ivory, a fact which proves that the alummed paper forms a strong combination with the ink; possibly a compound of the latter on an aluminous base, might even be employed in oil. Different accounts are given of the mode of making this ink, the principal substance or colouring matter of which is a smoke black, having all the properties of our lamp black; the variety of its hues and texture seeming wholly to depend on the degree of burning and levigating it receives. From certain Chinese documents, we learn that the ink of Nan-king is the most esteemed; and among the many sorts imported into this country, we find those of the best quality are prepared with lamp black of the oil of Sesame; with which are combined camphor, and the juice of a plant named Houng hoa to give it brightness of tone. According to an analysis by M. Proust, the better kinds contain about two per cent. of camphor. By some, the pigment known as Sepia has been supposed to enter into their composition.

Liquid Indian Ink is a solution for architects, surveyors, &c.

293. IVORY BLACK

is ivory charred to blackness by strong heat in closed vessels. Differing chiefly through want of care or skill in preparing, when well made it is the richest and most transparent of all the blacks, a fine neutral colour perfectly durable and eligible both in water and oil. When insufficiently burnt, however, it is brown, and dries badly; or if too much burnt, it becomes cineritious, opaque, and faint in hue. With a slight tendency to brown in its pale washes, this full, silky black is serviceable where the sooty density of lamp black would be out of place. It is occasionally adulterated with bone black, a cheaper and inferior product.

Being nothing more nor less than animal charcoal, ivory or bone black had best not be compounded with organic pigments, in water at least. It is well known that this charcoal possesses the singular property of completely absorbing the colour of almost any vegetal or animal solution, and of rendering quite limpid and colourless the water charged with it. If a solution of indigo in concentrated sulphuric acid be diluted with water, and animal charcoal added in sufficient quantity, the solution will soon be deprived of colour. The more perfect the ivory or bone black, the more powerful is its action likely to be: either over or under calcined, animal charcoal is less energetic; in the former case, because it is less porous; in the latter, because the animal matter, not being wholly consumed, makes a kind of varnish in the charcoal which interferes with its acting. To a greater or less extent, gums, oils, and varnishes serve similarly as preventives, thereby decreasing the danger of employing these blacks in admixture; but, in the compounding of colours, nothing is gained by needless risk. To mix with organic pigments, therefore, blue or lamp blacks should be substituted for those of ivory or bone; that is, vegetal charcoal should be used instead of animal. It is a question whether even with inorganic pigments the adoption of the former in admixture would not be advisable. It was once the general opinion that the action of animal charcoal was limited to bodies of organic origin, but it has since been found that inorganic matters are likewise influenced. "Through its agency," says Graham, "even the iodine is separated from iodide of potassium;" whence probably pigments containing iodine would suffer by contact. The investigation of Weppen appears to prove that the action of the charcoal extends to all metallic salts; with the following, no doubt remains of this being so, to wit:—the sulphates of copper, zinc, chromium, and protoxide of iron; the nitrates of lead, nickel, silver, cobalt, suboxide and oxide of mercury; the protochlorides of tin and mercury; the acetates of lead and sesquioxide of iron; and the tartrate of antimony. Whether animal charcoal exercises any deleterious influence on pigments consisting of these metals, and, if so, how far and under what circumstances, can only be answered when our knowledge of the properties of pigments is greater than it now is. At present, perhaps, it is safer to choose vegetal charcoal for mixed tints, inasmuch as, although it shares the property of bleaching in a certain degree, it does not possess the same energy.

294. LAMP BLACK,

or Lamblack, is a smoke black, being the soot procured by the burning of resins or resinous woods. It is a pure vegetal charcoal of fine texture, not quite so intense nor so transparent as the black made from ivory, but less brown in its pale tones. It has a very strong body that covers readily every underlay of colour, works well, but dries badly in oil. On emergency, it may be prepared extemporaneously for water-painting by holding a plate over the flame of a lamp or candle, and adding gum to the colour: the nearer the plate is held to the wick of the lamp, the more abundant and warm will be the hue of the black obtained; at a greater distance it will be more effectually charred, and blacker.

Mixed with French blue or cobalt, lamp black gives good cloudy grays, which are useful for the shadows of heavy storm clouds. With French blue and this black alone various beautiful stormy skies may be represented; the contrast of the blue causing the black to assume, if desired, a warm tone in shadows. For like purposes, the black with ultramarine ash affords a very soft hue, and with light red and cobalt in different proportions yields silvery tones most serviceable. To the dark marking of murky and dirty clouds, a compound of lamp black and light red is particularly suited; while a mixture of the black with cobalt and purple madder is adapted for slate-coloured sunset and sunrise clouds. French blue softened with a little lamp black is fitted for mountains or hills, very remote; and the same blue and black with rose madder meet their tints if nearer. In seas the black is useful with raw Sienna and other colours; while, whether in storm or calm, vessels and boats may be painted with tints of lamp black, madder brown, and burnt Sienna, varying in degrees of strength according to the distances. Lamp black alone, or with French blue, cobalt and purple madder, emerald green, or rose madder, is good for rocks; and for dark foreground objects when mixed with madder lake and burnt Sienna. With aureolin the black furnishes a sober olive for foliage, and with rose madder a fine colour for the stems and branches of trees. Compounded with light red, it is suited to the first general tones of the ground for banks and roads; and with yellow ochre or madder red, to parts of buildings and cattle. A very eminent miniature painter recommends for hair tints, lamp black, Indian red, and burnt Sienna. Being a dense solid colour, this black must be used sparingly to avoid heaviness.

Hitherto confined to painting and engraving, lamp black has lately refuted the assertion that there is nothing new under the sun by making its appearance in photography. By a method which combines the fidelity of that art with the permanence of prints, there is produced a species of photographic engraving, so to speak, having lamp black or carbon for its colouring matter. Indeed, in this 'Autotype' process, as it is called, any other durable pigment or pigments may be used, and a photographic picture thus obtained. In copying the works of artists, especially, the mode promises to be of value, inasmuch as by its agency the same pigments may be made the colouring matter of the reproduction as are employed in the original. If this be in sepia or bistre, the copy can be autotyped in those colours; or if a red chalk drawing be required to be multiplied, the proofs may be in red chalk, the copy when produced to the same scale being scarcely distinguishable from the original. In like manner, any single colour of the artist's palette is applicable without restriction or limitation, so that not only are every line and touch rendered absolutely, but the very pigment used in the original is found in the copy. Moreover, as the pigments are quite unchanged by the action of the other agents employed, the resulting colour of the print is determined once for all, just as the artist mixes those pigments on his palette for his picture. As extending the use of lamp black and permanent pigments in general, this brief digression on Autotypography may be pardoned in a treatise on colours.

295. MIXED BLACK.

Black is to be considered as a synthesis of the three primary colours, the three secondaries, or the three tertiaries, or of all these together; and, consequently, also of the three semi-neutrals, and may thus be composed of due proportions of either tribe or triad. All antagonistic colours, or contrasts, likewise afford the neutral black by composition; but in all the modes of producing black by compounding colours, blue is to be regarded as its archeus or predominating colour, and yellow as subordinate to red, in the proportions, when their hues are true, of eight blue, five red, and three yellow. It is owing to this predominance of blue in the constitution of black, that it contributes by mixture to the pureness of hue in white colours, which usually incline to warmth, and that it produces the cool effect of blueness in glazing and tints, or however otherwise diluted or dilated. It accords with the principle here inculcated that in glass-founding the oxide of manganese, which gives the red hue, and that of cobalt, which furnishes the blue, are added to brown or yellow frit, to obtain a velvety black glass. Similarly the dyer proceeds to dye black upon a deep blue basis of indigo, with the ruddy colour of madder and the yellow of quercitron, &c.

Some of the best blacks and neutrals of the painter are those formed with colours of sufficient power and transparency upon the palette. Prussian blue and burnt lake afford a powerful though not very durable black; and compound blacks in which transparent pigments are employed will generally go deeper and harmonize better with other colours than any original black pigment alone. Hence lakes and deep blues, added to the common blacks, greatly increase their clearness and intensity: in mixture and glazing of the fine blacks of some old pictures, ultramarine has evidently been used. In this view, black altogether compounded of blue with red and yellow, each deep and transparent, and duly subordinated according to its powers, will give the most powerful and transparent blacks; although, like most other blacks, they dry badly in oil. Of course, as with all compound colours, it depends entirely on the pigments employed whether these mixed blacks are permanent or not: a compound black can very well pass through the stages of black to grey, gray, or dirty white, if each link in the chain of combination be not as strong as its fellows.

296. Black Chalk

is an indurated clay, of the texture of white chalk, and chiefly used for cutting into crayons. Fine specimens have been found near Bantry in Ireland, and in Wales, but the Italian has the most reputation. Crayons for sketching and drawing are also artificially prepared, which are deeper in colour and free from grit. Wood charcoal is likewise cut into crayons, that of soft woods, such as lime, poplar, &c., being best adapted for the purpose.

297. Black Ochre,

Earth Black, or Prussian Black, is a native earth, combined with iron and alluvial clay. It is found in most countries, and should be washed and exposed to the atmosphere before being employed. Sea-coal, and other black mineral substances, have been and may be used as substitutes for the more perfect blacks, when the latter are not procurable, which now seldom or never happens.

298. Bone Black,

obtained by charring, is similar to that of ivory, except that it is a little warmer in tone, having a reddish or orange tinge, and is a worse drier in oil. Like ivory black, it is very transparent. Immense quantities of bone black are consumed with sulphuric acid in the manufacture of shoe blacking.

299. Coffee Black,

though little known and not on sale, has been strongly recommended by Bouvier as one of the best blacks that can be used. Soft without being greasy, light, almost impalpable, even before being ground, it gives tints of a very bluish gray when mixed with white, a quality precious for making the blues of the sketch, and dull greens. It is said to dry better than blue or vine black, and to combine admirably with other colours. De Montabert prefers calling it Coffee Brown, giving it as an exemplification of a bluish-brown, but probably this brown hue is owing to want of skill in its manufacture. We have not had personal experience of the colour, but there is no theoretical reason why a carbonaceous black should not be produced from coffee. The mode of proceeding is to calcine the berry in a covered vessel, and well wash the resulting charcoal with boiling water by decantation. In order to prevent the powder, which is of great lightness, from floating, it is made into paste with a few drops of alcohol before adding the water.

300. Frankfort Black

is said to be made of the lees of wine from which the tartar has been washed, by burning, in the manner of ivory black; although the inferior sort is merely the levigated charcoal of woods, of which the hardest, such as box and ebony, yield the best. Fine Frankfort black, though almost confined to copper-plate printing, is one of the best black pigments extant, being of a neutral colour, next in intensity to lamp black, and more powerful than that of ivory. Strong light has the effect of deepening its colour. It is probable that this was the black used by some of the Flemish painters, and that the pureness of the greys formed therewith is due to the property of charred substances of preventing discolourment.

301. Manganese Black,

the common black oxide of that metal, is the best of all blacks for drying in oil without addition. It is also a colour of vast body and tingeing power. As a siccative, it might be advantageously employed with ivory black.

302. Mineral Black

is a native impure carbon of soft texture, found in Devonshire. Blacker than plumbago, and free from its metallic lustre, it is of a neutral colour, greyer and more opaque than ivory black, and forms pure neutral tints. Being perfectly durable, and drying well in oil, it is of value in dead colouring on account of its solid body, as a preparation for black and deep colours before glazing. It would likewise be the most permanent and best possible black for frescoes.

303. Paper Black,

a pigment unknown to the modern palette, like most of our numbered italicised colours, is of the nature of blue or vine black. Very soft and of a fine bluish-gray, it is fitted for flesh, or for mixing with whites or yellows in landscapes.

304. Peach Black,

or Almond Black, made by burning the stones of fruits, the shell of the cocoa-nut, &c., is a violet-black, once much used by Parisian artists. Bouvier believes it to be a good black, but at the same time sensibly asks, of what use is it to have a black of this cast, which can always be given by lake, without diminishing but rather increasing the intensity of the black it may be mixed with.

305. Prussian Black.

The same Prussian blue which gives a brown when burnt in the open air, yields a black when calcined in a close crucible. Very intense, very soft and velvety, and very agreeable to work, this bluish-black dries much more promptly than most other blacks, and scarcely requires grinding. On account of its extreme division, however, it would probably be found more energetic as a decolourising agent in admixture with organic pigments than most carbonaceous blacks.

Another Prussian black, containing copper, and made by a wet process, is obtained when a dilute solution of cupric sulphate and ferrous sulphate, in proper proportions, is mixed with a quantity of ferrocyanide of potassium not in excess. A very bulky deep black precipitate is formed, which is difficult to wash, and is deep black when dry. It is insoluble in water, and appears to be a compound analogous to Prussian blue. As a pigment, this black is inferior to the preceding.

306. Purple Black

is, or rather was, a preparation of madder, of a deep purple hue approaching black. Powerful and very transparent, it glazed and dried well in oil, and was a durable and eligible pigment. Its tints with white lead were of a purple cast.

307. Spanish Black,

or Cork Black, is a soft black, obtained by charring cork, and differs not essentially from Frankfort black, except in being of a lighter and softer texture. "Some of my friends," says Bouvier, "call it Beggars' Ultramarine, because it produces, by combinations, tints almost as fine as ultramarine." A blue but not a velvet black, where intensity is required some other is to be preferred. For mixtures, however, it is stated to be admirable, and especially for linen, skies, distances, and the various broken tints of carnations, &c.

Besides those blacks which have been mentioned, there are others furnished by several of the metals and by many organic substances employed as dyes; but as the blacks in common use are all permanent, and have been found sufficient for every purpose, it is scarce needful to swell the list. Nor is it more needful, the Editor considers, to swell the book; lest his aim be defeated of reflecting in a moderate-sized mirror the palette as it is and might be at the present day. Arrived at age, as it were, in its twenty-first chapter, this treatise may fitly conclude with Black, the last of the series of colours. Let us hope the maxim of Sir Joshua Reynolds, that success in some degree was never denied to earnest work may apply here.

Still, by way of finale, we would offer a few remarks. In no branch of the science, perhaps, is it more hazardous to commit oneself to a positive dictum than in the chemistry of colours, so liable are theory and practice to clash, and so often does the experience of one person or one time differ from that of another. He who has turned his attention to pigments, finds nearly every assertion must be qualified, for to nearly every rule there is some exception, and learns that theory alone may mislead. For example, a colour known to be fugacious may last, in certain cases, a surprisingly long time; while, on the contrary, a pigment permanent when used alone, may be rendered fugitive by improper compounding. Again, what holds good of a colour produced by one process, or employed in one vehicle or by one artist, may not be true of the same colour made by a different mode, or used in another vehicle or by another artist. It is because, then, colours are of every degree of durability, from the perfectly stable to the utterly fugitive, and because each one is liable to influence by every condition of time, place, and circumstance, that the chemist's theory is opposed as often to the painter's practice as the experience of artists themselves varies. This may explain the charges of inconsistency and contradiction which have been brought against writers on pigments, faults that lie rather with the nature of the subject than with the authors.

Even at the risk of being tiresome, we have throughout insisted on the choice of permanent pigments, not simply for use alone but for mixed tints. To quote Cennini, "I give you this advice, that you endeavour always to use ... good colours.... And if you say that a poor person cannot afford the expense, I answer, that if you work well (and give sufficient time to your works), and paint with good colours, you will acquire so much fame that from a poor person you will become a rich one; and your name will stand so high for using good colours, that if some masters receive a ducat for painting one figure, you will certainly be offered two, and your wishes will be fulfilled, according to the old proverb, 'good work, good pay.'" Of a truth, if man cannot dip his brush in the rainbow and paint with the aerial colours of the skies, he can at least select the best pigments that earth and the sea afford him; preferring, where he cannot get brilliancy and permanence combined, sobriety and permanence to brilliancy and fugacity. It must be the wish of every real artist to leave behind him a lasting record of his skill, a permanent panorama of those hues of nature which in life he loved so well. To effect this, genius alone is powerless: there must be first a proper choice of materials, and next a proper use of them. The painter's pigments are the bricks wherewith the mortar of his mind must be mixed, either to erect an edifice that shall endure for ages, or one which will quickly topple over like a house of cards. Now in nothing more than in painting is prevention better than cure—indeed cure may be said to be here out of the question: for good or for evil a picture once painted is painted for ever. Without a strong constitution there is no hope for it; no chemistry can strengthen the sickly frame, restore the faded colour, stop the ravages of consumption: Science stands helpless before dying Art.

And yet, she sighs to think, it might have been otherwise. If durable pigments had been employed, if her counsel had been sought, this need not have been. In the history of modern art the use and abuse of colours would furnish a sad chapter, telling of gross ignorance, and a grosser indifference. Happily there is promise of a healthier state of things. When this comes, Art will be less shy to consult her sister: in the interests of both there should be closer union. Without waiting till the picture is finished—for then it will be too late—let her, if in doubt, frankly display the contents of her palette and ask advice. Now, not knowing what pigments are chosen or how they are used, never standing by and watching the progress of the work, how can Science lend her aid? She would willingly, for she herself needs help: at present her knowledge is limited, not so much of the chemistry of colours as of the properties of pigments. She seeks to mix her pound of theory with an ounce of practice, and craves a warmer welcome to the studio. For any approximation to the truth to be arrived at, facts must be noted with the conditions under which they occur, not by one sister alone nor by the other alone, but by both. In future, Art and Science should go hand in hand, mutually dependent on each other, mutually trustful of each other, working with and for each other, earnestly and patiently.