Field's Chromatography Part 15

Ochres. | Vermilions.

Orient Yellow. | Raw Sienna. |

None of these pigments react on each other, and from them can be produced the most durable mixed orange that yellow and red will afford.

161. NEUTRAL ORANGE,

or _Penley's Neutral Orange_, is a permanent compound pigment composed of yellow ochre and the russet-marrone known as brown madder: it is chiefly valuable in water-colour. Paper, being white, is too opaque to paint upon, without some wash of colour being first pa.s.sed over it; otherwise the light tones of the sky are apt to look crude and harsh. It must, therefore, be gone over with some desirable tint, that shall break, in a slight degree, the extreme brilliancy of the mere paper. For this purpose, a thin wash of the orange is to be put over the whole surface of the paper with a large flat brush, care being taken never to drive the colour too bare, _i.e._ never to empty the brush too closely, but always to replenish before more is actually required. This first wash of colour not only gives a tone to the paper, but secures the pencil sketch from being rubbed out.

The reason why, in this compound, yellow ochre, as a yellow, is preferred to any of the others, is, that it is a broken yellow, that is, a yellow slightly altered by having another hue, such as red, or brown, in its composition. It is somewhat opaque too, and hence, from this quality, is especially adapted for distances. Brown madder also is a subdued red, which, when in combination with the former, produces a neutral orange, partaking of the character of soft light. As a general rule, yellow ochre is to predominate in broad daylight, and brown madder in that which is more sombre and imperfect: hence the pigment can be yellowed or reddened, by the addition of one or the other. For a clear sunset, the neutral orange must be repeated, with a preponderance of ochre at the top, a.s.sisted by a little cadmium yellow near the sun; the madder being added downwards.

In treating of distant mountains, a distinction is to be made between them and the clouds, the former requiring solidity, while the latter are only to be regarded as vapour and air. Mountains, being opaque bodies, are acted upon by atmosphere more or less, according to their position, their distance, and the state of the weather. To express this distinction, recourse must be had to an under tint, except where the tone is decidedly blue--an uncommon case. No mixture can give this with such truth as the neutral orange. A wash, therefore, should be pa.s.sed over the mountains, with nearly all yellow in the high lights, or in the gleams of suns.h.i.+ne, and, on the contrary, almost all brown madder for the shadows. These two degrees of tone must be run into each other while the drawing is wet. A beautiful and soft under tone will thus be given to receive the greys.

162. ORANGE, OR BURNT ROMAN OCHRE,

called also _Spanish Ochre_, is a very bright yellow or Roman ochre burnt, by which operation it acquires warmth, colour, transparency, and depth. Moderately bright, it forms good flesh tints with white, dries and works well both in water and oil, and is a very good and eligible pigment. It may be used in enamel painting, and has all the properties of its original ochre in other respects.

A redder hue is imparted by mixing the ochre with powdered nitre before ignition, the orange red being subsequently washed with hot water.

163. _Anotta_,

Annotto, Annatto, Arnotto, Arnotta, Terra Orellana, Rocou, &c., is met with in commerce under the names of cake anotta, and flag or roll anotta. The former, which comes almost exclusively from Cayenne, should be of a bright yellow colour: the latter, which is imported from the Brazils, is brown outside and red within. It is prepared from the pods of the _bixa orellana_, and appears generally to contain two colouring matters, a yellow and a red, which are apt to adhere to each other and produce orange. Anotta dissolves with difficulty in water, but readily in alcohol and alkaline solutions, from which last it may be thrown down as a lake by means of alum. Being, however, exceedingly fugitive and changeable, it is not fit for painting; but is chiefly employed in dyeing silk, and colouring varnishes and cheese. Very red cheese should be looked upon with suspicion, for although the admixture of anotta is in no way detrimental to health provided the drug be pure, it is commonly adulterated with red lead and ochre. Several instances are on record that Gloucester and other cheeses have been found contaminated with red lead, through having been coloured with anotta containing it, and that this contamination has produced serious consequences.

_Bixine_ is a purified extract of anotta made in France, and used by dyers.

164. _Antimony Orange_,

Golden Sulphur of Antimony, or Golden Yellow, is a hydro-sulphuret of antimony of an orange colour, which is destroyed by the action of strong light. It is a bad dryer in oil, injurious to many pigments, and in no respect eligible either in water or oil.

165. _Chromate of Mercury_

has been improperly cla.s.sed as a red with vermilion, for though it is of a bright ochrous red in powder, when ground it becomes a bright ochre-orange, and affords with white very pure orange tints.

Nevertheless it is a bad pigment, since light soon changes it to a deep russet colour, and foul air reduces it to extreme blackness.

166. _Damonico_,

or Monicon, is an iron ochre, being a compound of raw Sienna and Roman ochre burnt, and having all their qualities. It is rather more russet in hue than the pigment known as orange or burnt Roman ochre, has considerable transparency, is rich and durable in colour, and furnishes good flesh tints. As in orange ochre, powdered nitre may be employed in its preparation. Notwithstanding its merits, it is obsolete or nearly so; doubtless because burnt Sienna mixed with burnt Roman ochre sufficiently answers the purpose.

167. _Gamboge Orange._

On adding acetate of lead to a potash solution of gamboge, a rich bright orange is precipitated, which may be washed on a filter till the was.h.i.+ngs are colourless, and preserves its hue with careful drying. The orange which we thus obtained stood well in a book, but it cannot be recommended as an artistic pigment. Perhaps in dyeing, the lead and gamboge solutions might be worth a trial.

168. _Laque Minerale_

is a French pigment, a species of chromic orange, similar to the orange chromate of lead. This name is likewise given to orange oxide of iron.

169. _Madder Orange_,

or Orange Lake. It has been said that the yellows so-called produced from madder are not remarkable for stability, differing therein from the reds, purples, russets, and browns. Like them, this 'orange' is of doubtful colour and permanence, and not to be met with, brilliant and pure, on the palette of to-day. The russet known as Rubens' madder has a tendency to orange.

170. _Orange Lead_,

of a dull orange colour, is an orange protoxide of lead or ma.s.sicot.

Like litharge, it may be employed in the preparation of drying oils, and, being a better drier than white lead, may be subst.i.tuted for it in mixing with pigments which need a siccative, as the bituminous earths.

Minium sometimes leans to orange; and there is made from ceruse a peculiar red, _Mineral Orange_.

_Orange Orpiment_,

or Realgar, has also been called Red Orpiment, improperly, since it is a brilliant orange, inclining to yellow. There are two kinds, a native and an artificial, of which the former is the _sandarac_ of the ancients, and is rather redder than the latter. They possess the same qualities as pigments, and as such resemble yellow orpiment, to which the old painters gave the orange hue by heat, naming it alchemy and burnt orpiment. Orange orpiment contains more a.r.s.enic and less sulphur than the yellow, and is of course highly poisonous. It is often sophisticated with brickdust and yellow ochre.

172. _Thallium Orange_

is produced when b.i.+.c.hromate of potash is added to a neutral salt of the protoxide of thallium, as an orange-yellow precipitate. The scarcity of the metal precludes their present introduction as pigments, but if the chromates of thallium were found to resist the action of light and air, and not to become green by deoxidation of the chromic acid, they might possibly prove fitted for the palette. It is a question whether their _very_ slight solubility in water would be a fatal objection; and, although they would be liable to suffer from a foul atmosphere, we are inclined to think the effects would not be so lasting as in the chromates of lead. Like lead sulphide, the sulphide of thallium ranges from brown to brownish-black, or grey-black; and, like it too, is subject to oxidation and consequent conversion into colourless sulphate.

It is, however, much more readily oxidized than sulphate of lead; and hence the thallium chromates would doubtless soon regain their former hue on exposure to a strong light.

Mr. Crookes, who discovered this new metal in 1861, believes that the deep orange shade observable in some specimens of sulphide of cadmium is due to the presence of thallium. He has frequently found it, he says, in the dark-coloured varieties, and considers the variations of colour in cadmium sulphide to be owing to traces of thallium. That thallium affects the colour is most probable, but it is not necessarily the cause of the orange hue. The tint of cadmium sulphide is a mere matter of manufacture, seeing that from the same sample of metal there can be obtained lemon-yellow, pale yellow, deep yellow, orange-yellow, and orange-red. With deference to the opinion of a chemist so distinguished, we hold that thallium rather impairs the beauty of cadmium sulphide than imparts to it an orange shade, the thallium being likewise in the form of sulphide, and therefore more or less black. On chromate of cadmium, made with b.i.+.c.hromate of potash, thallium would naturally confer an orange hue.

173. _Uranium Orange_

is obtainable by wet and dry methods as a yellowish-red, or, when reduced to powder, an orange-yellow, uranate of baryta. It is an expensive preparation, superfluous as a pigment.

174. _Zinc Orange._

When hydrochloric acid and zinc are made to act on nitro-prusside of sodium, a corresponding zinc compound is formed of a deep orange colour, slightly soluble in water, and not permanent.

For a secondary colour, orange is well represented on the modern palette, and can point to some pigments as good and durable as any to be found among the primaries. Burnt Sienna, cadmium orange, Mars orange, neutral orange, and orange or burnt Roman ochre, are all strictly permanent. The so-called orange vermilions were, it will be remembered, cla.s.sed among the reds.

As semi-stable, must be ranked chrome orange; and as fugitive, Chinese orange, orange orpiment, and orange lead.

From the foregoing division, the predominance of eligible orange pigments over those less trustworthy is manifest. Unfortunately, with many painters it is not so manifest that their secondary and compound colours should receive as much attention as the primaries, and that it is their duty, not only to the art which they practice, but to the patrons for whom they practice it, that their orange and green and purple hues, should be as durable as their yellows, reds, and blues. For such, the introduction of a new permanent pigment is of little interest, unless its colour be primary; so wedded are they to that pa.s.sion for compounding which the chemist views with dismay. With dismay, because he knows that the rules of mixture are severe, and cannot with impunity be altered; that, although disguised in oil or gum, each pigment is a chemical compound, with more or less of affinity and power, more or less likely to act or be acted upon. Because he knows that, except with the most experienced artists, compounding leads to confusion; and that in it the temptations to use semi-stable or fugitive colours are strong. Look at those tables of mixed tints of which artist-authors are so fond, and tell us whether they always bear scrutiny--surely not. Admirable, perfect as these tints may be in an artistic sense, how often is their beauty like the hectic flush of consumption, which carries with it the seeds of a certain death. Will that orange where Indian yellow figures ever see old age, or that green with indigo, or purple with cochineal lake? Will they not rather spread over the picture the Upas-tree of fugacity, and kill it as they die themselves!

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE SECONDARY, GREEN.

Green, which occupies the middle station in the natural scale of colours and in relation to light and shade, is the second of the secondary colours. It is composed of the extreme primaries, _yellow_ and _blue_, and is most perfect in hue when const.i.tuted in the proportions of three of yellow to eight of blue of equal intensities; because such a green will exactly neutralize and contrast a perfect red in the ratio of eleven to five, either of s.p.a.ce or power. Of all compound colours, green is the most effective, distinct, and striking, causing surprise and delight when first produced by a mixture of blue and yellow, so dissimilar to its const.i.tuents does it appear to the untutored eye.

Compounded with orange, green converts it into the one extreme tertiary _citrine_; while mixed with purple, it becomes the other extreme tertiary _olive_: hence its relations and accordances are more general, and its contrasts more agreeable with all colours, than those of any other individual colour. Accordingly it has been adopted very wisely in nature as the common garb of the vegetal creation. It is, indeed, in every respect a central or medial colour, being the contrast, compensatory in the proportion of eleven to five, of the middle primary _red_, on the one hand, and of the middle tertiary _russet_, on the other; while, unlike the other secondaries, all its hues, whether tending to blue or yellow, are of the same denomination.

These attributes of green, which render it so universally effective in contrasting colours, cause it also to become the least useful in compounding them, and the most apt to defile other colours in mixture.

Nevertheless it forms valuable semi-neutrals of the olive cla.s.s with _black_, for of such subdued tones are those greens by which the more vivid tints of nature are opposed. Accordingly, the various greens of foliage are always more or less semi-neutral in hue. As green is the most general colour of vegetal nature and princ.i.p.al in foliage; so red, its harmonizing colour, with compounds of red, is most general and princ.i.p.al in flowers. Purple flowers are commonly contrasted with centres or variegations of bright yellow, as blue flowers are with like relievings of orange; and there is a prevailing hue, or character, in the green colour of the foliage of almost every plant, by which it is harmonized with the colours of its flowers.