Selected And Restricted Palettes. Continued

Yellow ochre. Raw sienna.

Vermilion. Rose madder. Purple lake.

Cobalt blue.

Raw umber. Vandyke brown. Ivory black.

The following are water-colour palettes: Alfred W. Hunt, seventeen pigments, and in addition Chinese white:

Lemon yellow. Gamboge. Yellow ochre. Raw sienna.

Vermilion. Light red. Indian red. Madder lake.

Terre verte.

Cobalt. Ultramarine. Ultramarine ash. Smalt.

Madder brown. Raw umber. Burnt sienna. Burnt umber.

Sir John Gilbert, R.A., fifteen pigments:

Chinese white.

Yellow ochre. Raw sienna.

Vermilion. Light red. Venetian red. Indian lake.

Cobalt.

Artificial ultramarine. Indigo. Prussian blue. Antwerp blue.

Burnt sienna. Vandyke brown. Ivory black.

The selection of a good set of permanent or fairly permanent pigments must depend to some extent upon the idiosyncrasy of the artist, upon his training and methods of work, upon the class of subjects with which he deals. As a good general working set for oils, the following selection is offered. It is arranged in two sections, the second including what may be called 'supplementary' pigments:

Section I. includes 12 pigments.

Flake white. Cadmium yellow. Aureolin. Yellow ochre.

Vermilion. Madder carmine. Light red.

Viridian. Artificial ultramarine.

Raw umber, Cappagh brown. Ivory black.

Section II. includes 12 pigments.

Raw sienna. Naples yellow. Baryta yellow.

Purple madder. Madder brown. Cobalt violet.

Green oxide chromium.

Terre verte.

Cobalt green, light.

Cobalt. Prussian blue

(insol.). Burnt sienna.

Emerald green is excluded, since it cannot be safely associated with cadmium yellow, but there is no reason why several more pigments should not be added in Section II., other than the desirability of limiting the number of paints to those really required. Garance dorée, Rubens' madder, deep cobalt-green, burnt umber, Verona brown, vine black, and graphite might be added to the list. On the other hand, further restrictions become by practice possible. One does not know what white, vermilion, yellow, and vine or charcoal black can do until one has purposely debarred one's self from the employment of any other coloured pigments. Here are two such restricted palettes:

I. Flake-white, yellow ochre, light red, cobalt, ivory-black.

2. Flake-white, cadmium yellow, vermilion, ultramarine, ivory-black.

A third restricted palette, containing ten pigments instead of five, is thus constituted:

3. Flake-white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, aureolin, vermilion, madder carmine, ultramarine, viridian, Cap-pagh brown, ivory-black.

It is scarcely necessary to say that the capacity of No. 1 for representing the range of natural hues is extremely limited; indeed, it is fitted only for 'dead colouring,' and for the 'first painting.' With No. 3, however, we can imitate with a near approach to exactness all the pigments excluded from this palette, and we may therefore regard it as practically complete. Some of the hues obtained by the mixtures which it is necessary to employ for this purpose will be a little less luminous than the originals, since these hues will have been produced by the increased absorption of certain elements of the incident white light - they are consequently duller, or have more grey in them. This palette, No. 3, is nearly the same as one devised by the late Mr. P. G. Hamerton (Portfolio, 1876, p. 132), which was constituted of flake-white, pale cadmium, yellow ochre, vermilion, rose madder, artificial ultramarine, emerald oxide of chromium, Vandyke brown, black. I have added one pigment, aureolin, and have substituted for pale cadmium, full cadmium yellow; for rose madder, the more stable madder carmine; and for Vandyke brown, Cappagh brown. Mr. Hamerton tested the range of his restricted palette by imitating with its constituents many of the excluded pigments.

I give some of his results, as modified by my own experiments with my palette No. 3.

Naples Yellow

Imitated by flake-white, with cadmium yellow and a trace of yellow ochre: exact.

Lemon Yellow

Flake-white, cadmium yellow, with a trace of viridian: less brilliant than the original.

Cadmium Orange

Cadmium yellow, with vermilion: less brilliant.

Light Red

Vermilion, yellow ochre, Cappagh brown.

Venetian Red

Vermilion, yellow ochre, madder carmine, a little Cappagh brown: exact.

Indian Red

Vermilion, trace of yellow ochre, madder carmine, ivory black: a good match, but less translucent.

Cobalt Blue

Artificial ultramarine, flake-white, a little viridian: less translucent; does not match cobalt blue by artificial light.

Prussian Blue

Ultramarine, black, a trace of viridian: lacks the translucency and depth of the original.

Raw Sienna

Yellow ochre, aureolin, Cappagh brown.

Burnt Sienna

Madder carmine and Cappagh brown, with a trace of vermilion: less translucent.

Emerald Green

White, cadmium yellow, viridian, artificial ultramarine: not so brilliant as the original.

Malachite

White, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, viridian, ultramarine.

Terre Verte

White, aureolin, viridian, ivory-black.

Cobalt Green

Ultramarine, viridian, trace of flake-white.

Indigo

Ultramarine, with black and trace of viridian: very close.

Vandyke Brown

Cappagh brown, with much madder carmine and a little ivory-black.

It is needless to multiply further our illustrations of the resources at the command of the painter who limits himself to our restricted palette of ten pigments (No. 3, page 295), as experimental trials of its capacity are easily made.