Handbook of young artists and amateurs in oilpainting : being a condensed compilation from the celebrated manual of Bouvier ... appended A new explanatory and critical vocabulary

Front matter

OF THE

U N I V LRS ITY Of ILLI NOIS

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Preface

with the most minute detail. Nor in the hints I have adopted from other authors, and in the matter I have here and there added of my own, do I think that I have ever forgotten this principle of procedure.

But let it not be supposed that with this initiation of the young, the as yet “ profanum vulgus,” into the mysteries of our art, the Handbook finishes its functions. The forty-three years^ study and experience, the great good-sense, sound perceptions, and perfect sincerity of the artist-author whom I have chosen as my principal guide, and the undiminished popularity of his Manual, not only with learners but with artists of established name, (indeed we may say with all in any way connected with the art, including the manufacturers of its materials), on the continent of Europe, — added to this, the care bestowed by the compiler in the diligent collation of other authorities, — warrant the assumption, that even for the professed artist there will be found something useful in the following pages ; and a translated passage, which on the fifth page takes the place of a motto, shows that Bouvier himself anticipated such an extension of the field of his usefulness.

Nor to these two classes alone do I think the work confined. Besides the “ amateurs ” that are intended in the title (amateur-painters doubtless), there is another kind that never assume the pencil, many of

PREFACE.

which claim and are allowed the designation even of connoisseurs, without that knowledge of the art which I do insist upon it is essential, not only to form a judge of its beauties, but to make one really their ardent and consistent, certainly their enlightened lover. It cannot, I think, be doubted, that a true relish of any of the arts can only be possessed after some acquaintance with the modes by which their results are attained. It needs not, it is true, that one should write verses, carve statues and compose music, to be a judicious lover of all those arts to which such performances belong, though to be a thorough judge of them I think it does ; but it is very sure, that to love them with a true perception of their beauties one must know in each by what principles it is governed in its operations, or, in the phrase of M. de Quincy, what are the Nature, End, and Means of the Imitation* it proposes as its object. When this knowledge is possessed, the pleasure that they give, in their more successful achievements, amounts to rapture ; and the possessor is fairly entitled to speak of them as one who in a measure knows. Without it, the love is capricious, weak, uncertain, a transient emotion, like all feelings that are not well founded,

* M. Quatremlre de Quincy published a volume with this title, as translated by Mr. Kent in 1837, (Lond. 8vo,) It is a work of interest and instruction, that I can safely recommend.

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PREFACE.

and as likely to be directed to an unworthy object as to one of merit, if not more so ; while to attempt to pass judgment, is a presumption for which the critic himself, when at a later day more enlightened, will in secret blush under his own reproof.

This of course will be contested ; but I appeal, for the truth, nay, for the moderation of my assertions, to those who are witnesses of the daily follies perpetrated in the name of criticism in matters of art, of which the very presumption of the judgment marks too evidently that it came from no legitimate tribunal.

Now the reading, I think, of this treatise, though it cannot supply in any respect the want of those higher works which treat of the theory of the art, and of which there are great numbers in all languages, and very many of the best of them within the reach of even cisatlantic amateurs, will be not a little useful to promote that appreciation of painting, and that discrimination of what in it is really good, which are particularly desirable at the present moment, when we are opening our eyes, as a people, to the advantages of its cultivation. — Further, the last division, or Part VII., of the treatise will be found of service to the mere owners of paintings, who are apt to suffer from their confidence in pretended picture cleaners and restorers, a confidence that even so

PREFACE.

XI slight a Knowledge of their practice, as is here (consistently with the limits of the work) presented, would better direct.

Remember, this volume is a compilation, and merely put forward as such, though one of much labor as I shall directly show ; for, except in matters that depend not for their ascertainment upon long experience, but simply on observation, study, and general theoretical knowledge, I have never presumed to advance any counsel of my own in important points, where to follow it might be attended with bad results, reserving it (saving in the matters just excepted) for trifling details of practice, or common manual operations, in which an experience long and diligent like Bouvier’s, or an extensive practical knowledge like that of other authorities consulted, was noway needed.

This I should have done in any event, but writing anonymously it becomes to me imperative. Hence for the preceding remarks on the utility of this handbook, I have no occasion to plead the argument of the facetious Tuscan :

Lecito ad un’ ignoto e gloriarsi, .

Sometimes, when unknown folk surround you^

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PREFACE.

Nay, as a compilation of any sort falls under the category of those “ lower employments of life ” in which Dr. Johnson chose to class the labors of his Dictionary, where one is “ exposed to censure without hope of praise ” and where success is without applause, and diligence without reward, it may be allowed me to assume a like privilege with that formidable name, and show what I have done to reduce, into a little world of order, the somewhat chaotic mass of Bouvier’s abundant and valuable elements, and to make, to the system when reduced, such additions as would render it more fertile in good results. Now that the task is over, which I had not undertaken had I anticipated half its difficulty, I am well satisfied, feeling only a regret that I had not met with the original manual at an earlier day and been thereby tempted, as I might have been, to do what I have done now, which would have spared me in not a few particulars what I hope to spare the reader in all, infinite pains and worse than profitless experiment. Can I, as an artist, well say more ? Indeed, until I

To whom you are unknown, ’tis fair to mention

Your claims to worth, that they may not confound you

With vulgar men, but show you due attention :

(Bkrni. Orl. Innarn. i. 2,c. xx i.)

an illustrious exampl of which politic immodesty, by the by, wa# Ulysses in the palace of Alcinous.

PREFACE.

Xlll had entered fully on this my task, with the volume before me, carefully reading and weighing all the matter, to select what would be for my purpose, I did not know all that I had lost by the want of it at the outset of my own studies. That many more will be ready to acknowledge the same, when they turn ovei these pages, I have not the shadow of a doubt.

But no one can conceive the difficulty the writer has undergone in unraveling the knot of Bouvier’s labors ; for such it is, despite its value and its fidelity, a voluminous confusion of precious principles and discoveries, results of experience, processes of operation, etc., etc., all mixed together, appearing, disappearing and reappearing in different parts, and covered up moreover, if not at times concealed, by an immensity of verbiage, such as at his age (“ natura loquacior”) its excellent author might indulge in, where delivering his Lessons* by word of mouth and to a familiar pupil. I trust I have overcome thi? difficulty completely, but I assure the reader who i? to profit by my industry and patience, that in the course of a long and more or less constant experience in letters I have never before, save on one occasion, suffered such accesses of nervous irritability as in the drudgery of this last and least performance.

In fact, even when disentangled of its numerous

• Bouvier has so termed the divisions of his book.

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PREFACE.

and perplexing repetitions, and when cleared front the ambiguity of its uncertain and (considering its subject) dangerous style, the work remains a perfect Don Juan of didactic prose. The good old artistteachei, like the great bard in that striking poem, leaves his subject half way in the division of his work that he has himself assigned to it, and talks of various other topics in the art which rise up in connection, and pursues these latter till the real theme is lost, to be taken up again, when we least look for it, in some other part, which in its turn it has usurped as its own was usurped before. This in a didactic work becomes exceedingly embarrassing, and more than half the force of his instruction, which, this digressiveness apart, no man is better qualified to give, evaporates. To take an image from our own art, it is as in some picture, where the design and composition are both masterly, but the chiaroscuro badly managed, so that all unity of effect is lost, and the eye distracted by a variety of little lights of equal power scattered everywhere, and never knowing on which one to fix, — the picture sinning thus against the unimpeachable principle of all art, and producing a bewilderment not unaptly compared, by artists and connoisseurs, to the Babel of a company where everybody should attempt to speak at once. Yet such as he is, we may adapt to this

PREFACE.

XV amiable artist-author in his own sphere some such expression as the witty and vivacious Hamilton applies in eulogy to the philosopher of Chaeronea, whose features as a biographer he had been playfully sketching,* and claim for him the merit of being, of all instructors in the practice of the art, the one to whom a tyro-painter may easily owe most.

Begging pardon for this egotism., into which I have been led by accident, I will merely add, that the difficulty of the task as here recounted should be the completest evidence that I can offer, of the value I set upon the Handbook, now presented, as a guide to all young artists and to amateurs. It had been so much easier, and so much more meritorious in the eyes of the artist- world to write a volume of one’s own, that when in preference I give the pith of another’s composition, remodelling it in its arrangement, clearing it of its ambiguity, and changing altogether its desultory, involved, and rather garrulous style, putting, in a word, its various confused but mostly precious pieces together in their proper places, now diminishing, now enlarging them, and now again substituting a corrector part, and adding to the elaborate mosaic, so as to make one uniform whole whose various derivation shall not be perceptible, the equally valuable materials gathered from various other sources, usually of a

’ In the (of their kind, incomparable) MSmoires de Grammont

XVI

PREFACE.

higher classification still, — when, I say, I present so elaborate a compilation, whose most favorable reception can bring me no honor, though, I may be permitted to repeat, it would have been so much easier to have written out a volume exclusively my own, which, in case of its success, would have satisfied ambition and given pleasure to vanity, it must be evident that I have thought the present work would be greatly more complete from its minute detail, more worthy of confidence from the reputation and experience of the authors, and more directly advantageous in all points of view to the class of persons to whose use it is especially dedicated.

In this work, as I have written it, I shall be found to have used few expressions that are purely technical. For the explication of these few, should they despite the context, present any difficulty, the student is referred to the Dictionarrj of Terms at the end of the volume. In this Dictionary, which as being a work of my own left me more unrestrained, I m€iy be thought by some persons to have given too much space to philological criticism, besides entermg toe much into detail, in some other particulars, rather theoretical than practical ; as, for example, in considering the words jEsthetic, Ectype, Eurythmy, Impasto- Incarnate^ Isabelle, Lazzi, Nimbus, Relief, etc., etc. but they must remember, that, though no longer in

PREFACE.

XVI the pinnace of my commander, I am yet steering for the same port. My object is the instruction, not of artists, but of those that would be such ; and with the high idea I have of painting, and of its professors (as they should be), my duty could not otherwise have well been done than as accident has made me find it my delight to do it. “ You must know,” says the old Cennino — as Mrs. Merrifield translates him, “ that painting pictures is the proper employment of a gentleman ; and that with velvet on his back he may paint what he pleases and to be a “ gentleman,” or (as we should say, in modern times, in the phrase of Cennino), with broadcloth on his hack, the painter should not only use the language of his art with propriety and understanding, but with elegance.

Finally, the Index, at the close of the treatise, is one of those things that I consider necessary in all such books as the present. Its uses need no explanation ; nor will the young artist be slow in availing himself of such an assistance. First, however, let the book be well gone through, not once, but twice, adding thereto the Dictionary just mentioned, which contains much useful information on some of the most important and best established principles of the art. A. A.

New York, April, 1845.

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST

“ Imagine not that the profession of a painter is that of an idler ; on the contrary, it is of all occupations the one perhaps that requires most activity ; for one is constantly engaged, if not with the art itself, at least with its materials.

“ All true artists will tell you, that if the art of painting were not in itself replete with charms, as in fact it is for all those who practise it with love, it would be a very painful pursuit, so many precautions are there to be taken, so many things to be calculated, foreseen, and prepared, independently of the considerable time which must be consecrated to it for the art itself, if one would make progress.”

Thus says the excellent Genevan, whom I shall so often present to your respect and affection ; and it is but simple truth. How indeed should it be otherwise with the profession of a painter, since it is so in every part of life ? Mentally, morally, physically, our whole existence is a struggle against obstacles. Happy he, not who has the fewest to encounter, but who has the most spirit and perseverance to surmount them, or the resignation to submit to disappointment, when they prove insuperable !

XX

ADDRLSS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST.

But courage ! the way though difficult, — arduous ana perplexing more than you can yet conceive, has been trodden without fear by multitudes, and with good success by not a few ; there is no reason then, that, with zeal and constancy, the same Alps should not be climbed, the same valleys descended into, still ; and the guides we have provided for the perilous and toilsome way are of the best that could be had, long experienced in the route, faithful in their undertaken duties, and animated with a heartfelt interest in the success of the adventurous traveller whose, steps they have professed to lead. All that is needed is perseverance. If this be not, better at once give over the attempt ; for be assured that without it there i^.- no real genius. No, not in anything ! And here, in this particular art, the great Da Vinci has made it a test of real aptitude for its pursuit, maintaining that to be dis heartened by its difficulties, or to weary of its toil, is 8». proof that the desire for success therein is a mere temporary emotion, the child of vanity and caprice, such as is born to thousands, and not the legitimate offspring of a genius for painting : which be assured is rational discourse. These thousands that I speak of, are they nai seen daily in the sister-art of poetry (that twin that never should be separated, though too often found so, from her womb-fellow, whom she loves with ardor that is seldom more than feebly returned, and to whose side she would ever cling, but that the latter is, in many ways, for ever repulsing her sweet advances), — do we not see them as

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST.

xxi

Vicn AS with us, rhymers for occasion, as there are painters for the friend’s or parent’s parlor ? To be such is not difficult : here in this very volume will such aspirants find all that is needful fcr instruction. But I will suppose you animated with a loftier and a steadier fire. You will not then be chilled at a first, no, nor second, nor yet a third failure : do what you will, most if not all of the errors, that are particularly noted in the treatise as incidental to beginners, will be more or less conspicuous in your early essays. But you are taught, that they are errors ; and you will correct them.

What Winkelmann says of the fine arts in general,* may be applied to their practice in every particular instance ; that is to say, as they have had their childhood and pubescence, in which only the bombastic and wonderful gave pleasure, so through all time the commencement of the art in each individual painter displays, with very rare exceptions, the wish to excite admiration by means which more experience, and a taste more highly cultivated, teach him to reject. If, as that judicious, though enthusi-

Xlii ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST.

astic scholar conjectures, the earliest painters jf immortal Greece designed not otherwise than her first good tragicpoet composed, so in all time the first paintings of every artist will be but as the first attempts at verse of every poet, displaying power perhaps, but little regulated, and ^ taste in its immaturity, or under the evil rule of a dominant vanity.

Further, in all human performances, the violent and impetuous, the volatile and superficial, go before; they are the un weighed action and the glittering but unsubstantial product of ill-regulated talent, pleased with its own exertion, excited by the anticipation of its longed-for triumph, and dazzled at the crude splendor and florid unsubstantiality of its own success : slowly after them, but eventually to take the lead and long to keep it, march the grave and solid, the steady, self-collected, and sedate ; the long-meditated, but perhaps rapidly executed achievements of well-grounded principles, whose base is nature, and whose structure analysis and the sober observation and comparison of known results.*

Winkelmann’s object, however, is to institute a comparison favorable to that noble simplicity and calm grandeur (“ die edle Einfalt und stille Grosse”) which everybody acknowledges, by his heart if not his lips, to be one of the divinest characteristics of a

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST.

XXlll

And as for what concerns the mere management of the pencil in every part, it is evident that a watchful, diligent, and thoughtful practice, a practice that is not merely of the hand and eyes but also of the mind, preceded, followed, and sustained throughout by judicious and incessant observation and comparison, will be needed even here. But why need I dilate on what must be self-manifest? Even Titian, we are told, was hard at first, — (and we can readily suppose it ; his very anxiety to render nature with exactness would lead him into such a fault) ; and do we not know that RaphaeFs early style was stiff, and that he has left examples, dry* and destitute of fine relief ? The nice perception and the sensibility for colors are undoubtedly a gift of nature, as is the sense of melody ; yet how many from natural adaptation alone have become musicians ? And even these, rare as comets in the planetary system, the erratic meteors of brief and distant intervals, even these required practice, ere they manifested perfect skill.

plurali*/ jf the Greek statues, the essence of their typical divinity in fact, and to the observation of which I have no doubt was owing, as Winkelmann himself supposes, the chief merits of Raphael’s design. But that does not render the citation less apposite for my text, the sentiments of which I have sought to make respectable by associating them with those of so high an authority.

* Dry , and, above. Hard. — These are what we consider instances of the tse of terms in a sense “ purely technical,” as said on page xvi. : its ooject is to save a circumlocution that, if more intelligible, would be Jjss expressive. The beginner will consult the Dtctionary

XXiy ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG ARTIST.

Once more then, courage ! Though not here, as in some necromancer’s castle of antique romance, where merely to touch a forbidden sword, or wind the magic horn whose echoes threatened instantaneous annihilation, was to dissolve at once the baseless fabric of enchantment, is it needed simply to have firmness and a fixed resolve in order to conquer, yet to dare nobly (never rashly) is certainly the first step to victory. Never rashly ; no, the very first thing you should do, is well to ascertain your proper strength, and where your talent really lies, as the familiar poet, whom I shall be found to have more than one occasion to cite for your instruction, has so well advised ; for the rules of his art are those, in their abstract principles, which regulate your own :

Quid valeant humeri.”

A. A.

POSTSCRIPT-ADVERTISEMENT

Since this volume was prepared for the press, and accepted by the publishers, the author or compiler has thoroughly revised it, and added many useful little items from Mr. Field’s Chromatography y and from some other English works of the immediate period. His confidence tnerefore in its utility, to the Young Artist and the Amateur, is rendered if possible still more positive ; and he issues it now with the full assurance, that, for all that it pretends to teach, the Handbook will be found not wanting in any point of information made requisite by the present state of the Art of Oilpainting.

^ovembert 1845.

'. V X

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THE SEVEN PARTS OF THE HANDBOOK.

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

FIRST PART.

THE MATERIALS AND IMPLEMENTS OF PAINTING. Chapter I. List of the best colors employed by artist*^ with their quality as good or bad driers Page 1

II. Detailed account of the nature, properties, and uses of the various colors given in the preceding List i

III. List of all the colors at present employed in paint-

ings arranged in three elassesy according to their d::> gree of fixedness or permanence

IV. Brief account of the nature^ properties and uses of

such pigmentSy in the preceding Listy as have not already been described in Chapter 11.

V. Summary of the opinions generally received with regard to the solidity of the various colors now in use for oilpainting. 54

VI. Methods of making certain colors that are not to be obtained at the shops, but yet are indicated in the preceding chapters 59

VII. Manner of burning Venice Lake or Carmine, to deepen their toney and add solidityy — an invention of M Bouvier’s 65 xxviii

Contents

Vlli. Of prepared colors^ and of the manner of keeping

them when in quantity 66

IX. Of the different oils used as vehicles of color 70

Chapter I

LIST OF THE BEST COLORS EMPLOYED BY ARTISTS, WirH THETR QUALITIES AS GOOD OR BAD DRIERS.

We commence our compendium by giving, with but little modification, the list of pigments and colors with which Bouvier precedes the first of his Lessons. In Chapter II. will be found a full statement of their characters, uses, and, where requisite, their mode of preparation.

This List its author calls a tested or approved one ; and he adds, therein, to each color, its quality as a good or bad drier. A useful indication, which we follow.

WHITES.

No. 1. Krems, or Silver White. The finest preparation of the oxyd or subcarbonate of lead. It dries rapidly.

No. 2. The ordinary and cheaper Whitelead ; which may be used (though there is no advantage in such economy) for grounds, &c. Its drying-quality is of course the same.

HANDBOOK OF OILPAINTING.

Observ. We class the Krems and Silver White as onej because the latter name is merely significative of the brilliant and pure whiteness of the preparation ; and tlie designation, at first confined to a French manufacture {Blanc d’argent), is now applied to all whiteleads of equal quality, without regard to their place of origin. (See note to No. 1 of the next Chapler.) Flake A kite is a similar material, though generally reputed of greater body. It derives its name from its form in commerce, coming to the shops in flakes or scales, as the Krems White (which, being received directly from Vienna, has also been known as Vienna White) is imported in small cubical masses, and the Silver White proper appears in drops, that is, little cones. Flake White, when levigated, has been sometimes called Bodij-iohite, from the quality above named. Though formerly the white by preference, it is now but little used in comparison with the Krems, Kremnitz (see note as above), and Silver whites.

In fact the whites of lead cari only be truly classed according to their degrees of pureness ; the first or finest comprising a"'! the artist’s best lead-whites, whether of England, Frc-ioe, Austria, or Hungary ; the second, common, yet unmixed Whitelead ; and the third. Ceruse, which is whiteF-:3.d w’.th different chalky earths in various proportions.

YBLLOWO-.

No. 3. Naples Yellow. Fries well.

No. 4. Yellow Ochre. Dries slowly, when used by itself.

No. 5. Brown Ochre, or Homan Ochre ; a dusky, brownish yellow. Dries better than the preceding.

COLORS IK ¥SE.

s

No. 6. Indian Yellow. Requires Drying-oil, or o^her desiccative agent.

REDS.

No. 7. Light Red. Dries quite well.

No. 8. Brown Red. Same property.

? 'o, 9. Vermilions, bo:h European and Chinese. Dry slowly,

fb*. 10. Madder-Lakes, of different degrees of intensity, h bv' I file Rose to Crims -m. Dry very slowly.

No. 11. Burnt Carmine, or Bt. Venetian Lake. Dries

N:i. 12. English Red (^Prussian, or Venetian Red), Dries tolerably. — Bt. Italian Earth ( Terre PItalie ; Terra

Italia) is a very fine deep brownish red, of powerful tone ; but according to Bouvier it has a great tendency (like other bituminous earths), to darken by age : hence he omits it in the List, substituting this safer pigment. In respect of solidity, however, it will be seen, in Chapter III., that a reliable authority ranks this ochre, when burnt, in the first order of colors. It is without doubt to be classed in its raw and calcined state with Raw and Burnt Sienna.

BLUES.

No. 13. Ultramarine, of the various qualities and degi ees of intensffy. Dries slowly, by itself.

No. 14. Prussian Blue. A good drier.

No, 15. Smalt. Dries quickly.

No. 16. Cobalt or Thenard’s Blue. Less promptly than last.

Note. Never use in oil either Ultramanne-ashes, or Antwerp Blue, or Indigo ; nor any other blue but those just

HANDBOOK OF OILPAINTING.

indicated. They will either take a greenish cast, or darken, and are only good or tolerable as watercolors. •

BROWNS.

No. 17. Raw Sienna Earth. Dries with difficulty.

No. 18. Burnt Sienna Earth. Same character.

No. 19. Brown of Prussian Blue (made, that is. from the calcination of Prussian Blue ; a discovery of a. ft iend of Bouvier’s, which will be fully descilbed in its o'acu.) This is from the French Prussian Blue, and whe^ ;he operation has been fully successful, is of a fine hi< .* le. It dries well.

No. 20. Broim of Prussian Blue; from the fJngli.ih fabric. It is of another hue, as will be presently sho'^c.. It dries tolerably.

No. 21 . Ashphalt, or Bitumen. Dries with great difficulty.

No. 22. Cassel Earth. Dries very slowly.

No. 23. Cologne Earth. Dries very slowly.

No. 24. Composite Brown. (An occasional mixture of great variety, prepared on the palette.) Dries very slowly.

BLACKS.

No. 25. Ivory-Black (very black). Dries with aiff. culty.

* And even as a watercolor, Antwerp, otherwise Mineral Blue, is said by writers on Miniature to be not permanent : fading in the air and light, and darkening when deprived of them. It is but a modification of Prussian Blue, containing more of alumen. As for Ultramarine- ashes (which is the residue of the lazulite after its pure blue is extracted), Mr. P'ield considers it, in its different shades, an “extremely useful pigment” for the composition of greys with white. But, observe, it is but the refuse, after all, of n precious color.