t)tjffertation tn Painting In Oil* M9 



bright; but in his finifhed works they are of courfe more 

 blended. Every artill knows, or ought to know, that there 

 are but three primary colours, red, blue, and yellow ; the com- 

 pound colours, which refult from combining thefe, amount 

 to four, making in all feven. Red and blue, when mixed, 

 produce purple ; red with yellow, orange ; blue and yel- 

 low, green ; the three united, a brown, black, or grey, as 

 the warm or cold colours prevail. Thofe conllitute all the 

 colours and tints in nature, mixed with more or lefs white. 

 The fewer colours ufed by the artift the better he will colour, 

 from the pradlce being rendered fimple, and the poflibility 

 of muddling in fome meafure deftroyed : for, it is not the 

 mixing colours that hurts, but the mixing manj/'y two colours 

 will always be clearer than three, and fo on. Though the 

 above confiderations offer a fimple theory of colouring, yet 

 in praftice the artift muft have judgment enough to acquire 

 at once the precife tint he wants, to infure clcarnefs and bril- 

 liancy. The fingular fa6t of white appearing grey on a 

 brown ground, I (liould fuppofe to arife from white being 

 cold, and from its contraft with the brown. That a pi6ture 

 painted in brown and white fhould be in perfeft harmony is 

 not to be wondered at, as it can only be termed an effeft of 

 light and ftiade. The brown ufed by the Venetians has, 

 with great probability, been fuppofed a preparation of af- 

 phaltum. 



As the pradlice of glazing is the laft operation in paint- 

 ing, and as in the doing it the artift ufes in the fhadows 

 fome tranfparent dark colours, it of courfe follows, thofe 

 Ihadows muft be kept tenderer to receive the glaze, which 

 may be extended to the demi-tints if kept tender in propor- 

 tion alfo : this will produce the deceptive appearance Mr. 

 Sheldrake fpeaks of in the Venetian pictures, and do away 

 the weight refulting from mixing, as he fays, " fome dulky 

 colour with the local colours and the light." The above 

 method, with the pradlicc of fcumbling on the lights, or 



Vol. IV. K merely 



