44 
THE PARIS EXHIBITION, 1867. 
[Nature and Art, February 1, 1867. 
present day, and I do so not only for the information 
of my readers, but also because it affords me a 
sincere pleasure to speak of them in the highest 
terms. It is to them that the water-colour painter 
is indebted for the means of carrying out his most 
elaborate works, as well as his slighter sketches. 
Indeed, there is neither hindrance nor imperfection 
in the material offered to him, whereby he is pre- 
vented from giving every effect of which colour is 
capable, whether in its extreme softness and delicacy, 
its richness of colour, both pure and broken, or its 
transparent brilliancy and depth of intensity. To 
Messrs. Winsor & Newton, of Rathbone Place ; Mr. 
Newman, Soho Square; Messrs. Rowney, Rathbone 
Place and Oxford Street ; Mr. Roberson, Long 
Acre ; and Messrs. Reeves & Son, Cheapside, I 
offer many thanks for the perfection and purity of 
their colours, both in the moist and dry states. 
For permanency, for firmness of texture, evenness of 
flowing in flat washes, freedom from deposit, or any 
gelatinous and slimy nature, readiness for use, per- 
fection in numberless combinations, and freshness of 
tone, it is impossible to wish for any improvement. 
They have, without doubt, reached the highest 
degree of excellence to which they can be brought. 
However vivid the power of imagination, how- 
ever intricate or simple may be the subject to be 
worked out, the water-colours from the above- 
named houses will be found equal to the task, and 
will justify the remarks made upon them, as they 
are in every way calculated to satisfy the wishes 
and requirements of all — even the most fastidious. 
The colours most adapted for the amateur are, — 
Chinese white, in bottle 
or tube. 
Gamboge. 
* Naples yellow. 
Indian yellow. 
Raw sienna. 
* Cadmium. 
* Neutral orange, f 
Light red. 
Burnt sienna. 
* Vermillion. 
Rose madder. 
Crimson lake. 
Brown madder. 
Van brown. 
Brown pink. 
* Indian red. 
Cobalt. 
French blue. 
Iudigo. 
Sepia. 
* Oxide of chromium. 
Those with a * to be half-cakes, or pans. 
There are other colours of much use to an artist 
whose works go far beyond those of an amateur. 
f Messrs. Winsor & Newton make this colour. 
THE ' PARIS EX 
T HE works on the Champ de Mars have been 
pushed on with remarkable energy and 
regularity ; the whole of the industrial galleries, or 
courts, were ready to receive their fittings in the 
course of December, the roofs glazed, the iron-work 
painted, and the floors all laid by the end of the 
year that has j ust departed. 
The plan adopted with respect to the flooring- 
strikes us as somewhat singular. The whole of the 
passages left for the circulation of the public, those 
which lie in concentric circles and divide the various 
groups of the Exhibition, as well as those which 
radiate at right angles to the former, and supply 
direct communication between the outer wall of the 
building to the central garden, are laid in cement, 
while the Industrial Courts are boarded. Again, 
the Fine Art Courts have cement floors, while 
those adjoining, in which the collection of retro- 
spective art is to be placed, are floored with oak 
parquet. 
Cement floors have certainly an advantage with 
respect to noise and dust, they conduct sound badly 
and having no spring the dust is not thrown up- 
wards as it is constantly by an ordinary floor ; but 
this latter advantage will probably be neutralized 
by the constant movement of feet, and especially by 
ladies’ dresses ; and it is very fatiguing to stand 
long on 'a cement floor. This will doubtless be 
remedied in the Picture Galleries by matting or 
carpet, but the same cannot be the case in the 
avenues of the Industrial Courts, which are pierced 
at short intervals throughout their whole course by 
gratings communicating with the great ventilating 
HIBITXON, 1867. 
shafts beneath them. It is a source of congratula- 
tion that the report relative to the use of asphalte 
within the building turns out to have been unfounded, 
or, at any rate, that no asphaltic floors appear, for in 
hot weather the effect of these is most fatiguing and 
disagreeable. 
The variety of flooring adopted in the Exhibition 
will offer valuable means of comparison and hints 
for the construction of museums and galleries in 
general, and it is probably with this view that the 
Imperial commission has made use of four different 
kinds ; namely, common wood, oak, and cement 
of two kinds, one being what is called beton agglo- 
mere , a kind of concrete trodden or beaten down, 
which is largely used in Paris. The concentric 
avenues, as well as the vaultings of the ventilating 
passages beneath are of the latter composition, 
while the radial avenues are laid in cement. A 
small house for the Imperial Commission is now 
being built entirely of this beton, in the grounds. 
The building will supply many valuable lessons, 
and, amongst other's, in the modes of lighting and 
in the tempering of the light. The arrangement 
of the windows is different in each portion of the 
structure — clerestories in the great Machinery Court 
and in the principal avenue ; lights in the central 
portion of the roofs, in the Fine Art and Retrospec- 
tive galleries, and in the lower or outer parts of 
the roof, in the Industrial Courts. With regard to 
the graduation or tempering of the light, opaque 
screens are hung from the tie-rods of the l’oof of 
the Picture Galleries, so as to place the spectator 
in the shade while the light falls on the works on 
