Chapter II: Part 2

Though this system did not enter in the original plan of publication with the other, and I intended to withold it from the public a little longer, to see what reception the former should meet with; yet as it got vent by shewing it to few friends, and a gentleman offering me (in his opinion) a considerable reward to dispose of the secret in his favour only, I, to prevent some modern PLINY’s casting more direct reflexions upon me, without my having the skill of Apelles to uphold my reputation, at least thought proper to give them to the public both at once. To make discoveries that may be of infinite advantage to arts, subservient to private avarice, is the foible of a weak, jealous, and ill-natured mind.--Here follows the process; and first the preparation of the cloth.

ART. I.

_Preparation of the cloth, or paper, for painting with crayons._

First method to prepare the cloth without paper.

Take any sort of linen cloth whose texture is pretty close and even, stretch it upon a straining frame and rub it on the back with a piece of wax, as directed under Art. the first, page 26. your cloth waxed, prepare any tint or colour you like, or judge best for a ground to work upon, let enter into the composition of this tint or colour, one half, or at least one third of chalk or whitening, mix and temper all with pure water; your tint ready, paint over your cloth with it on that side you are to paint upon, and lay the colour on pretty even and substantially; this colour or ground dry, bring the canvas near the fire, as under Art. the fourth, page 35. and the wax melting will fix that colour or ground, which when cool will be a fit and firm body to work upon with crayons. Note, if the quantity of wax should prove too small for the quantity of colour, apply with a brush on the back some wax dissolved in turpentine, as described in the next page, and bring the canvas again to the fire. It is essential in painting with crayons to have the first ground properly prepared.

_Second method, to prepare cloth with paper pasted thereon._

Take linen cloth and stretch it upon a frame as the foregoing; then make a paste with fine wheat flour, or starch and water, and when the paste is near boiled enough, put in and mix with it of common horse-turpentine, about half an ounce to six ounces of paste, stir it well together, and let it simmer five or six minutes longer; then take it from the fire and set it by to cool a little, and while it is still tolerably warm, paste your paper (grey, blue or white) to the cloth in the usual manner, and set it by to dry.--In the mean time put wax, broken in small pieces, to dissolve in oil of turpentine near a fire, and in such proportion that, when dissolved and cold, it will be of consistence like a thin paste, and fluent enough to be managed with a brush.--When your cloth and paper is perfectly dry, hold it over or before a fire, at a convenient distance, and with a brush apply the dissolved wax on both sides to cloth and paper, and continue laying on wax till you perceive both surfaces equally shining, and there be no imbibed-like spot remaining; this done, let your cloth stand before the fire about half an hour longer, (or in summer in the sun,) and, the oil of turpentine evaporating, the wax will become firm again, and be fit to receive any tint or colour for a ground to work upon, which you must lay on and fix as the foregoing upon cloth without paper, and when cool you may go to work.

ART. II.

_Of the crayons their preparation and use._

PREPARATION. There is no particular or uncommon preparation or composition required for encaustic, all crayons hitherto commonly used may be employed; some great lights only will be wanted for every set of tints; for what has been said on colours, and their growing deeper when fixed with wax, _penciling system Art. II. page 29, 30_. holds equally here; therefore every artist, that may be inclined to make a trial in this manner, will do well to make an essay of all his tints, by preparing a piece of cloth as directed in the foregoing article, and giving a few strokes of each crayon and fixing it, this will immediately shew what new tints will be wanted.

In composing any new tint it will be well to leave out fullers-earth, pipe-clay, chalk, and other calcarious matters[13] which are generally used in the common way; the former--to bind the looser colours; the latter--to keep up the flake-white and white-lead, which otherwise would turn black; in encaustic those matters are wanted for none of the above ends; flake-white and white-lead will not change, and both together will make a body sufficiently connected to bind the lighter tints.

All colours used in oil and mentioned in the foregoing list, are good for crayons, and no others.

_Note._ What has been said at the end of the list of colours, that a few more colours, not commonly employed in oil, might be used for crayons, was a mistake of the author’s upon his experimental table; there are but two more that may be used for crayons, viz. bice and verditer.

_The use of the crayons_ in encaustic is the very same as commonly practised, there is no difference; you must work and paint upon the waxed ground as you do upon the bare paper. Encaustic has the advantage over the common way as to expedition. The fine grittiness procured by the particles of the chalk mixed with the ground you work upon, will _file_ off more colour from the crayon than the grain of the unwaxed paper; and the wax diffused through the ground will retain the colours better; so that when you sweeten your tints with your finger there will be no waste; for in working, the particles of the colour will intrude themselves into the body of the wax, which yields to them; which paper, bare or prepared with a ground tempered with gum or size, does not.

ART. III.

_How to fix the crayons._

For fixing the crayons you must act and proceed in every respect, according to the directions given _penciling system Art. IV. page 35, 36_, &c. you may retouch, and apply the dissolved wax on the back, and bring the picture to the fire as often as required.

_Observations on the system for painting with crayons._

For painting with crayons I should prefer cloth prepared according to the first method, without paper, for the same reason I gave for deviating from Count CAYLUS’S system, _page 48, 49_. however, artists may decide for themselves.

Besides the two methods mentioned for preparing the cloth, one might paint upon paper pasted upon cloth as directed, without first laying on any wax or preparatory ground; but such paintings would not have that lasting solidity they ought; besides, laying on a ground preparatory and analogous in hue to the subject to be painted, is more expeditious, as such a ground may be made to serve for a half tint, and answers the purpose of dead colouring.

Turpentine enters in the paste for one great and principal end, viz. to keep the particles of the paste a little asunder, and facilitate to the wax a free passage through it; for the particles of turpentine diffused through the paste, in melting, when the picture is brought near the fire, open so many equi-distant channels for the wax, which, by this means, can penetrate freely and uniformly, and diffuse itself over the whole in equal proportion; without the turpentine it would not succeed so well; the wax would only come through here and there; the colours would in a manner be calcined before a sufficient quantity could penetrate to secure them; for though there will be wax enough for the first fixing, yet, to alter or retouch, or where an extraordinary great body of colours might be employed, there might be a deficiency of wax, which cannot be supplied otherwise than by laying it on, on the back, and if it could not work its passage through the whole might miscarry.[14]

As few artists compose the crayons themselves, and as inserting directions for that purpose would have swelled this treatise too much; the author, for the conveniency of all practitioners has given the _recipe_ of proportion for composing every tint for what it is to be when fixed, to Mr. Sandys, colour-merchant, in Dirty-lane Longacre, of whom perfect sets may be had; and as the author has communicated the _recipe_, for binding the most difficult colours,[15] for the benefit of the art, without fee or reward whatsoever, those crayons will be sold at the usual price. At the above place, may be had cloth or paper ready prepared on short notice.

However, if any artist should chuse to prepare the crayons himself, he will do well to leave out the pipe-clay, fullers-earth, chalk, &c. as much as possible, and mix his tints as usual. The standard recommended under _Art. II. page 29, 30_. and explained _page 55, 56_. will be of service for ascertaining beforehand the value of each tint.

If any crayon prepared for the old way, should prove too hard for this, as may be the case with vermilion, bice, verditer, and the other looser colours, in whose composition enters a little paste to bind them, sprinkle those crayons with a brush dipt in spirit of wine, and they will become manageable.

GENERAL REMARKS

_On the apparent characters of encaustic paintings, on wax and
varnish._

The principal apparent characters of an encaustic painting are,

1. The colours have all the airiness of water colours, and all the strength of paintings in oil, without partaking of the apparent character, or defects of either.

2. You may look at and enjoy a picture in any light; the colours are bright, fresh and lively without glaring. They require no varnish.

3. The colours are firm, without being brittle, and will bear scratching without receiving any harm.

The effect of the colours is the same in both systems, each will have and preserve its peculiar character, as to the manner of painting; if you paint your subject in the light and airy stile of the Carlo Marat school, when the colours will be fixed you will have the high colouring of Rubens.

On WAX.

It is not material for me to decide which of the two ought to be preferably employed, bees-wax simple, or virgin-wax.--For large works that will be exposed to the air, I should prefer the former; artists will see by a few trials which will suit their taste best.

On VARNISH.

Varnishes are not required, as has already been observed; but as our eyes have been used so much to see colours, not in their natural hue, but disguised by varnish, those that should like to please themselves in this point may use the following method.

First lay on with a clean spunge a substantial lay of the white of eggs, and work it well upon the picture. This dry, lay on any varnish commonly used for oil painting, and your picture will look as if painted with oil-colours.

This varnish may be taken off at pleasure, the uppermost by rubbing the surface of the picture with a rag dipped in spirit of wine or turpentine, the white of eggs by washing the picture with water. It is not adviseable to lay a varnish of spirits or gums, without first using the white of eggs, as spirit of turpentine is the menstruum of wax.

EXPERIMENTS.

To adopt and practise in earnest any new system without sufficient trials and proofs of its merit, may be called going wilfully astray.--To avoid deceiving myself in the new system before us, I, after having been convinced of its advantageous practicability, set about to ascertain the other great point, the stability of the colours; for this end, and to know more exactly how much every colour would vary from its original hue in a certain space of time, as well in regard to the same system as in opposition to oil-colours, I proceeded as follows.

_Experiment the first and principal, 1757._

I had all the colours used in oil painting, mentioned in the foregoing list, carefully ground with water, at Mr. Sandys’s, colour-merchant, and from those colours I composed ninety various and sensibly differing tints, for flesh, drapery and landscape; of each tint I had a quantity of a two ounce gallipot full, tempered with water; so I left them well screened from dust till they were become dry again; then I divided each mass of tint in four equal parts; two of each I set by for the comparative use, the other two parts of each I employed in the following manner.

One part of each I tempered again with water, and painted with it over a space of cloth of six inches wide and two inches high, the tints close to each other, in the manner of copper-plate, _page 58_, and the cloth waxed as directed _Art. IV. page 26_. The same I did with the entire and unmixed colours.

The other parts of each tint I tempered with the finest nut-oil according to custom, and painted-over with them such another space of six inches by two, as the former, upon oil-cloth. The same I did with the entire colours, and set them by to dry; when dry, I brought the encaustic tints near the fire, and by melting the wax fixed them.

My tints thus ready, I cut each piece of cloth, encaustic and oil-tints, in five equal parts, and disposed of a piece of each in the following manner.

1. One piece of each I exposed in the open air to all the injuries of sun, dew, wind and rain.

2. One piece of each I nailed to a wall in a damp cellar-like room.

3. One piece of each I nailed to the ceiling of a kitchen and near the chimney, where all the year round a fire was kept.

4. One piece of each I nailed to the side of a room I usually inhabited.

5. One piece of each I put between several quires of paper, and confined them in a close drawer deprived of air.

Thus I left them, till the latter end of October, 1759, (the space of twenty-seven months) when I gathered them. Then I took the two parts of tints I had set by and preserved, and tempering the one with water, and the other with oil, painted the first upon a fresh piece of waxed cloth and fixed them, the other tempered with oil, I painted upon a fresh piece of oil-cloth, and after having washed the old tints, on comparing the new and old colours together found as follows.

The old encaustic entire colours and tints of number 1. seemed to have suffered a considerable change in opposition to the new ones, but compared to their old fellows in oil they looked bright.

I washed them both with common water, and a brush, the encaustic tints recovered a little; oil-tints not.

I brought the encaustic to the fire, and most tints recovered their original hue, and were equal to the new ones, _pinks_, _yellow-orpiment_, _lake_, _terra di Siena_, and _verditer_ excepted; the first was partly gone, what remained was dull; the second was grown whiter; _lake_ grown lighter, but had not suffered in beauty of colour; _terra di Siena_ crude, grown rough and dirty; _verditer_, a little dull.

No. 3. seemed to have suffered by the smoke; but after washing it with a stout brush, and soap and water, it recovered its original hue, _pinks_, _yellow-orpiment_, _smalt_ and _verditer_ excepted; the first was sensibly decayed; the second grown darker, inclining towards red-orpiment; the third grown dull, but mixed with Prussian blue it was as bright as the new; verditer grown dark and dull.

No. 2, 4, 5. were just as the new ones, there was no difference.

Oil colours did not stand the test so well; their general appearance in opposition to old and new encaustic,--was:

No. 1. weak, dull and dim, some entirely gone.

No. 2. freckled, of all sorts of hues, not to be washed off.

No. 3. darker, some dull, others dirty, some entirely gone.

No. 4. considerably yellower, and less bright.

No. 5. yellow-spotted, as if varnished with gall.

The foregoing tints were all fixed with virgin-wax, which I thought the best; but having at the same time and with the same colours painted upon cloth waxed with common yellow bees-wax, I found that the latter in the open air preserved the colours rather better.

_Experiment the second._

I washed the foregoing tints with _a strong lixivium of pot-ash, vinegar, spirit of wine, a solution of sea salt, and aqua fortis_.

By this operation the oil-colours were entirely destroyed, the encaustic suffered nothing, only _smalt_ grew darker; but after scraping it and bringing it again to the fire, it recovered its tone.

I have still a little scrap of a picture, a landscape, by me, which has undergone all the abovementioned trials and more, for I took it from the frame and folded it in four, put it upon the frame again, and brought to the fire and the folds disappeared,--the colours are as fresh as if painted but yesterday. On examining it close one may perceive it suffered violence, but at a yard’s distance no marks appear.

_Experiment on oil-colours._

Having perceived that oil-colours, painted upon a waxed ground always appeared brighter upon an oil-cloth; I, to come at the knowledge of the cause of this effect, contrived various experiments, but without success; at last I made microscopical observations, and found that oil-colours painted upon an oil-cloth undergo a great fermentation, five or six hours after being laid on, and continue so till they are dry. Then they begin to overcast, and by degrees cover the surface with a yellowish, grey substance, not to be washed or rubbed off but with a knife.

Among the very same colours painted upon an encaustic ground I could perceive no such fermentation, or overcasting.--From this we may conjecture that the priming, or ground we work upon is more the cause of the colours changing than the colours themselves, very likely owing to the desecated saline particles of the oil, which are dissolved by and mix with the new oil and colours; or to the superabundant quantity of salts contained in the ground or priming, which is generally composed of the coarsest oil and colours, and frequently half chalk.

_Though this latter experiment has nothing to do with encaustic, it will find its application and owner._

To prove the stability of encaustic colours, I have mentioned but two experiments; they are sufficient; from them we may draw the following

CONCLUSIONS.

First, that encaustic colours, having resisted the injuries of the weather better than oil-colours, for the space of twenty-seven months, they will prove more lasting than oil-colours for a greater space of time.

Secondly, that having resisted the effects of the corrosives, _alkali_ and _aqua fortis_, &c. the circumambient air, howsoever impregnated with saline particles, cannot affect them.

Thirdly, that if pictures of this kind receive any hurt, fire will restore them.

The most celebrated men of antiquity, celebrated the performances of their painters; if their colours had not been as lasting as their skill was great, some one might have left us regretful instances. They left us none.

Was WAX the preserver of their colours?

FINIS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

As the foregoing Treatise is written and published with an intention to communicate a discovery that will prove of infinite advantage to the loveliest of arts, in all its branches; the author, conscious of wanting the necessary qualifications of a writer in a language not natural to him, hopes for indulgence, for all the inaccuracies and improprieties of expression he may and must have fallen into: as to facts, he begs leave to assure the public, that nothing has been advanced but what is strictly true.

If any artist or others should in practising be at a loss or stand for any thing, the author shall always be willing and ready to give them farther light on any occasion.

The treatise on Practical Painting in general, which was to have been published together with this, as has been intimated to the public in an advertisement of the third of January, will be published as soon as possible; the author being engaged in a work of a very extensive nature, had not time to bring it in perfect order himself; a gentleman and friend of his has been so kind as to undertake the finishing and correcting of it; it will soon be ready for the press.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Philosoph. Transact. vol. xlix. part 2.

[2] Though the Abbé does not quote the passage, one may guess it must be the following the count undertook to explain. _Pliny_ lib. xxxv. chap. 11.

“Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere quis primus excogitaverit non constat: quidam Aristidis inventum putant, posteà consummatum à Praxitele. Sed aliquanto vetustiores Encausticæ Picturæ exstitere, ut Polignoti & Nicanoris, & Arcesilai Pariorum. Lysippus quoque Æginæ Picturæ suæ inscripsit, ἐνεκαυσεν, quod profecto non fecisset nisi encaustica inventa.”

_Which may be told in plain English thus_, “Who first invented to paint with (or in) wax, and burn in (or fix) the picture with fire, is not certainly known. Some think Aristides invented it, and that Praxiteles brought it to perfection; but there were pictures by masters, of a much older date; such as of Polignote, Nicanor and Arcesilaus, all artists of Paros.

“Lysippus writ upon his pictures he burnt in, which he would not have done if the encaustic had not been invented then.”

[3] PLINY is an evidence for this my opinion; for after having said, lib. xxxv. ch. 4. _Nicias scripsit se inussisse_, he says, _tali enim usus est verbo_. Which words seem clearly to indite that PLINY thought it equivocal, or contrary to its proper signification.

[4] Both pictures were disposed of as soon as finished to a Dutch gentleman, who sent them to Holland as a pattern, and were mightily approved of.

[5] Any sort of old cloth, if whole, is as good as new; I prefer the former to the latter for its softness. To ascertain a just proportion of wax to every sort of cloth is unnecessary, if you should either put too much or not enough, you may easily remedy it. See ART. iv. One single trial will clear up the incertitude.

[6] Entire colours are the white, red, yellow, blue, &c.

[7] See the nature of this better explained in the copper-plate at the end of observations of Art. 2.

[8] I prefer a fire of sea-coals because it is much more uniform, and does not emit so many sparks as wood or charcoals, which might injure the picture, though any fire with proper care will answer the end proposed; a German stove is still better than any fire whatsoever.

[9] You will easily know those places that shall want wax; they will appear like so many spots of a lighter hue.

[10] Any other spirit such as that commonly burnt in lamps, common gin, rum, or genuine brandy, will do just as well; spirit or oil of turpentine is very proper too; but as it smells so very strong, ladies and gentlemen that paint for their amusement only would not like it.

[11] The same might be practiced upon cloth, it would do better than only rubbing it with the chalk; but for painting with the pencil the bare cloth is still better.

[12] I am aware that every body will not enter into this doctrine at first, and some may think it very odd that a colour which is used in oil, should not sympathise with wax; the question is easily solved, the grinding stones unite oil and pinks, and bring them together by force, but experience shews it is but for a little while; the oil once dry, pinks soon fly off and fade away.

[13] Fullers-earth, pipe-clay, chalk, &c. ought to be left out, because they sink so very low when fixed with wax, and impart a great dullness to all those tints wherein they prevail; pipe-clay and fullers-earth a dusky transparent gray; chalk, a yellowish-white no-colour.

[14] Old crayon pictures may be fixed very well; the paste becoming old looses its cohesion; the wax may freely and uniformly penetrate through; they will want retouching. If any artist has a mind to try, he may do it with some insignificant subject for fear of miscarrying on a first trial.

[15] If this treatise should meet with such approbation as to require a second edition, the recipe for the composing of crayons will be inserted at full length.

TABLE of CONTENTS.

Introductory account of Encaustic
Painting page 1

Article the first, _preparation of the
cloth for painting in encaustic_ 26

Art. the second, _of the colours, and
their preparation and use_ 29

Art. the third, _how to paint over
or alter any part before the picture
has been near the fire_ 33

Art. the fourth, _how to fix the colours_ 35

Art. the fifth, _how to retouch any part
after the colours are fixed_ 40

Observations on Art. the first 41

---- _Count_ Caylus’s _method of preparing
the cloth_ 43

---- _Reasons for deviating from the
count’s method_ 45

---- _How to paint upon walls_ 49

---- _How to paint upon wood, stone_,
&c. 50

---- _How to paint upon paper_ 51

Observations on Art. the second; _on
grinding the colours_ 53

---- _How to ascertain the just value
of each colour_ 55

Observations on Art. the third, _advantages
of Encaustic painting over
oil and size-painting_ 60

Observations on Art. the fourth, _various
methods for applying the fire to
a picture_ 63

Observations on Art. the fifth, _on retouching
after the colours are fixed_ 67

List of the colours, _white_ 74

---- _Yellows_ 76

---- _Pinks_ 82

---- _Reds_ 84

---- _Terra di Siena_ and _terra verte_ 88

---- _Blues_ 91

---- _Blacks_ 92

---- _Collens earth_ 94

---- _Umbra_ 95

Method of painting with and fixing
of the crayons 97

Art. the first, _first method to prepare
the cloth_ 102

---- _Second method_ 104

Art. the second, _of the crayons; their
preparation_ 107

---- _And use_ 110

Art. the third, _how to fix the crayons_ 112

Observations _on the system for painting
with crayons_ 113

Remarks on the apparent character of
encaustic paintings 119

---- _On wax_ 121

---- _On varnish_ ibid.

Experiments 124

---- _First_ 125

---- _Second_ 134

Experiments on oil-colours 135

Conclusions 138

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.