A Handbook for Painters and Art Students: On the Character and Use of Colours, Their Permanent or Fugitive Qualities, and the Vehicles Proper to ... of Painting in Oils and Water Colours.
William J. Muckley
Paperback
(Independently published, June 30, 2019)
The appearance of this book is timely, and the author’s practical experience gives to it a high and peculiar value. Mr. Muckley has arranged his materials with care and tact, and thus afforded the student ready access to the fruits of his experience. Summaries of permanent, semi-permanent, and fugitive pigments are offered, and their utility is obvious. We notice among the permanent pigments is orange vermilion, the very colour which, in a highly commendatory letter acknowledging the dedication of the book to himself, is denounced by Mr. Poynter as not only dangerous, from the uncertainty attending the “preparation,” but unnecessary, and destructive, moreover, of the purity and delicacy of the tints. Opinions may, and do, differ extremely as to the latter part of this assertion of the R.A.’s, but it is unfortunate that these doctors should differ in so important a point as the true character of a pigment which stands nearly at the top of the scale of brilliancy. Again, Indian red is admitted into the category of pigments which are permanent in oil or water. We fear the ghosts of Robson and Barret could tell Mr. Muckley a different tale, especially when they saw what happens to this colour in combination with Antwerp blue. The last pigment is included with those of the second order of permanence, but we should rather rank it in the third—that is, among the fugitive materials. We are glad to see that Strontian and Orient yellows are denounced. Pure linseed oil is recommended; but how are you to get it? We are told that Messrs. Mander Brothers, of Wolverhampton, have made arrangements to prepare pure copal and amber varnishes for painters’ use. Let us see what the new Guild of Colour-makers, “Limited,” will do for artists.—"The Athenaeum," Volume 76 [1880]