
Web Archive:
John Talbot Dillon, Travels Through Spain, 1780. Chapter on: Kermes, Coccus, Grana.
Over 150 pigments are described by three 18th century authors. Robert Dossie was an English chemist, his The Handmaid to the Arts published in London in 1758. Jean Félix Watin was a French artist and colour merchant whose The Art of the Painter, Gilder & Varnisher appeared in Paris in 1773. Constant de Massoul was a French colour maker living in London and his Treatise on the Art of Painting and the Composition of Colours was published in London in 1797. As Dossie wrote, the pigments were all those in use by painters at the time.
The 18th century was the time of the first colour theories based on the mixing of colours, first classified as primaries and secondaries, the resulting theory of colour demonstrated by the colour circle. It was also the time of Newton’s breaking up of a ray of light to reveal the prismatic colours of the rainbow, introducing a new understanding of colour as light. This would be taken up by 19th century painters, notably Turner and the French Impressionists, to which Impressionists’ Palettes of Light in this series is devoted.
The essays by the Editor discuss these events and innovations, presented within the 18th century theme: to classify.

CONTENTS
Plates •1 to •8 – Moses Harris, Prismatic Circle, 1766
I. Schiffermüller, Attempt at a Colour System, 1772
I. Newton, Prism Breaking up a Ray of Light (1704)
Classification of Pigments – Animal: Cochineal
Vegetable: Madder, Buckthorn, Indigo
Presentation
Patricia Railing, Materia Pictoria – R. Dossie, Colour Classes; C. de Massoul, A View of the Different Colours Classed According to the Different Kingdoms from which they are Extracted; An 18th Century Theme: To Classify; Classification of Colour Names; Classification of Primary and Secondary Colours; Classification of the Pigments; Changing Systems of Classification.
Title Pages, Robert Dossie, The Handmaid to the Arts (1758), Jean Watin, The Art of the Painter, Gilder & Varnisher (1773), Constant de Massoul, A Treatise on the Art of Painting and the Composition of Colours (1797)
Naming the Pigments
The Pigments
Pigment Names
White
Red
Yellow
Green
Blue
Brown
Black
Plates – •9 to •21 Classification of Pigments – Mineral
ahoua berry | Red, carmine | Vegetable | |
Antwerp blue | Blue | Artificial | |
archal/orchal | Red | Vegetable | |
Armenus lapis | Blue, azur of copper | Artificial | |
ash blue | Blue | Natural | |
asphaltum | Brown | Natural | |
azur | Blue | Artificial | |
azur of copper | Blue | Natural | |
azur green | Green | Artificial | |
azure stone | Blue, lapis lazuli | Artificial | |
azurite | Blue, azur of copper | Natural | |
barilla green | verde barilde (It., Lomazzo, 1598) | ||
verde barillo (Sp., Carducho, 1633) | |||
bastard saffron | Red | Vegetable | |
bladder green | Green | Vegetable | |
bice | Blue, bice | Artificial | |
bistre | Brown | Vegetable | |
blue-bottle | Blue | Vegetable | |
blue verditer | Blue | Artificial | |
bleu de cendres | Blue, verditer | Artificial | |
bole | Red | Natural | |
bone black | Black | Animal | |
Bougival white | White | Natural | |
Brazilwood | Red, lakes | Vegetable | |
brown or English | Brown | Vegetable | |
stil-de-grain | |||
brown oker | Brown | Natural | |
brown pink | Yellow, stil-de-grain | Vegetable | |
brown pink | Brown, asphaltum | Natural | |
brown-red, bole | Red | Natural | |
brown-red, Spanish | Red | Natural | |
brown stil-de-grain | Brown | Vegetable | |
calcined hartshorn | White | Animal | |
calcined, burnt vitriol | Red | Artificial | |
carmine | Red | Animal | |
caput mortuum | see iron oxide group | ||
Cassel earth or Vandyke Brown | Brown | Natural | |
ceruse | White | Manufactured | |
chalk white | White | Natural | |
cinder blue | Blue | Natural | |
charcoal black | Black | Vegetable | |
cinnabar | Red | Natural | |
cobalt blue | Blue, azur | Artificial | |
cobalt glass | Blue, blue | Artificial | |
cochineal | Red, lakes | Animal | |
Crems/Cremnitz white | White | Manufactured | |
Crocus martis | Red | Artificial | |
Dutch pink | Yellow, stil-de-grain | Vegetable | |
egg-shell white | White | Animal | |
enamel blue | Blue, blue | Artificial | |
English brown-red | Red | Natural | |
English pink | Yellow, stil-de-grain | Vegetable | |
English stil-de-grain | Brown | Vegetable | |
English vermilion | Red | Artificial | |
flake white | White | Manufactured | |
gall stones | Yellow | Animal | |
gamboge | Yellow | Vegetable | |
German black | Black | Vegetable | |
green earth | Green | Natural | |
green verditer | Green | Artificial | |
Hungary green | Green | Natural | |
India, indigo | Blue | Vegetable | |
Indian blue | Blue | Vegetable | |
Indian red, common | Red | Artificial | |
Indian red, true | Red | Natural | |
Indian saffron | Yellow | Vegetable | |
Indian yellow root | Yellow | Vegetable | |
indigo | Blue | Vegetable | |
iris green | Green | Vegetable | |
iron-oxide group | |||
Italian earth | Red , Brown | Natural | |
ivory black | Black | Animal | |
king’s yellow | Yellow | Natural, Artificial | |
lakes | Red | Artificial | |
lamp black | Black | Vegetable | |
lapis Armenus | Blue, Azurite | Natural | |
lapis lazuli | Blue | Artificial | |
light pink | Yellow | Vegetable | |
lime white | White | Natural | |
litmus, or lacmus | Blue | Vegetable | |
logwood wash | Red | Vegetable | |
madder | Red | Vegetable | |
malachite | Green, Sanders green | Natural | |
Mars yellow | Yellow | Artificial | |
massicot, massticot | Yellow | Manufactured | |
minium | Yellow, orpiment | Manufactured | |
mountain blue | Blue, azur of copper | Natural | |
mountain green | Green, Sanders green | Natural | |
Naples yellow | Yellow | Artificial | |
ochre de rue, rut | Yellow, stream ochre | Natural | |
orange lake | Red | Vegetable | |
orpiment | Yellow | Natural, Artificial | |
peach black | Black | Vegetable | |
peachy wood | Red, lakes | Vegetable | |
pearl white | White | Animal | |
Persian earth | Red | Natural | |
powder blue | Blue, blue | Artificial | |
Prussian blue | Blue | Artificial | |
Prussian green | Green | Artificial | |
Prussian red | Red | Natural | |
realgar | Yellow, orpiment | Natural, Artificial | |
red-brown | Red | Natural | |
red lake | Red, lakes | Artificial | |
red lead | Yellow, minium | Manufactured | |
red ochre | Red | Natural | |
rose pink | Red, lakes | Vegetable | |
Rouen white | |||
rust of iron, red | see iron oxide group | ||
safflower | Red, bastard saffron | Vegetable | |
saffron | Yellow | Vegetable | |
sanders blue | Blue | Natural, Artificial | |
azur of copper, verditer | |||
sanders green | Green | Natural | |
sap green | Green | Vegetable | |
saturnine red | Red | Manufactured | |
scarlet oker | Red | Artificial | |
sea green | Green | Colour name | |
shellac | Red | Vegetable | |
sienna | Brown | Natural | |
smalt | Blue, blue | Artificial | |
Spanish brown | Red Brown | Natural | |
Spanish brown-red | |||
Spanish white | White | Natural | |
stag-horn black | Black | Animal | |
stil-de-grain | Yellow | Vegetable | |
stream ochre | Yellow, Brown | Natural | |
sun-flower blue | Blue | Vegetable | |
Troy[es] white | White | Natural | |
turnsole | Blue | Vegetable | |
tumeric | Yellow | Vegetable | |
turpeth mineral | Yellow | Artificial | |
ultramarine | Blue, lapis lazuli | Artificial | |
ultramarine ashes | Blue, lapis lazuli | Artificial | |
umber | Brown | Natural | |
Vandyke Brown | Brown | Natural | |
Venetian lake, fine | Red, carmine | Animal | |
Venetian red | Red | Natural, Artificial | |
verdigris | Green | Manufactured | |
verditer | Blue, Green | Artificial | |
vermilion | Red | Artificial | |
Verona earth | Red | Natural | |
vine black | Black | Vegetable | |
violet blue | Blue | Artificial | |
weld | Yellow, stil-de-grain | Vegetable | |
white lead | White | Manufactured | |
white of silver | White | Artificial | |
white of zinc | White | Artificial | |
yellow lead | Yellow, massicot | Manufactured | |
yellow ochre | Yellow | Natural | |
zaffre | Blue, smalt | Artificial |
18th Century Pigments
Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Self Portait with a Straw Hat, 1790. Detail. National Gallery, London
Pigments on palette probably
White lead, Naples yellow, yellow ochre, stil-de-grain, carmine, vermilion, red ochre… azurite, “carnation” – mixed white lead and vermilion for skin tones
Entries from Watin, Dossie, Massoul (see Treatises, Biblio)