DE MASSOUL, M. Constant (1721-1796)
A Treatise on the Art of Painting and the Composition of Colours Containing Instructions For All The Various Processes of Painting
London: T. Baylis, 1797. 8vo. (6 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches).
Tree calf with five raised bands and five gilt tooled compartments red morocco lettering piece in second compartment
A late eighteenth century practical manual on painting technique, colour preparation, and artists’ materials, published in London by a French colourman for a market of artists and cultivated amateurs.
This treatise brings together theory, studio instruction, and technical recipes at a moment when painting and drawing formed a conspicuous part of polite education in Britain. The title page advertises the author's New Bond Street manufactory, where Ladies and Gentlemen could be supplied with materials for painting and drawing, placing the book within the commercial culture of instruction, supplies, and amateur practice that surrounded late Georgian art. De Massoul opens with reflections on the utility and pleasures of painting before turning to the procedures necessary for different modes of the art. The work discusses oil painting, enamel, mosaic, fresco, gouache, miniature, watercolours, and crayons or pastel, with attention to grounds, pigments, binders, varnishes, and the practical behaviour of colour. Its value lies in this mixture of aesthetic instruction and workshop chemistry. Recipes for lakes, ochres, blues, greens, blacks, and other colours sit beside comments on the suitability of particular pigments for particular processes, giving a detailed view of late eighteenth century assumptions about permanence, brilliance, preparation, and use. The treatise is also useful as evidence of the English reception of Continental art instruction. It belongs to the same expanding culture as drawing manuals, colourmens catalogues, and practical books on polite accomplishment. Its combination of recipes, process descriptions, and market address makes it a valuable source for the material history of painting at the close of the eighteenth century.
Item #42690
Price: $2,000.00