Half-lights

Colors that aren’t colors

Picasso, Guernica, 1937

During some centuries, white and black were considered colors and were located at the scales’ extremes. In fact, along with red and ochre, they were the first pigments used in the History of Painting. However, after Newton’s research about light properties, nowadays they can’t be considered colors anymore, even if our perception reflects the opposite. Now we know that white is pure light, which includes all the other colors in the spectrum, and that black is the absence of light, since it doesn’t emit any kind of wave. That’s why they aren’t seen in the two-dimensional chromatic scales. Their technical name is “valeurs”, first used by Eugène Fromentin in 1876. A scale that goes from white to black, through every shade of gray is called “achromatic scale” or “scale of valeurs”.

(Image: C.del Rosso)

“Valeur” is also one of color’s dimensions, in terms of light or darkness that every color contains. For example, pink is a red with high valeur (closer to white), while burgundy is low valeur red (closer to black). A painting is well painted when the valeur contrast is composed consciously and harmonically. After the impressionists, who developed their style in harmony with Chevreul’s light researches, there is only color contrast when there is  valeur contrast.

Caravaggio, St. Jerome writing, 1605
(Grisaille: edited image, C.del Rosso)

Gray is just a weak white light. It’s not just a mixture of white and black, but it could be any tertiary or quaternary color, what we would usually call a dun color.

¿Is it possible to paint “achromatically”? Yes, of course. It’s a quite old technique, named “grisaille”, which consists in painting with a scale of grays or valeurs (and if it’s with any other color, it’s a monochromatic painting). It was first used during the Middle Ages to represent statues in the canvas’ two-dimensional plane, and to give an impression of bas-relief. During Renaissance, it was usual to use the grisaille as basis and then add layers of transparent colors (“glazes”) until the required tone was achieved. This technique was used for a long time (Van Dyck, e.g.)

We can point out some other examples of paintings done with grisaille: Ingres’ Odalisque in Grisaille or Picasso’s Guernica.

Ingres, Odalisque in Grisaille, 1834

Sources: Dittmann, L. Farbgestaltung und Farbtheorie in der abendländischen Malerei,

 Darmstadt, WBG, 1987;

Doerner, M. Malmaterial und seine Verwendung im Bilde, Stuttgart, Enke V. 1989;

Welsch, N.-Liebmann, C.Chr. Farben. München, Elsevier V., 2004

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