PREFACE
This handbook first appeared in the spring of 1890; two years afterwards a second and revised edition was published. In 1901, when the work had been for some time out of print, a thorough revision of its contents was carried out, a good deal of new matter being introduced, while a few pages, which had been occupied by a digest of an important newspaper discussion on the effect of light upon water-colour drawings, were not reprinted. This account was omitted because it could no longer be contended that many English water-colour drawings, ex- posed to strong light for a considerable length of time, had suffered no change in hue and depth.
Various additions and corrections have been made in this, the fourth edition. A few of the paragraphs relating to rather recondite subjects have been abridged or even omitted. Indeed, an attempt has been made, in carrying out the present revision, to simplify, so far as possible, the way in which the results, obtained by chemists in the study of painters' materials, are presented to the artist and the student of art.
In the year 1908 a German translation of the third edition of this book was published in Munich. It was
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