A REVOLUTION IN OIL PAINTING.

Star (Christchurch), 6 February 1903, Page 2

A REVOLUTION IN OIL PAINTING.

"AN EPOCH-MAKING DISCOVERY." I have already referred at some length, says the Paris correspondent of the " Times," to the discovery, which, it hardly seems exaggerated to call epoch-making, by which the painter M. J. P. Raffaelli has succeeded in solidifyiug oil-colours into cylindrical sticks, resembling pastels so that painters in oil may henceforth dispense with the paint brush and the palette. The first solid colours of this soi't were made last February. In June they were pre* eeuted to the public, and on Nov. 25, at tite Durandl-ituei Gallery, in the Rue Laffite, Parisians were shown a remarkable exhibition of seventy-two pictures by twenty or more artists painted by the method of the Raffaelli solid oil-colour stick. . The art of painting with the brush ha 9 the primary disadvantage, of being slow. In 1 painting, as in the other arts, the creator is handicapped )by the incapacity to express himself as quickly as 116 thinks and feelfe. j The time taken to write de-wn one's Vef ies J or paragraphs or to mix -one-s colours may even compromise the perfect freshness, and therefore the quality, of the performance. With M. Raffaelli's colours, which tafceVtlp place of both the, old oil-colours and of ordinary pastels, and which contain exactly th* requisite quantity of oil, co that there is no danger of blackening of tone toy oxidation, a picture can be painted in la quartet of the time taken by the old system, and the artist can follow his thoughts much more rapidly.' The art of oil-painting is considerably simplified, and the artist's means of expression are augmented. The refined softness and luminous radiance of the pictures now exhibited! at the Durand-Ruel Galkry recall \he qualities of pastels ; but, unlike ordinary pastels, tile colours .are absolutely indelible, and therefore do- not requite fixatives. M. Rtifffteiii's discovery is no longer on its trial* \