Bistre

For the area of Buckley, Flintshire, Wales known as Bistre, see Buckley, Flintshire § Villages.

Le coucher des ouvrières, a wash painting using bistre pigment by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)

Bistre (or bister) is a pigment made from soot. Historically, beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their wash paintings. ^[1] Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast.

Bistre has also been used to name colors resembling the pigment, typically shades of brown. The first recorded use of bistre as a color name in English was in 1727; another name for the color bistre is soot brown. ^[1]

Variations of bistre

Bistre

Bistre (Bister)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#3D2B1F
sRGB B (r, g, b)	(61, 43, 31)
HSV (h, s, v)	(24°, 49%, 24%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(19, 14, 39°)
Source	99colors.net [2]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Dark yellowish brown
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Among other colors, bistre is the name of a very dark shade of grayish brown (the version shown on the immediate right).

Bistre brown

Bistre (ISCC-NBS #94) (M&P) (Bister Brown)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#967117
sRGB B (r, g, b)	(150, 113, 23)
HSV (h, s, v)	(43°, 85%, 59%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(50, 58, 58°)
Source	ISCC-NBS [3] /M&P
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Light olive brown
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color bistre brown, a medium brownish tone of the color bistre, also known as soot brown.

This is the tone of bistre that most closely matches the color sample in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color by Maerz and Paul. ^[4]

This tone of bistre is the color of the ink that was used by the Old Masters for their drawings.

The normalized color coordinates for bistre brown are identical to the color names drab, sand dune, and mode beige, which were first recorded as color names in English, respectively, in 1686, ^[5] 1925, ^[6] and 1928. ^[7]

French bistre

Bistre (Pourpre.com) (French Bister)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#856D4D
sRGB B (r, g, b)	(133, 109, 77)
HSV (h, s, v)	(34°, 42%, 52%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(48, 30, 55°)
Source	Pourpre.com [8]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Moderate olive brown
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color French bistre, which is the tone of bistre called bistre in the Pourpre.com color list, a color list widely popular in France.

For pictures of bistre colored postage stamps, see the French Wikipedia article on the color bistre.

Spanish bistre

Bistre (G&S) (Spanish Bister)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#80755A
sRGB B (r, g, b)	(128, 117, 90)
HSV (h, s, v)	(43°, 30%, 50%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(50, 22, 68°)
Source	Gallego & Sanz (2005)
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Grayish olive
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Spanish bistre is the color that is called bistre (the Spanish word for "bistre" is the same as the English word) in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.

See also

• List of colors
• Trois crayons

References

1. Maerz & Paul (1930), p. 190.
2. "Color Bistre | Hex Code #3D2B1F | RGB 61, 43, 31". www.99colors.net.
3. ISCC-NBS ^{[ usurped ]}
4. Maerz & Paul (1930), p. 53, Plate 15 Color Sample C9.
5. Maerz & Paul (1930), p. 194.
6. Maerz & Paul (1930), p. 204, Color Sample of Sand Dune: Page 47 Plate 14 Color Sample B5.
7. Maerz & Paul (1930), p. 199.
8. "Pourpre.com".

Bibliography

• Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones[Guide to Colorations] (in Spanish). Madrid: H. Blume. ISBN   84-89840-31-8.
• Maerz, Aloys John; Paul, M. Rea (1930). A Dictionary of Color. New York: McGraw-Hill.