Bistre

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

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

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

Bistre (or bister) can refer to two things: a very dark shade of grayish brown (the version shown on the immediate right); a shade of brown made from soot, or the name for a color resembling the brownish pigment. Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast.

Beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their drawings.^[1]

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 brown[]

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.^[2]

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

French bistre[]

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 article on the color Bistre in the French Wikipedia.

Spanish bistre[]

Bistre (G&S)

Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#80755A
sRGB^B (r, g, b)	(128, 117, 90)
HSV (h, s, v)	(43°, 30%, 50%)
CIELCh_uv (L, C, h)	(50, 22, 68°)
Source	Gallego and Sanz^[3]
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.

Drawing made with the pigment bistre[]

[Sex] workers at rest, a drawing drawn using bistre pigment by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806)

References[]

^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 53 Plate 15 Color Sample C9
^ Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones (Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guide to Colorations) Madrid: H. Blume. ISBN 84-89840-31-8

[1] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190

[2] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 53 Plate 15 Color Sample C9

[3] Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones (Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guide to Colorations) Madrid: H. Blume. ISBN 84-89840-31-8

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