IN this little book I have undertaken to lay before the reader the fruits of the labor of twenty-five years. As soon as I could understand and appreciate the splendors of the Grand Masters of painting, I had begun to form a determination to discover the technical principles, methods, and material that enabled the Masters to produce their work.

Therefore, the search for the Masters' technic became for me an all-absorbing life work to the exclusion of all else. This life work was more or less a...