Bistre (or bister) can refer to two things: a very dark shade of

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be compose ...

ish

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model ...

(the version shown on the immediate right); a shade of brown made from

soot Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed ...

, or the name for a

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

resembling the brownish pigment. Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

ish cast.

Beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

wood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

s used bistre as the ink for their drawings. The first recorded use of ''bistre'' as a color name in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

was in 1727; another name for the color ''bistre'' is soot brown. __NOTOC__

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

normalized color coordinates Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside o ...

for bistre brown are identical to the color names drab,

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

, and mode beige, which were first recorded as color names in English, respectively, in 1686, 1925, and 1928.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199

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 France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. For pictures of bistre colored

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s, see the

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: ...

on the color Bistre in the French Wikipedia.

Spanish bistre

Spanish bistre is the color that is called ''bistre'' (the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

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 Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere). In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...

realm.

Drawing made with the pigment bistre

References