Another excellent background is a tone of rich deep sapphire blue

Another excellent background, and one which gives color and interest, is a tone of rich deep sapphire blue. This is especially good with iron gray hair, and rather warm complexion. To paint this, use Antwerp blue, white, a little madder lake, ivory black, raw umber, and a little cadmium, adding yellow ochre and burnt sienna in the darker parts. A good tone of rich, warm brown is useful for gentlemen's portraits. This is also largely qualified with grays, and is painted with bone brown, yellow ochre, white,burnt sienna, ivory black, with permanent blue added in the cooler gray half-tints. Such a background is employed by Bonnat, the celebrated French portrait painter, in nearly all his portraits. He makes it appear like a shadowy distance by using the blue-gray tones with the brown to give atmosphere behind the head.

Another well-known  French artist, Chaplin, uses almost invariably a tone of light gray made apparently of every color of the rainbow, put on in touches somewhat like mother-of-pearl in effect. These men are such masters of their art that they can afford to be peculiar. It is not well to follow such mannerisms, however, as in other hands they become mere imitations and lose their character. Carolus Duran, the great colorist and famous portrait painter, is most realistic in all his effects.  His favorite backgrounds are the velvet and plush portieres already mentioned, with rich rugs on the floor combined with some simple and appropriate accessories. In bust portraits, where only a simple tone is used, he is always careful to place the exact color of the background behind the head of the sitter while painting, so that the values may be correctly studied. As has already been suggested, this is an excellent method and should be closely followed by the student.