George Field: born, Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire in about 1777; educated at St Peter's School, Berkhampstead; experimented with the application of chemistry to pigments and dyes; successfully cultivated madder, (a plant cultivated for dye); invented a 'physeter' or percolator acting by air pressure to produce coloured lakes or pigments; awarded the Society of Arts' gold Isis medal for the percolator, 1816, (the apparatus is described by in Society of Arts Transactions , xxxiv pp 87-94); continued to work on preparing colours for use by artists; other inventions included a metrochrome and conical lenses; died, Isleworth, Middlesex, 1854. Publications: Chromatics; or, an Essay on the analogy and harmony of colours (Newman, London, 1817); Chromatography, or, A treatise on colours and pigments, and of their powers in painting (London, 1835); Ethics; or, the analogy of the Moral Sciences indicated ; Outlines of Analogical Philosophy, being a primary view of the principles, relations and purposes of Nature, Science, and Art 2 vols (London, 1839); Rudiments of the Painter's Art: or, a Grammar of Colouring (London, 1850); Tritogenea, or, A brief outline of the universal system ; Dianoia. The third Organon attempted, or, Elements of Logic and subjective philosophy ; Aesthetics, or, the analogy of the sensible sciences indicated: with an appendix on light and colors ; The analogy of the physical sciences indicated ; Society of Arts Transactions , xxxiv pp 87-94.
From the guide to the FIELD, George (?1777-1854), [1804-1825], (Courtauld Institute of Art)
