Editing Bitumen (section)

=== Photography and art ===
Bitumen was used in early photographic technology. In 1826, or 1827, it was used by French scientist [[Joseph Nicéphore Niépce]] to make the [[View from the Window at Le Gras|oldest surviving photograph from nature]]. The bitumen was thinly coated onto a [[pewter]] plate which was then exposed in a camera. Exposure to light hardened the bitumen and made it insoluble, so that when it was subsequently rinsed with a solvent only the sufficiently light-struck areas remained. Many hours of exposure in the camera were required, making bitumen impractical for ordinary photography, but from the 1850s to the 1920s it was in common use as a [[photoresist]] in the production of printing plates for various photomechanical printing processes.<ref>[http://www.niepce.org/pagus/pagus-inv.html Niépce Museum history pages.] Retrieved 27 October 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070803222723/http://www.niepce.org/pagus/pagus-inv.html |date=3 August 2007 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/ The First Photograph (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091227215421/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/ |date=27 December 2009 }} Retrieved 27 October 2012.</ref>

Bitumen was the nemesis of many artists during the 19th century. Although widely used for a time, it ultimately proved unstable for use in oil painting, especially when mixed with the most common diluents, such as [[linseed oil]], [[varnish]] and [[turpentine]]. Unless thoroughly diluted, bitumen never fully solidifies and will in time corrupt the other pigments with which it comes into contact. The use of bitumen as a glaze to set in shadow or mixed with other colors to render a darker tone resulted in the eventual deterioration of many paintings, for instance those of [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]]. Perhaps the most famous example of the destructiveness of bitumen is [[Théodore Géricault]]'s [[Raft of the Medusa]] (1818–1819), where his use of bitumen caused the brilliant colors to degenerate into dark greens and blacks and the paint and canvas to buckle.<ref>{{cite news |last=Spiegelman |first=Willard |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204119704574236393080650258 |title=Revolutionary Romanticism: 'The Raft of the Medusa' brought energy to French art |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |location=New York City |date=21 August 2009 }}</ref>