[f. COLOUR sb. + -IST: perh. a. OF. coloriste in same sense.] A painter skilful in coloring; an adept in the art of coloring; a master of color.
1686. Aglionby, Painting Illustr., iii. 124. Excellent Designers, Admirable Colourists.
1695. Dryden, Du Fresnoy’s Art Paint., N. 200 (R.). Titian … and the rest of the good colourists.
1846. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. I. vii. § 17. Gainsborough … The greatest colourist since Rubens, and the last, I think, of legitimate colourists. Ibid. (1860), V. IX. 323, note. There have been only seven supreme colourists among the true painters.
attrib. 1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 220. The English school, despite our clouded skies, is essentially a colourist school.
b. fig. Also said of descriptive writers.
1756–82. J. Warton, Ess. Pope, II. 34. Spenser … was as warm a colourist.
1861. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., I. 442. Sackville … is almost as great an inventor as he is a colourist.
