‘Characterization of Bistre Pigment Samples by FTIR, SERS, Py-GC/MS and XRF’Roldan, Maria L., Silvia Centeno, Adriana Rizzo, and Yana van Dyke. “Characterization of Bistre Pigment Samples by FTIR, SERS, Py-GC/MS and XRF,” n.d.

“Bistre, also known as bister, is a black-brown pigment primarily used in watercolor and for washes in pen and ink drawings. Its use dates from the seventeenth century, although it became more common in the eighteenth century linked to the development of the watercolor technique. Bistre was usually prepared from wood soot collected close to the flame. After collection, the soot was extracted with boiling water and the extract evaporated [1]. The final color of the pigment depends on the wood species and the preparation method, and it has been stated that beech (Fagus species) was preferred above other types of wood because of the brown hues that could be achieved [2, 3].” See rest of article for scientific information that could be useful potentially.

Gettens and Stout “Both mummy… and bistre … similar in color and composition” to asphaltum.
“Bistre (see also Asphaltum) is a brown water color pigment which is derived from the tarry soot of burned, resinous wood and beechwood. It is similar to asphaltum in color and composition. The color varies from saffron yellow to brown-black, depending upon the source and treatment of the raw material. It was sometimes mixed with red ochre to give it a warmer tone (see Meder, p.68). Church says (p.234) that the ground raw product is washed with hot water before it is mixed with hum and glycerine in the preparation of water color. The tarry nature of bistre (as with asphaltum) makes it an unsuitable pigment, except perhaps in very thin washes. He also says (p. 234) that exposure to strong sunlight oxidizes the tarry matter of bistre and the residual pigment becomes cooler in hue and paler. Tarry materials of wood origin have probably been used for centuries. Meder says (p.66) that first literary mention of bistre (caligo) was by Jehan le Begue in 1431; it had been used extensively, however, in Italian book illustrations in the XIV century. It was used by Rembrandt for wash drawings. It is still listed by artists’ supply dealers, but it is little used since it is admitted by them not to be permanent.”

Cotgrave Cannot find Bistre, though he gives an interesting entry on ‘Bitume: m. bitumen’
DMF : BISTRE n'est pas une entrée du DMF.

OED: Forms: Also bister. Frequency (in current use): Etymology: < French bistre, in same sense: see below. In form, bistre comes near to a series of Germanic words, Old Norse bistr angry, knitting one's brows, Swedish, Danish bister angry, fierce, raging, grim, Dutch bijster bewildered, Low German biester having lost one's way; also ‘dark, dismal, gloomy’ Flügel. Of these Franck takes the Flemish bijstier as apparently the most etymological form, and would refer it to a Germanic *bi-stiuri with the notion of ‘deranged, disturbed, amazed.’ If this be the derivation, these words can hardly be related to the French bistre, as they might be if ‘gloomy, dark’ were the radical notion. Mr. H. Bradley compares Old French behistre, beïstre, variant of besistre bissextile, meaning, 1. the bissextile day in February, 2. unlucky event, disaster, calamity, 3. ‘a horrible storm or tempest in the aire’ (Cotgrave); whence the notions of ‘dismal, gloomy, grim, raging, etc.’ might be plausibly derived; but historical evidence as to connection between the various words is wanting. A brown pigment prepared from common soot; the colour of this. 1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Bister, or Bistre, among Painters, a Colour made of Chimney-Soot boil'd, and afterwards diluted with Water.

In Atilf (TLFi - Trésor de la langue française informatisé, ATILF (CNRS & Université de Lorraine). Dictionnaire de référence en français contemporain et historique. ÉTYMOL. ET HIST. A. Subst. début XVIe s. B.-A. (J. LEMAIRE, [Œuvres, 3, 163] dans DG). B. Adj. ca 1570 couleur bistre (DALECHAMP, trad. de Galien, 590 [1609] dans QUEM.).

So an early reference in French to ‘bistre’ as a colour can be found in Dalechamp, Administrations anatomiques de Claude Galien. Traduictes fidelement de Grec en François, par M. Jaques Dalechamps, docteur en Medicine, et lecteur ordinaire de Chirurgie à Lyon. Corrigees en infinis passages avec extreme diligence du traducteur.

A link between medical texts and pigments, as we often see? Galen, the figure perhaps most associated with the humors (but also a lot of other medicine, so I am likely drawing connections where none exist).

Harley, R.D. Artists’ Pigments c.1600-1835: A Study in English Documentary Sources. Second revised edition. London: Archetype, 2001.

Bistre, ‘A brown pigment prepared from wood soot may have been used since very early times, but it is not specifically mentioned in English sources of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Hilliard’s reference to soot for shading brown or black gives no indication as to whether wood or coal soot is meant, and the latter seems most likely.’ Bistre, the French term, is listen in both of de Meyerne’s manuscripts and in Bouet’s book on miniature painting. In the English translation of Goeree’s book the colour is listed simply as ‘soot of wood. None of the four works listed is purely English in origin, and it is not until one reaches English sources dating from the second half of the eighteenth century that frequent references to bistre are to be found…’ ‘Bistre was used only in water-colour painting, for asphaltum provided a similar transparent brown in oils.’