The Use of a Box of Colours Part 8

When the vapours descend to the earth at sunset, all objects that the sun's rays do not reach become confused and dark; but those that are tinged with its light will appear of the colour of that light, and distinctly marked in their outlines, though surrounded by obscurity.

The magnificence of the setting sun, gilding with its rays the slopes of mountains and tops of forests, towns, villages, and waters, while all below is lost in deep brown, grey, and purple ma.s.ses, has ever been a favourite subject with painters of all schools.

The inferior or lower parts of all objects, when the air is thickest on the earth, will appear farther from the eye than the tops.

In looking down from an eminence on a street or town when the air is thick, the tops of the buildings will be darker, more distinct and articulate than the objects placed at the bottom, which, being filled with air, the tops come off it (as a ground) with more decision.

When the sun is veiled by clouds, in a landscape, the trees receiving a general light, the darkest parts will be the lowest.

Although the trees and fields may be of the same colour, the trees will always seem darker than the fields, from their quant.i.ty of shadow, notwithstanding every blade of gra.s.s has _its_ shadow.

The tops of all mountains will be more clearly defined than their bases, becoming more and more so as they rise into the thinner and purer regions of the air; and, as they still rise to their highest summits, the more they develope their form and colours.

All buildings will appear darker at the top than the bottom, from the lower parts being surrounded with thicker air of a lighter colour.

Buildings, or other objects, seen through a fog, only develope those sides which are reflected on by the sun; the other parts remain the colour of the fog. Beautiful combinations of silvery grey and golden reflections, on foliage, windows, boats, water, &c. may be made under these circ.u.mstances. As the outline becomes confused or lost, so the objects seen through it acquire magnitude. The fog and the object being both near the eye, its density will occasion the object to appear at a great distance.

Objects of all sorts, seen through rain, have an indistinct and undetermined outline, sometimes becoming greatly confused.

If the observer is placed _between_ the sun and a cloud of dust or smoke, they will appear dark. If they are seen between the sun and the eye, they will be light and transparent. This equally applies to the effects produced by fog.

Some artists represent water very dark or very light. It can neither be darker nor lighter than the surrounding objects which occasion its shadows.

If water is muddy or thick, the shadows of a bridge or boat would be projected _on_ it, as it would be on the ground. But if, on the contrary, the water is clear and transparent, all reflections are formed in it, as they would be in a looking-gla.s.s, and no lateral shadows occur.

How much _bluer_ the sea appears from on board ship than it does from the sh.o.r.e; because, _at sea_, the blue of the waves is reflected on the eye.

All objects in the distance, which are near a river or water, will appear less distinct than those that are remote from it.

All distances should have their outlines confused and unfinished, while foreground objects should be bold and determined.

Objects appear most remote that are divested of their outline, as in Turner's pictures--giving the idea of s.p.a.ce and largeness.

Of the beauty of reflexes, Da Vinci says: 'If you mean the proximity of one colour should give beauty to another that terminates near it, observe the rays of the sun in the composition of the rainbow, the colours of which are generated by the falling rain, when each drop in its descent takes every colour of the bow.'

Displaying the various colours that compose either the light or the shade, or lights and darks, that are to stand as such, into _large_ and subtly interwoven portions,--the blending and the opposition of hot and cold colours, and of light with dark, together with strict attention to their strength and relations (for the most discordant and opposite properties will produce harmony, under certain circ.u.mstances and arrangement), so that the _ma.s.ses_ of light and shade, and the _breadth_ of the whole, are not disturbed,--are the leading circ.u.mstances that should engage the anxious attention.

HARMONY AND CONTRAST.

HARMONY, as in Nature, is the agreeable _accordance_ of the various colours that form the _parts_ of a scene into a _whole_; divested, in their dispersion, of their harshness by the everywhere surrounding atmosphere: this may be tested by holding a piece of silk, the _exact colour_ of the gra.s.s at our feet, up against a field, when the field will become _grey_ in comparison.

The exact degree of strength, or of tone, greatly tend to reconcile the harmony of a picture.

Harmony consists more in the power of bringing colours together, than in the mere arrangement of the colours themselves.

Burnet, in his excellent Treatise, says--'When a picture is composed of the two _extremes_ of hot and cold, we are certain of having employed the whole strength of the palette; and, if judiciously used to a.s.sist the chiaroscuro, an harmonious union will be kept up between these opposite qualities, more forcible and splendid than by the _intervention of middle tint_;' but immediately after he adds--'In producing variety and contrast, we ought never to lose sight of that imperceptible harmony arising from the union of two colours in producing a _third_, composed of both. Whether this be founded on any law existing in optics, or is merely the result of that sympathy which one colour has to another in producing harmony, we know not.'

Any colour _too often_ repeated, will destroy its value in proportion to its repet.i.tion; but a continuation of the same colour carried with tact through the picture, from the highest light to the deepest shade, and strongly relieved by some colour of a different nature, produces the beautiful effect so admired in the Dutch and Flemish sketches of Vand.y.k.e and others; arising from the rich brown gradations, brought up to a 'high pitch' of red or yellow, or yellowish white, and subdued by a little cool grey, merging into blue or green.

Strong colours are generally more usefully applied in supporting the general whole, than by being employed on the more prominent parts of it.

They are equally useful in focussing the shadows, or in giving them variety.

If the mixture of many colours be unharmonious and disturbed, perplexity and confusion will be the result.

When the general character of a picture is of a cool grey, its influence upon the eye is of a very agreeable description, from its tender and soft transitions; but its spirit is roused into energy at once by the introduction of a warm colour; increasing, by its opposition of character, the harmony of the whole. A red cloak on a figure crossing a field will explain this.

In Du Fresney I find we 'are not to let two hostile colours meet without a medium to unite them.' Notwithstanding which, we see the contrary practised with the greatest success;--blue brought against red, for instance, the value of each increasing as they antipathize.

The hot and cold colours--the balancing power produced by their combinations--the arrangement that gives to every object its _place_ and value, are the princ.i.p.al circ.u.mstances that should engage the attention, when contemplating the works of the best colourists, or on gazing at a scene in Nature.

If the colouring of a picture is _too_ harmonious, it will want solidity.

EFFECT, ACCIDENT, RELIEF, AND KEEPING.

IN Effect, the means are widely different indeed which lead to the same result! Rembrandt, with his concentrated light and wide diffusion of shade--Rubens, and his school, with his splendid extension of light and of colour--Vand.y.k.e, with the Dutch and Flemish painters--t.i.tian--all arrive at the same end, although by the most opposite means. Some aim at a particular effect; others at a general one, proceeding from different combinations, and different views and ideas. All effects should be consistent with the subject treated. The effect will be more or less bad as the parts which are to const.i.tute it are more or less scattered or diffused. Ma.s.ses of light, supported and brought out by ma.s.ses of shadow, are the surest means of producing it. Effect is procured by the strongest opposition, and sometimes by the reverse. Arrangement and Expression is, in historical composition, much the same thing that Effect is in landscape-painting. On the other hand, particular effects mostly arise from circ.u.mstance. Sudden and startling effects are not unfrequently produced by a piece of charcoal on brown or grey paper; beautiful ones by the simple operation of the black lead pencil or stump, until we trace it up to the whole range of the palette, in the most splendid and magnificent efforts of colour.

Every part of a picture should occasion pleasure in detail! If we are fascinated with the colour of the highest or prevailing light, the most anxious care should be exercised that its influence does not destroy our admiration of the others: to avoid this prejudice, the princ.i.p.al light, or colour of it, should not be so influential as to prevent the eye being gently led away from it, by the repet.i.tion of a softer grade of its own, to others of a less imposing quality: that _must_ of necessity be there, to give value to, and influence the importance of the princ.i.p.al.

Effect consists in either lights and shadows, or _colours_, so ma.s.sed and blended in their arrangement, as to produce breadth.

The greatest power of Effect is often produced from the most simple materials. All the force of the palette, and all the strength of the master, is not unfrequently called into action by no other materials than a straight horizon meeting the sky, supported by an undulating line or two; and exemplifying the most scientific manoeuvres in the management of breadth, and in diversity of colour, on which the eye loves to dwell, and repose from the fatigue occasioned by a repet.i.tion of forms.

A dark object, placed against the most retiring or lightest part of the picture, while it acquires all the startling effect to be derived from great force, and is a resource so much adopted by the greatest landscape-painters, often, in my opinion, destroys the whole keeping of the work. Bringing such strong objects up against the sun, was the great vice of Claude; Cuyp and Both managed it better, but certainly not always with success.

KEEPING is a term in art which implies that every object and colour should be in its place;--the object, its exact s.p.a.ce to stand on, and the colours in strict harmony and accordance; each possessing the exact _strength_ which belongs to its situation in the picture.

RELIEF, and occasionally CHIARO-SCURO, which, by its arrangement of light and shade, describes the necessary forms that are to be revealed: this may likewise be effected by light and dark _colours_ alone, or by opposition of colours and sharp contrasts.

The highest point or ma.s.s of the light, from which the gradations radiate, should be kept very pure, allowing as little of the shade tint to insinuate itself as possible.

If the lights of a picture are _few_, it will mainly contribute to its breadth and repose:--if _many_, or _scattered_, the result will be confusion. I say, to keep the leading ma.s.s of light pure and _clean_, should employ our deepest attention.

When the attention is to be fixed to a particular object, the degree of power given to the accessories will alone establish its degree of consequence: but it must not be wholly insulated; those accessories, being the medium of its own importance, must contribute all to a.s.sist it to its place, without weakening its force or imparing its character; as the middle tints find their value and clearness only by the strength of the lights, and the depths of the darks.

Pictures, painted in a 'light key,' possess many advantages:--

Great breadth of Effect is produced by placing the princ.i.p.al ma.s.s of shadow on, or rather immediately under, the horizon; graduating upwards into the clouds, and downwards, in a long angle, to a broad light on the base line; on which a figure or any other object, however small, but darker than the rest, being placed, will produce an effect that has become extremely popular of late. This is equally applicable to landscape or sea pieces; and was a favourite arrangement of A.

Vandervelde. When the picture is mostly made up of half tint, his manner was to throw all the power of the palette into his figures; bringing them out strong, dark, and cutting on the foreground; and, in the retiring groups, diminishing the force as little as possible; keeping the shadows flat, and a little weaker in colour. This management produces one of the most powerful daylight effects, though not so aerial; but the sacrifice of the last is as nothing to the want of the former.

Atmospheric effect is scarcely missed when the whole is on so light a key, as the quant.i.ty of half tint employed renders it.