The Use of a Box of Colours Part 4

Is there not practical wisdom in commencing every day with the steady effort to make as much of it as if it were to be our whole existence? If we have duties to perform, in themselves severe and laborious, we may enquire if there be not some way by which to invest them with pleasant a.s.sociations? How many men find their pleasure in what would be the positive horror and torment of the indolent, whose inefficient and shrinking spirit recoils from these tasks as insupportable burdens?

In exact proportion as you have cultivated your taste and education in this, as in all other things, will be your happiness and enjoyment in your productions.

In a work of this nature, tautology is not altogether unavoidable, as that which occurs in one division of it, equally applies to another.

I shall revert to the subject of light and shade again, under the head of its application to Colour.

ON COLOUR.

COLOUR, perhaps, is one of the most expressive languages we possess--the easiest understood by all.

'Style in painting,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'is, the same as in writing, a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed.

'When an opportunity offers, _paint_ your studies, instead of drawing them. This will give you such a facility in using colours, that in time they will arrange themselves under the pencil.

'If painting comprises both drawing and colouring, and if, by a short struggle of resolute industry, the same expedition is attainable in painting as in drawing on paper, I cannot see what objection can justly be made to the practice, or why that should be done in parts which may be done altogether.

'Of all branches of the Art, Colouring is the least mechanical.' We cannot measure colour by lines as we can drawing.

Art is not a thing merely to be admired, and with which the spectator has nothing to do, however much he may suppose it: he has perhaps, unconsciously, as much to do with it as it may have to do with him. A man, wholly regardless of art, will remember having seen a picture twenty years ago, when shown him again: its influence on his memory, his taste, or his pa.s.sions, could alone effect this.

'Colouring,' says Mr. Burnet, 'must either add to, or diminish the effect of any work upon the imagination; it must add to it by increasing, or diminish it by destroying the deception.' And he farther quotes this pa.s.sage from Addison: 'We cannot, indeed, have a single image in the fancy that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision that are most agreeable to the imagination.'

'We can form no idea of colouring beyond what has an existence in nature. From this source all our materials must be drawn.' And again:--'The artist must never forget that the mind is composed of ideas received from early impressions, from perceptions frequently occurring, and from reflections founded on such perceptions. Painting can reach the mind only through the medium of the eye, which must be gratified sufficiently to interest it in the communication.'

There should always exist a corresponding feeling between the subject and the manner of treating it.

The student should at least make himself acquainted with the leading principles of every variety of art; because, 'that which would be applicable to one style, would, in some measure, be destructive to another.' It matters nothing how _low_ the branch or particular walk he has chosen; for it will acquire quite another accent from his acquaintance with the higher, whose powers of fascination will in time imperceptibly infuse something of their own dignity into his works.

Something of this infusion has come down from the greatness, the grandeur, and severity of the Roman and Florentine schools, through all varieties they have pa.s.sed, to the modern. To reach this, however, the mind must habituate itself to become quite 'disdainful of vulgar criticism,' before it can well feel a congenial sympathy with these high lat.i.tudes, as well as having to unlearn much it has acquired.

There are many excellencies in painting not at all compatible with each other, and that should never occur together--not even to gratify that fastidious disposition that is dissatisfied with every thing short of perfection: lightness would seem to want solidity, while precision will have dryness and hardness. The excellencies of others frequently corrupt ourselves: just as one coat, however well made, will not adapt itself to two persons, any more than their talents will blend with and lessen our defects.

There is no particular style or branch of art, that the student may be in pursuit of, that does not possess some excellence or other--that is not alone, or at all, perhaps, to be found in the great manner of the Roman or Florentine schools of colour: in composition, breadth and arrangement (particularly of light and shade), and masterly treatment of colour, the Flemish and Dutch, as will our own school, furnish sufficient instances.

Light and shade, colour, novelty, variety, contrast, and even simplicity, all become defects in their excess!--the spirit of the rules by which they are regulated is to be more observed than their literal sense. It will generally be found sufficient to preserve this spirit of their laws alone, to which our ideas may be proportioned and accommodated.

Colour, in my opinion, is as useful in composition as lines: a few colours, scientifically woven together, will form agreeable composition of themselves.

Warm and cold colours, with their gradations and contrasts, lights and shadows with theirs, agreeing with and opposing each other, all struggling together (but that struggle _unseen_--the art _concealed_!) to the accomplishment of one object--the sweetness of harmony and union of the whole to one end.

OF THE THREE PRIMITIVE COLOURS.

THE Three Primitive Colours are the basis of a perfect system, and may be reduced, in order of degradation, into perfect black. Their communion comprehends all other colours; and their effects, under the influence of light and shade, make pictures.

Yellow is the light; Red, the medium; and Blue, darkness;--colours of themselves, that cannot be produced by the mixture of any other.

Hayter says, in his Compendium: 'Secondly--Yellow, red, and blue contain the sole properties of producing all other colours whatsoever, as to colour, by mixtures arising entirely among themselves, without the aid of a fourth.

'Thirdly--Because, by mixing proper portions of the Three Primitives together, black is obtained, providing for every possible degree of shadow.

'Fourthly--And every practical degree of light is obtained by diluting any of the colours, as above producible; or, in oil painting, by the mixture of white paint.

'Fifthly--All transient or prismatic effects can be imitated with such coloured materials as are of the Three Primitive Colours, but only in the same degree of comparison as white bears to light.

'Sixthly--There are no other materials, in which colour is found, that are possessed of any of the foregoing perfections.

YELLOW.

Yellow and Red make Orange, ORANGE.

Orange and Green make Olive, OLIVE.

RED.

Yellow and Blue make Green, GREEN.

Orange and Purple make Brown, BROWN.

BLUE.

Red and Blue make Purple, PURPLE.

Green and Purple make Slate, SLATE.

'These nine colours are all that are distinguished by integral names.

'Thus it will be seen, that Yellow, Red, and Blue produce--first, Orange, Green, and Purple; and these produce Olive, Brown, and Slate, making nine.

'Yellow, Red, and Blue, make Black.

'And this is the compendium and whole of the system of the degradation of colours into Black, or perfect darkness.

'WARM EFFECT is produced by 'White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Indigo, Black.

'COLD EFFECT is produced by 'Black, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Pale Yellow, White.'

The Three Primitive Colours, by the _endless_ varieties of their solvents, regulate, more or less, the whole economy of a picture; and the abundant stores of nature are faithfully imitated by their agency.

Thus, the Primitives being red, blue, and yellow, the colours produced by their combination are purple, orange, and green; these, in their turn, may be extended to every tint that exists. The junction of the Three Primitives absorb _all_, and form neutral tint, which, by the addition of quant.i.ty, produces black.

All the contrasts are rendered from the same.

And here it may not be out of place to remark how men will devote themselves to many idle pursuits that return them nothing, while a little study of the n.o.ble theory of colour would enable them, without pus.h.i.+ng the matter far, to bring to their firesides reminiscences of their travels, or, otherwise, spots endeared by circ.u.mstances, together with a thousand other agreeable a.s.sociations. They would learn in time to look at nature through the medium of art, and find a delightful interest in it they never antic.i.p.ated; while every hour so spent would more and more exercise and mature the judgment.