CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.

HARMONY.

Harmony is a term borrowed from the sister Art of Music, to denote a degree of relation or congruity between two or more colours, so as mutually to support or develope each other's beauties, as is the case with a chord or concord of sounds. The degrees of relation, or qualification for harmony, of sounds, can be ascertained by mathematical calculation incapable of erroneous results. Not so, those of Colours; at least in the present state of the science of Optics. If it should be proved that colours are the effect of vibrations of the air, or any other fluid, as are sounds, the Harmony of Colours may equally become the subject of mathematical calculation, with equally certain results; at present we cannot go beyond rude approximations by guess or supposition; and are vaguely placed under the regulation of _Taste_, itself as Protean and undefined.

The theory of the three or seven colours being all equally necessary to each other, which has been derived from the division of the ray of light by a prism, has been supposed to afford the relative proportions of the various tints necessary to Harmony in a picture, _because existing in light_; and fanciful, but entirely unfounded, analogies have been drawn by enthusiasts between the seven colours and the seven notes, and the three colours and the notes of the common chord in music: but without going into the question of how far this would be likely to assist in our present inquiry, _if true_, it may be sufficient to observe that these relative proportions _vary_ with the substance of the prism by means of which the ray of light is divided; so that the whole induction falls to the ground.

But were the proportions always the same, the induction would be equally untenable. For, though light may be very beautiful; and the Rainbow may be very beautiful; a totally different kind of beauty is required for a picture. The colours of the Rainbow may perfectly harmonize; but it is more than doubtful whether the person whose whole picture was a representation of a Rainbow, would be considered to have produced a finely coloured work of Art.

Harmony, in Pictorial Colour, does not depend upon any particular proportionate quantities of the different tints; nor in any particular disposition or arrangement of them; but upon the qualities and the treatment of the individual colours. A picture may be painted with every variety of the most brilliant colours; or, on the other hand, as Rembrandt treated light, the work may contain only one small spark of colour, the remainder being made up of neutral tints; and even the small spark of colour may be dispensed with, and the whole picture be made up of a variety of tones.

Having dwelt so much in the Sketcher's Manual, upon the principle of Breadth being indispensable for the production of Pictorial Effect, it will scarcely be requisite to point out that it is equally necessary that Colours should be so treated as to produce _Unity_; and that, as with lights and shadows, so whatever variety of tints may be introduced into a picture, they must be so blended and incorporated with each other, that they still form parts of a whole;--that whether the lights be white, and the shadows black, or differently coloured, the same necessity for graduation remains; so that Colours must not be in flat patches. And in the treatment of Colours, besides the graduation requisite for Breadth of Chiaroscuro, it is necessary to pay attention to the peculiar quality termed TONE, which is indispensable in a coloured Work of Art.

As well as Breadth of Chiaroscuro, there must be BREADTH OF TONE, the fundamental quality of Harmony.