Part 6

Polished surfaces, as in plate or armour, do not show their real colours. The reflected colours of the sun or air that shines on them confuse their own. Rough surfaces, on the contrary, retain their natural colours most.

Suppose the sun to equally illumine two sides of a street, as it passes its centre, and on one side is a red house, and opposite to it a white one, the white one would be impinged with the reflection from the action of the light on the red one: thus, all proximity of colours affect each other, in the light, in the manner of reflexes, declining as they recede. The reflected lights in folds of silk draperies illustrate this phenomenon best.

Compare the shadows thrown on different colours with each other, by placing a number of coloured materials in a dark place, the colours of shadows being regulated by the objects giving and receiving them.

Examine well the colours in the shadows of flowers; they present the most excellent combinations.

All colours, as at night, may be lost in that of the general shadow, presuming it dark enough to destroy all reflexes.

Colours reflected on by their _opposites_ will become neutralized; as green against red, purple against yellow, &c.

The shadows on all objects partake of the colour of the light, or are qualified by other lights throwing their reflects into them.

The lightness or darkness of shadows are entirely regulated by the colour of the objects on which they fall.

An object painted in a light colour will be more or less light, according to the strength of its shadow, from the consequences attending opposition.

So a light figure, laid upon a light background, but differing in colour--as a warm object on a grey sky--assists, in the greatest degree, the preservation of the breadth. Opposition of colour is, perhaps, of most use under these circumstances.

Colours on the figures or parts brought into notice by opposition may be sometimes applied with sufficient _depth_ and intensity as to advantageously take the place of _shadows_ or darks.

Light and shade may be produced by the influence of _colours alone_, judiciously applied; the reds and yellows supporting the lights, while the blues, greys, and cold colours form the retiring portions, or such as would otherwise be in shadow.

Suppose a picture, composed of one part shade and the other light--the light being warm, and the shadow composed of cold colours--a red or warm-coloured figure laid against the shadowed side, and a blue one brought out from the light, would, in addition to possessing the greatest force of colour, have a spirited and imposing effect. But the _contrary_ treatment would possess the greatest breadth and repose;--a dark figure laid on the mass of shadow (a point of which, being darker than the rest, would gather it together), and a light one on the light, having a point still higher in colour than the ground.

Rich, deep, and warm shadows are required to support strong coloured lights. So, strong colours are equally useful in focussing the shadows, or in giving them variety.

That beautiful diffusion of _æriel_ and fluctuating _pearly_ reflections, that play equally over the surfaces of the strongest colours, shadows, and lights, in the tenderest hues and forms, and with which all nature appears invested, should engage our deepest attention and enquiry, as their properties so softly blend and break down the harshness and influence of positive colour, and the asperity of opposing tints, by tempering them with their airy and luminous sweetness.

If the general harmony or _hue_ of a picture is warm, the deepest shadows should be warm also; while the _strongest_ colour, being brought into the middle space, will serve to connect both the light and the shadow. Indian red, in most instances, should be the mixing medium, using cold colours _sparingly_, and _only_ where they are wanted as a _foil_; as the greens of trees are set off from the rich brown shadows, producing a splendid effect, and bringing the hot and cold colours into harmony.

Colours, forming the middle tint and shadows, should always be warm; though the light may be cold, the effect will be beautiful.

Warm shadows will support the _strongest_ colours.

I generally observe that Titian, Rubens, and the best colourists, use their reds in the shadows, at once to support and give them brilliance;--for when it happens that the shadows of a picture are wholly made up of warm colours, the effect is sure to be splendid, though the lights are cold;--considering red, perhaps, too _strong_ a colour to interfere with the _light_, at the risk of destroying its breadth. Their manner was often that of deepening the colour as it lost or absorbed itself in the background.

Every object receiving the light of the sun, receives likewise the _general_ light, producing _two_ shadows, the darkest one being occasioned by the sun.

When the horizon is tinged with red by the rays of the setting sun, the distant shadows, being blue or azure, mingling with the red, produces purple.

The air between the earth and the sun, when it rises or sets, invests all objects with a degree of obscurity, which is whiter on the earth than towards the zenith.

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 masses, 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 quantity of shadow, notwithstanding every blade of grass 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 circumstances. 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-glass, and no lateral shadows occur.

How much _bluer_ the sea appears from on board ship than it does from the shore; 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 space 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 circumstances and arrangement), so that the _masses_ of light and shade, and the _breadth_ of the whole, are not disturbed,--are the leading circumstances 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 grass 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 assist 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 repetition; 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 Vandyke 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 principal circumstances 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--Vandyke, with the Dutch and Flemish painters--Titian--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 constitute it are more or less scattered or diffused. Masses of light, supported and brought out by masses 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 circumstance. 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 principal light, or colour of it, should not be so influential as to prevent the eye being gently led away from it, by the repetition 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 principal.

Effect consists in either lights and shadows, or _colours_, so massed 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 repetition 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 space 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 mass 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 mass 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 assist 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 principal mass 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 ærial; 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 quantity of half tint employed renders it.

Most of the Dutch landscape painters seem universally agreed on this arrangement, as having that beautiful contrast of force and softness we so often see in coast scenes, and leaving so large a space as two-thirds of the picture for the luminous forms of the clouds.

Broken heaths, road scenes, corn-fields, boats on the water, with their forcible and deep shadows, fishermen on the sands, all readily adapt themselves to this manner; which, likewise, from the light tone that pervades the whole, requires the strongest opposition and contrast of colour--so that the colours be carried well through the picture; that is, if the ground be warm, a figure in blue placed in the foreground may be carried out by being repeated in the blue of the water, and so into parts of the sky, &c. And, on the other hand, if the ground be cool grey, as in a river scene, the boats may be yellow, and the figures red, carried up and diffused into the warm lights of the sky, or striking on the sandy shore and distant buildings, and even reaching the birds in the air--all will help to convey the colours through the work.

In working out this system, let the lights be bright, and their shadows strong and forcible, keeping the middle tints tender, airy, and delicate. A few trials on this plan will soon convince the student of the beauty and real look of daylight it has over many others.

In examining the works of Cuyp, when the picture is painted on a light key, he is sure to make use of very strong colour, to clear up and give vigour to the whole, in his figures; serving, at the same time, to invest the general mass with air, breadth, and extent.

Rembrandt thought it of more consequence to paint light, than the objects seen by it.

'Titian's great care was to express the general colour, to preserve the masses of light and shade, and to give, by opposition, the idea of that solidity which is inseparable from natural objects. When these are preserved, though the work should possess no other merit, it will have, in a proper place, its complete effect; but where any of these are wanting, however minutely laboured the picture may be in detail, the whole will have a false, and even an unfinished appearance, at whatever distance, or in whatever light it can be shown. It is in vain to attend to the variations of tints, if in that attention, the general _hue_ is lost, or to finish ever so minutely the parts, if the masses are not observed, or the _whole_ not well put together. And those who will examine into the artifice, will find it to consist in the power of _generalizing_, and the shortness and simplicity of the means employed;' and in fixed principles, our general ideas predominating over our individual.

Rubens, in his splendid manner, involved all the schools--Roman, Dutch, and Venetian! yet, with all this magnificence and variety, possessed repose.

ACCIDENT.--Accident often comes in aid of invention. In nature, all objects by daylight are equally illumined; the painter has, therefore, always found it necessary to avail himself of accident, whenever it may occur: shadows, in particular, reflected upon one object by another; large floating masses of light or shade thrown across a mountain, a flat country, or an open sea, by the passing clouds as they sail by; flashes and streaks of light, as they struggle from between them, &c., are all adapted to work out the general effect. Where the _forms_ of a composition are _insufficient_, this is the usual resource, these accessories generally supplying grandeur and elevation to the scene. All catching lights should be laid hold of with equal tenacity. The clearing off of a shower is particularly favourable to this useful auxiliary.

DEXTERITY AND AFFECTATION.

A CONTEMPTIBLE species of affectation in the form of a _dashing dexterity_--used, in most instances, to confuse and mystify bad drawing, conceal ignorance of principles, and all the higher excellencies a painter should have studied and brought to aid his work--has been so widely diffused of late, that a notice of this splashing attainment may not be out of place in a work of this kind. I have heard of 'snatching a grace beyond the reach of art,' but could never comprehend its meaning.

It is 'natural to be more captivated with what is brilliant than with what is solid, and to prefer splendid negligence to painful and humiliating exactness.'

Mere novelty and peculiarity, having no other merits, when it ceases to be new, it ceases to have value.

That which is solely addressed to the _eye_, is certainly inferior to that which is addressed to the imagination.

If too much indulgence is given to peculiarity, _mannerism_ will be sure to be the result!

'A facility in composing, a lively and masterly handling, are captivating qualities to young minds: they endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellencies, and, after much time spent in the frivolous pursuit, find, when too late, the difficulty of retreat; and there is scarce an instance of return to scrupulous labour, after the mind has been deceived by this fallacious mastery. By this useless industry, whilst boys, they have arrived at their _utmost perfection_; they have taken the shadow for the substance; and make the mechanical felicity the chief excellence of the art, whilst it is one of the most dangerous sources of corruption. They wish to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by other means than those, which the indispensable rules of art have prescribed. But whatever the force of genius may be, there is no _easy_ method of becoming a good painter.'