On colour, and on the necessity for a general diffusion of taste among all classes : with remarks on laying out dressed geometrical gardens, examples of good and bad taste, illustrated by woodcuts and coloured plates in contrast

Front matter

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LONDON 1

Preface

our deficiency; and the French are far more successful than ourselves in decorative design ; but we may refuse to others the same privilege, and though the Grermans have made considerable advances in various branches of art, we cannot concede to them the superiority they assume ; and in point of colour their example* would be rather injurious than beneficial to decorative taste. I do not however intend by this to detract from the great merit they deserve of having laboured assiduously to study and advance art in its highest, as well as in its inferior, branches ; this I acknowledge with great respect ; and I gladly admit the credit due to them for having called attention to the works of the early masters of Italy, which had ceased to be regarded with proper interest until brought by them into general notice. I have been particular in censuring the common error of introducing great quantities of green into coloured ornamentation; and have shown that though green may sometimes be allowable in large masses, and when of a glaucous hue may be used as a ground for other colours, its employment in large proportions in combination with them is incompatible with their harmonious arrangement. It abounds when people become artificial. But in those periods when taste in colour was pure, the primaries were always preferred ; and in confirmation of these remarks I may observe that the old custom is also observable in heraldry, where the early coats have the primary colours (with gold and silver), and where green is a sign of no great age. The same change from the natural and pure taste of man at an early period (when it was unbiassed by conven-

* They appear also to differ very much from their early masters in the appreciation and use of rich colours.

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PREFACE.

VII tional or theoretic notions) is shown in the recent coloured designs of the North American Indians; who for the old simple patterns, and the use of primary colours, have substituted an imitation of real flowers and the abundant introduction of green, in order to suit the artificial requirements of European purchasers.

I could have wished that the coloured specimens I had made of the various combinations mentioned in Sections XVI. and XVII. of Part I. could have been introduced, as well as of those mentioned in Sections XVIII. and XIX., and of the coloured papers in Section XXI.; but this has been found impossible from their number, and the expense of printing so many colours, hues, and tones. Any one however may easily make experiments on the particular effect produced by them, from the names of the colours I have indicated.

I have had much pleasure in offering my meed of praise to our institutions for the instruction of students in decorative art ; and the efforts now making for the general diffusion of taste cannot be too highly commended. Excellent opportunities are also given, by the exhibition of the drawings of competitors in architectural, monumental, and other designs, of showing the talent of the designers, and of accustoming the public to the habit of forming some opinion on the merits of each ; and these exhibitions give a far fairer estimate of the talents of the candidates than the usual " competitive examinations " in various branches of learning ; which, useful as they are, often lead to a questionable conclusion respecting the real talent and sound knowledge of a successful competitor.

If I have sometimes repeated the same remarks I offer this

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PREFACE.

excuse, that it was from a desire of calling attention to particular points which appeared to me of the greatest importance ; and as my object is to suggest what I believe to be of use, I hope to be pardoned whenever I have expressed an opinion differing from the conclusions, or the practice, of others. I can respect them while I differ from them ; and as my wish is to direct inquiry towards certain questions most worthy of consideration, I shall be happy if others will point out any erroneous judgment I may have formed on the subject; and I therefore conclude with the well-known words of the poet —

ERRATA AND ADDENDA.

Page 18, six lines from the bottom of the page, after the word "admissible," add , " and where copies of natural objects should seldom be introduced."

Page 80, line 19, on the words " three purples," add this note : —

* " The purple of Tyre was extracted from the Murex and the Buccinum ; but the Helix Ianthina (still so common on that coast), is the shell from which tbey probably first obtained it, as it proclaims the secret of its possessing the purple dye by the colour it throws out, like the Sepia, on being approached. This accords with the story of its accidental discovery by the dog of Hercules, which would not have been made from the Murex or the Buccinum ; and if these gave a dye superior to that of the Helix Ianthina, their properties were found out by subsequent experiment, their colour not being at first purple. Indeed they only produced a good dye by being used together, and by a long process ; while that of the Helix Ianthina is at once a pure and true purple. (-See my note, and the woodcut in Herodotus, book iii. ch. 20, n. 2, Tr. Rawlinson.) The Phoenicians imported purple from Hermione in Argolis, Cytherea, &c. ; and Ezekiel, xxvii. 7, says it came to Tyre ' from the Isles of Elishah ' (Hellas, or Greece) ; it has therefore been thought that this was different from the original purple of Phoenicia, which accords with the above statement."

Page 242, line 5, on " Flaxman," add this note : —

* " Like the Greeks, he felt the impropriety of displaying grief in sculpture ; and though the Greeks in writing used a stronger expression than our ' indulged in grief (as in the • Terapirw^effda 70'ojo' of Homer, II. ty. 10), they abstained from representing the suffering countenance in sculpture and painting ; as we even see in a fresco representing the sacrifice of Iphigenia, given in GelPs Pompeii "

Page 266, line 2, for " finished houses," read " furnished houses."

Page 302, line 19, on " Homeric age," add this note : —

* "Cf. H. $. 743, the Sidonian crater offered as a prize by Achilles, at the funeral games of Patroclus."

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SEVEN COLOURS GIVEN TO BE ARRANGED IN A PATTERN

London, JolmMimuj, Albemarle Street, Nov:1858.

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PL III.

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EFFECTS OF COLOURS. FIG.5. THE PRINCIPAL COLOURS USED, 6,7, 8,3,10, ARE DISCORDANT. I. G.W. del London; Jc^Muray, Albemarle Street. Nov. 1858 .

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DESCRIPTION OE PLATES AND WOODCUTS.

PAET I.

Plate I. is intended to show how blue, red (or scarlet), white, black green, and gold may be combined in a mosaic pattern. The idea of its general configuration is taken from one of the borders which separate the fresco paintings in Giotto's Chapel, at Padua, and it has been varied to suit the arrangement of the colours. The quantity and disposition of the green will serve to show how small a proportion of that colour is required, and how it brightens up a design. (See p. 63.) The gold too illustrates what I have said in pp. 107, 117, of its being employed in greater quantity than orange or yellow. As an instance of the black lines separating the chief sections of the design, mentioned in p. 108 ; see Blue, D 2, p. 135.

Plate II. shows how the seven colours, orange, yellow, blue, purple, green, red (or scarlet), and black, given promiscuously in fig. 1, may be arranged in harmonious order, as in fig. 2. It is one of many different arrangements which may be made of those colours ; in some of which more or less red, or blue, or others, may be introduced, according to the required effect. For though, as a general rule, the blue should be in greater quantity than red, it is possible to have perfectly harmonious combinations even where these proportions are disregarded. There are cases, for instance, when more red may be used than blue ; and sometimes the red may be confined to a very minute quantity.

In fig. 2, it will be observed how much better blue and orange are suited to each other than blue and yellow, which are rather harsh. Here too the power of a small quantity of green is very apparent. (See pp. 63, 146, 166.) The design is not very well suited to the arrangement of colours; but it may serve as an instance of colour in a geometrical figure.

Plate III. Figs. 1 and 12 give different arrangements and quantities of the same colours, blue, orange, black, white, and green, are both harmonious. (See Blue, C 9, p. 134.)

They

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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES AND WOODCUTS.

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Plate III. — (continued.)

Fig. 2 is the Egyptian arrangement of blue, scarlet, and green, on a yellow ground, or separated by yellow fillets. (See p. 95, and Blue, B 2, p. 132.)

Fio-. 3 is one arrangement of the seven colours, purple, yellow, blue, scarlet, green, orange, and black, in simple succession. Another, and perhaps a better, arrangement would be black, blue, yellow, scarlet, purple, orange, and green ; or purple, orange, green, scarlet, blue, yellow, and black. (See Blue, E 1 a, p. 135.)

In fig. 4 are the colours, but not the pattern, of the Jewish ephod. (See p. 17, 131 ; and Blue, B 7, p. 183.)

In fio-. 5 are specimens of the hues of the colours mentioned in this work, as near as they can be obtained in copies' made partly by chromo-lithography, and partly by hand colouring : viz. a. blue, b. red, c. scarlet, d. crimson, e. cerise,/, purple, g. yellow, h. orange, i. <n-een, k. tea-green, /. brown, m. horsechesnut, n. chesnut,

o. black.

Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, illustrate what I have said in pp. 92, 93, and are specimens of discordant combinations: xiz.fig. 6. scarlet, green, and russet (red would be still worse than scarlet) ; 7. blue, orange, and olive ; 8. yellow, purple, and citrine ; 9. purple and citrine ; and 10. green and russet.

In fig. 11 is an instance of the mode of preventing blue and red (or scarlet) looking purple ; by the intervention of the white and orange. There are many methods of doing this. Here the combination is blue, white, scarlet, orange, and purple, which is harmonious ; though in this design the orange next the scarlet, does not afford a sufficient contrast. (See Blue, C 2, p. 134.)

Fi°s. 13, 14, illustrate the difference of little red on a white ground, and little white on a red ground : showing the great superiority of the former. (See p. 149 ; description of Plate iv. Jig. 4 ; and Blue, B 6, p. 133.)

Plate IV. fig. 1, is an instance of the union of blue, red (or scarlet), and yellow, the latter separating the other two to prevent their having a purple effect in combination. (See pp.9, 94, 95 ; and Blue, A 1, p. 131.)

In Jig. 2 are the five colours, blue, scarlet, yellow, purple, and black (see Blue, C 5, p. 134.) The proportion of the purple and the black, to the yellow and to the other two colours, is by no means * the one generally required ; and it might be altered considerably in a different design. The arrangement is nevertheless quite harmonious;' and it may serve as an instance of the great range allowed to the proportions of different colours, mentioned in pp. 147, 148. 251. (See Blue, C 5, p. 134.)

PL IV.

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COMBINATIONS OF COLOURS LoidDii.JolmMurray;All)(ana.dfi Street. Not. 1858.

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PI V.

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EFFECT OF PATTERNS W'JTF, N NOT QUITE REGULAR. London; John Murray, Albemarle Street, Nov. 1858.

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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES AND WOODCUTS.

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Plate IV. — (continued.)

Fig. 3 shows how little green is required to brighten up a design, as I have already shown in the description of Plate i. (See p. 63, and Blue, B 2, p. 132.)

Fig. 4 is an instance of white on a red ground, generally so heavy (see p. 149, and description of Plate hi. Jigs. 13, 14), which is made perfectly agreeable by the addition of blue and yellow in this design. (See Blue, B 6, p. 133.)

Fig. 5 is another instance of the manner in which red and blue may be prevented from appearing purple by the intervention of yellow and white, and how blue should be separated from yellow in a pattern (as in a carpet) by a black line. (/See the combination in Blue, C 7, p. 134.)

Fig. 6 is given as an instance of the propriety of making the patterns rather irregular than exactly symmetrical and of equal size, particularly in a carpet. The advantage of this is more obvious in a large expanse, and the inaccuracies being there smaller in proportion than in the figure here given, they do not appear so evidently to the eye, though they have the desirable effect of preventing that monotony which fatigues it in an exactly symmetrical design. A better instance of this is given in Plate v. Jig. 2. The colours are blue, scarlet, orange, black, white, yellow, and purple.* (See Blue, E 8, p. 136.)

Plate V.Jig. 1 is a carpet border of blue, scarlet, green, yellow, black and white. (See Blue, D 1, p. 135.) Though the combination is harmonious, the arrangement of the red next to the green is not such as would be generally recommended ; nor should yellow border the red ; but those defects are here remedied by the distribution and proportion of the other colours ; and the whole is well balanced and agreeable.

Fig. 2 is intended to show how much more important is the effect of the colour in a carpet than that of the pattern, as I have observed in p. 20 ; and how much more agreeable is that irregularity in certain parts of the pattern met with in Eastern carpets, than the formal and symmetrical exactness thought so necessary in our own. As I have said in the description of Plate iv. Jig. 6, the irregularities are made more apparent in this small design than they would be in the large expanse of a carpet, where they would give the required variety without being actually apparent to the eye ; but

* By mistake the yellows as well as the orange, have all been printed of the latter colour in the plate, instead of being alternately so.

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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES AND WOODCUTS.

small as it may be, the effect of the central portion will serve to showhow much better a varied pattern is suited to a carpet than one of more geometrical and formal construction. The proportion of the border to the central part is of course disregarded. It is intended for a centre of greater dimensions, where the same centre might be extended, or repeated, or subjected to various modifications. (See Blue, E 2, p. 135.)

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