Colour as a Means of Art / Being an Adaption of the Experience of Professors to the Practice of Amateurs

by Frank Howard

Proceeding to consider Colouring independently of Character or Expression, to which it should be subservient in the higher walks of Art, the attention of the reader must be directed to a circumstance connected with truth of representation.

It has commonly been the practice, under the almost universal sanction of great authorities, to place the student who may be desirous of acquiring the Art of Painting, before some object, and to direct him to copy what he sees. But what does he see?

We need not go into the question of how impressions are produced upon the mind, through the medium of the eye; whether a species of picture of the object be, during the inspection, as it were painted upon the retina; and whether that be inverted or anywise different from the real object; or whether, and to what extent, association rectifies the imperfections of our sight. These, and other investigations into the philosophical and physical nature of vision, may be left to the consideration of those who desire to account for particular facts; we have to do with the facts themselves.

In whatever manner the effect may be produced, it is indisputable, that a certain and distinct impression is produced upon the mind, through the medium of the eye, by every object which may be before it, and that impression has a strict relation to the real character of the object; for instance, a marble statue, it appears, or an impression is conveyed of, an object of one unvaried tint. How this impression is conveyed, is of no consequence; it is conveyed; and a series of tints may be artificially arranged upon paper (or any other convenient material), so as also, if not equally, to convey to the mind the impression of a marble statue of uniform whiteness. But upon examination of the drawing or painting, it would be seen, that scarcely any two parts of the representation of the statue were of exactly the same tint. Some parts would be delicately graduated from a point of light, through a series of darker tints, to give the appearance of roundness; while others would be made nearly black by shadow, to give the appearance of projection. The present enquiry has reference solely to Colours, but the same difficulties occur with regard to forms.

Here there is a discrepancy, occasioned by Association, which we shall scarcely find language to explain, but which will in most cases prove of serious perplexity to the student; for there are some other persons like Queen Elizabeth, who have no idea of shadow, unless it be the shadow of a parasol or tree, under which they may escape the intensity of a noon-day sun. The statue will appear, or an impression will be conveyed to the mind, of uniform whiteness. But pictorially speaking, one spot only, that which reflects the greatest light, will appear quite white. All the other parts will appear, that is, to convey the impression, they must be made, of an infinite variety of tints, from the brightest light to the deepest shadow. The statue is actually uniformly white, and it appears uniformly white, yet the appearance or representation which must be put upon paper, to convey an impression of that appearance by drawing or painting, is totally opposite, being an infinite variety of tints.

But in a statue, by reason of its convexity, the second species of appearance, the Pictorial, is much more readily appreciated, from the strong opposition of light and shadow, than in a flat surface,—a ceiling, a pavement, or meadow, in which the perception of the modifications of colour, arising from what is termed aerial perspective, is considerably influenced, by the Association above mentioned, until the eye has become educated to observe these minute and delicate gradations of tint. Thus, in looking at a meadow, we know the grass to be generally of the same colour throughout, and to an uneducated eye it appears equally green from one end to the other: or the ceiling of a well lighted room, we know it to be of one colour throughout, and it appears of one even tint from the nearest to the most distant extremity; yet pictorially speaking, it appears of an infinite variety of tints, for the effect of the atmosphere is such as to rob the grass of its colour, and to make the white ceiling grey, as they recede from the eye.

It will scarcely be necessary to guard against misconception as to the use of the terms describing the effect of the atmosphere, by explaining that it is not intended to assert that an actual change takes place, or that there is any actual difference in the colour of those parts of objects which are at a distance from the eye; or, that the colour in the distance does not appear to be, as we know it is, the same with that nearest the eye; but that the effect of distance is the pictorial appearance of a modification of tint, by the interposition of the atmosphere, perceptible only to an educated eye.

We know the grass to be equally green throughout, and it appears of the tints which convey that impression; while Association conceals the modification occasioned by the interposition of the atmosphere (which the generality of observers consider as only "air," and of no consequence), and excites the notion that the meadow appears of one equal flat tint. But the distant extremity of the meadow is seen through more or less atmosphere, which is more or less dense; and in proportion to its density will the colour of the grass be apparently altered or changed thereby; and in some instances, as in case of a fog, entirely concealed.

In looking at any object through a perfectly transparent medium, such as plate glass, we do not perceive any alteration in the real colours. But when the medium is not perfectly transparent, which is the case with the atmosphere, the colours of all objects seen through it are modified or tinged in proportion to its density, until they are sometimes lost or absorbed in the tint of the medium.

The slightest possible colourless opacity gives a medium approaching to a whitish film, which is very evident when there is light behind it; as in the case of the beams of the moon. This is the clearest state of the atmosphere. As it increases in density, it becomes more and more white, until it becomes a white mist, fog or cloud. The atmosphere is sometimes coloured, as will hereafter be mentioned; at present we have to do with its colourless state.