The Art of the Use of Color in Imitation in Painting. No.

I
Author(s): William Page
Source: The Crayon, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Jan. 24, 1855), p. 55
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THE
attainable by a little study.
proof of the beauty
the
Somebody had said that he had understated
in
amount of time required to obtain perfection
as it was
called.
They had mista
"writing,"
at the skill
He had been astonished
ken him.
a mere workman
would
strike a
with which
he wanted
and well,?but
true curve accurately
nimbleness
of fin
to see more than this mere
gers.
We shall republish, from time to time, a series of letters
by William Page, which appeared in the Broadway
Journal some years since, and which, from the standing
of the author, and the originality of the views they
contain, will, we believe, prove interesting to the public,
though inmany respects we believe Page himself would
now differ from them.?Eds. Crayon.

THE ART OF THE USE OF COLOEIN

IMITATIONIN PAINTING.
NO. I.
BY

WILLIAM

PAGE.

to be the means
I understand
Imitation
are imi
the effects of Nature
in Art
whereby
tated, or reproduced, and the more nearly the
means
or are analo
used
correspond with,
gous to, those used by nature in the production
nearer
will be the impression
of her effects, the
result to that
made on the eye by such artistic
in
nature itself.
made by the real object
declares
Sir Joshua
that Gerard
Reynolds
his high finishing,
was
a closer
Douw, with
imitator of nature than Ptaphael.
This is false,
to mislead
the
or, to say the least, calculated
In the imitation of the minutiae
understanding.
external
of the merely
of
inanimate
portions
objects, he no doubt was. for this is what he
saw most
before
him.
to
But
clearly
say that
did not also finji in nature what
he
Raphael
to represent, viz. : beauty of form and
wished
exalted harmonious
expressions, would be to my
a palpable
mind
These he saw in
absurdity.
nature, and transferred to his works ; and though
of the world
the judgment
has left but little
is to be preferred, it is still less
doubt which
doubtful that they equally proceeded on the prin
of nature,"
imitation
ciple of the "immediate
to the best of his abilities
each expressing
that
of which he had the clearest perception,
as did
in color and
Titian and Correggio
chiaro-scuro,
they having a keener relish for these qualities,
or form.
than for expression
Then, who will pretend to say, that Raphael
would not have been exalted
to a higher pitch
of excellence,
of the minute
by the addition
of Gerard Douw,
exactness
the color of
Titian,
or the clear-obscure
of Correggio,
if these could
have been superadded
to his own, if you
will,
without
higher possessions,
any of
displacing
attained
his already
excellences.
And
that
such a thing might
be, needs only eyes to see,
that in Nature herself all this, and more,
is ac
that puts
there, the minuteness
complished;
best
efforts to shame,
Douw's
and
causes
color to pale at the comparison,
Titian's
and
the light and dark of Correggio
to look heavy
and dull, lie side by side with a diviner exalta
ever Raphael
tion of expression
than
could
In sculp
dream, and add to its force and truth.
ture we have an illustration.
The busts of our
countryman, Hiram Powers, which have all the
breadth
of the finest
and a
antique
heads,
minuteness
of finish in all the details, unknown
to that gifted people, the Greeks, and still more
so to modern nations, without
either
disturbing
breadth of form or expression,
shall yet make
the world wonder
that such things should have
been done in our midst,
and never a cry of a
a miracle!
miracle,
It may here be well to a clearer understand
ing of the subject, to observe, that in sculpture
the means used are
to the end to
fully adequate
be
with a perfectly pliant sub
produced?being,
or reproduce
the
stance, wet
clay, to imitate
form of any natural
object,
giving
only one

CEAYON.

body for a like form of body in another sub

stance : which will
at once show the wide dif
ference between these two imitative Arts, when
we consider that in painting
the flat substance
must appear rotund, or otherwise
the form of
the thing to be imitated, where the form is not.
but only the appearance
of the
; to say nothing
to give those
light, dark, and color, necessary
other innumerable qualities
demanded
in a pic
ture. And this brings us to the means
used in
the latter Art, to convey impressions
as of na
tural objects, more
color. Now,
particularly
there are but three primitive
colors used by
the Creator to adorn and beautify
this all-beau
tiful world of his creation, viz., red, yellow and
blue.
these
which
all tints,
Yet,
three,?to
are to be traced, together
hues, and variations
with
light and dark, so imperfectly
represented
in painting by white and black, are all the feeble
our own short
means we have, with
sight, to
that infinite variety
of Nature
compete with
which has been the love and admiration
of all
mankind
from the beginning.
It will then seem
that
economy with these slender means
evident,
be of the last importance;
must
and that he
who uses these most
and with the
ingeniously,
least outlay of them, so that he produces
the
desired effect, and has most power
in reserve,
will be the truest artist.
and black are the extreme
If white
limits of
our scope with which we must
if at
represent,
at all, that infinite stretch in nature between
her intensest ray of light, and that outer dark
ness where no light is?for often as we have used
our utmost
skill to make
the surface of our can
vas, or the plane on which we produce our pic
as
as
dark
tures,
pigments will make
it, it will
cast a shadow in noon-day
darker than itself;
our brilliant white
and so when
has been ex
hausted in imitating
light, a little diamond would
blaze upon
its surface.
This being
so, may
well teach us how limited is our power to cope
the Infinite,
with
that
and the
and,
humility
afar off, in Art, as in reli
following
humbly,
like
gion, the Almighty
leading, makes us most
what we would most wish
to be. Now,
to
bring these indefinite extremes of Nature within
our own range of mental
let us suppose
vision,
them divided into five degrees, equally removed
from each other, the first being
light, and the
last perfect darkness;
but, though this simple
division will answer our purpose for illustration
an almost in
in writing,
the artist must make
subdivision
in his practice.
finite
Then
sup
the painters
pose, in like manner,
representa
so divided
tives of light and darkness
into a
like number of degrees,
that the medium
or
third degree in the scale is equally removed from
in either case, will not this give
each extreme
us the nearest approach that we can get in Art,
cr third degree in Nature
to the medium
in the
scale which we have indicated
above ? If so,
our
as
let us fix this in
minds
the centre whence
all analysis
"We shall hereafter have
begins.
more
to
to
refer
this
occasion
particularly.
of human flesh has always been
The painting
considered
the best test of the powers of a color
ist; and the human face may well be considered
as the highest
focus (so
test, as the well-known
to speak) of expression.
Goethe has well said in
his llTheory of Colors,"
that here nature seems
to have exhausted
all her resources, having
so
used all the primitive
colors, and so interwoven
and combined them, that we scarce know which
he
predominate
(I quote from memory)?and
have added, that all other known quali
might
to our eyes here, or
ties, too, present themselves
rather evade our search and strive to hide them
as any painter who
selves from our observation,
has tried to represent
Al
them, well knows.
one of these
above-named
though
primitive
has been found to exist in nature,
colors?blue,
in the case of the blue sky, as the product
of
of space
light over dark (that is, the darkness
seen by us through
the light of the
beyond,
as darkness
of earth, producing,
Iatmosphere

55
seen through light always
does, the blueness);,
and has, on this account, been rejected
by some
as a primitive
color ; yet, as it cannot be resolv
ed back again to the other two
or be
primitives,
combination
of these,
produced by any known
we must
it.
I
should wish to call this
occupy
color of the sky an accidental
color, in contra
to the local color of the
distinction
or
violet,
other
blue
where
the
color cannot be
any
thing
but is always
a
separated from the substance,
it will be clearly seen, that if
part of it. Now
we had the pigments
of representing
capable
perfect fight and perfect dark, we should very
to this
resemblance
readily produce a complete
color of the sky, by making
a ground of
perfect
and when
this was dry, bo as not to
darkness,
mix these extremes,
or the pigments
represent
over it a layer of
ing them, passing
perfect
light, so as to allow that dark to appear through,
as in the reality.
{To be Continued.)
?
London Architecture.?The
outside of the
common brick houses
of London
is very plain,
and has nothing
in the architecture,
agreeable
unless it be the neat and well-defined
joints of
the brick-work.
On the other hand, many
of
the great palace-like
are furnished
buildings
with
architectural
of all kinds?
decorations
with
&c.
There are, how
pillars,
pilasters,
of them have
ever, two reasons why most
rather a disagreeable
effect.
In the first place,
of continuous,
they are destitute
simple main
are indispensable
in grand archi
fines, which
tectural effects, and to which
even the richest
decoration
be strictly
must
subordinate.
Se
condly, the decorative fixtures "are introduced in
a manner
any regard
entirely arbitrary, without
or to the destination
to their original meaning,
of the edifice.
This
is carried
to. the greatest
absurdity
excess in the use of columns;
these, originally
in rows in
supporting members,
which,
placed
the buildings
of the ancients, produce the com
bined effect of a pierced wall, bearing one side
are here ranged in num
of a space beyond,
as wholly
ser
berless
instances,
unprofitable
This censure ap
vants, directly before a wall.
to most
of the
plies in an especial manner
works
of the lately deceased
architect, Nash.
In truth, he has a peculiar
knack of depriving
masses
of considerable
of all effect,
dimension,
them
into a number
of little pro
by breaking
in the use of
jecting and receding parts ; while,
the most diverse forms and ornaments,
he is so
in
of his buildings?for,
that many
arbitrary,
of Buckingham
House
stance, the new palace
as if some wicked magician
?looks
had sud
some capricious
denly transformed
stage scene
ry into solid reality.?Dr.
Waagen.
Column Monuments.?What
shall we say to
the fact, that the English, who first made
the
rest of Europe
the immortal,
acquainted with
of the noblest and chastest
taste, in ar
models
chitecture
and sculpture
of ancient
Greece,
a
was
it
few years ago, to, erect
when
resolved,
a monument
to the Duke
of York, produced
a bad
but
imitation
of Trajan's
nothing
Pillar!
This kind of monument
first came into use
a people who, in respect to
among the Romans,
in the Arts, and in mat
the gift of invention
in comparison
ters of taste,
appear,
always
with the Greeks, as semi-barbarian.
The very
the column proves
idea of isolating
that the
as the supporting member
original destination,
lost sight of. Be
of a building, was wholly
on it, though as
sides this, the statue placed
colossal as the size of the base will allow, ne
com
little and puppet-like,
appears
cessarily
the features and;
pared with the column ; while
are the
of the countenance,
which
expression
of intellectual
cha
indications
most important
are wholly
racter in the person commemorated,
lost to the spectator.?Du
Waagen

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