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September 30, 1854.] THE LEADER. 931
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THE PRINCIPLES OF HAKMONY AND CONTRAST O...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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¦Ugex8 And Shadows Of Australian Ufe. Jl...
Peering over the summit of the rock , were two or three figures , and the heavy stones they w « re holding ready-to cast < down "upon their heads , left no doubt as to their intentions . It- was the act of a moment to spring aside and to push Tom out of immediate danger , and the next minute two kTge pieces of rock fell at their feet . u The devil 1 " shouted Tom , and he iired : it was waste of powder and shot , for the assailants instantly withdrew . " Pleasant this , " he muttered ; but there was no time for reflection—two more bullets wJristled through the air , and Tom was again wounded . The next minnte a stone from above knocked his gun from George ' s hand , and , without the delay of a second , another , flung by a safer arm—that of Colney himself—descended on his head , and he sank , stunned , to the earth . A specimen of Australian scenery , with its drawbacks : — ' About noon , after travelling over several ranges , an exquisite scene burst upon them as
they stood upon one of the heights . they stood upon one of the heights . Before tbeai , bounding the horizon , were the clear blue waves of tiie South Pacific , heaving : to and fro in the blaze of an Australian noontide sun ; at their feet , yet still distant , was . lilawarra , with its lakes and shady glens—its tropical foliage—its clustering viaes—its meadows filled with cattle—its farms and Arcadian-looking homesteads , which told of the presence of civilised man ; behind were the parched and sandy forests , -whose arid soil and stunted trees served to give greater effect to the lovely view , on which , even the roughest could not gaze without pleasure . _*' W « U may this be called the 'Eden of New South Wales , ' " murmured George to himself ; " our first parents could scarcely have opened their eyes on a , fairer spot . " And at this moment , as if to make the comparison more perfect , a , slight rustling among the underwood could be heard , and a graceful snake , with head slightly raised , and body winding through the bush , came onwards to the spot where George remained rooted , as it were , with fascination .
It was about ten feet long , and nearly grey in colour ; spotted with dark brown ( hence this species is known as the carpet snak ' e ); and , from its length , appeared to George rather a . formidable opponent . He was rather behind his companions at the time of its appearance ; ¦ a nd when . it approached to within five feet of himself he recovered his presence of mind ,. and retreated-befoie it with rapid steps . It'advanced mare swiftly towards him . ' * ¦ ' Turn offto-the left , " shouted one <> € the draymen . George hadjj ust time to obey the direction and spring aside as the snake passed over the place which ti « . had left ; and disappeared into the forest . " Well , I ' ve had a narrow escape , " said he to Tom , when he had caught up his jarty ; I declare I-was more frightened at that snake than at Colney . " Tom laughed . " They ' re Hasty varmint enough at times—some of them at least ; but that ' s not a hurtful sort . "
" At all events it ran after me . " " Itfot it ; it ran towards its hole , as they always will when they ' re frightened ; and all you had to do was to step out of its way . " Pity there should he any noxious creature in such a lovely country !" "Why , as to that , this 5 s not a natural country in anything . " •* ' Not natural ! " ejaculated George ; " there ' s nothing very artificial here . " " About artificial I don't know , " said Tom , sententiously ; "I ' m not learned ; but I do iknow that most things in Australia are very unnatural- " « How so ?" _ "Why , in everything . There ' s the air , to begin with ; it ' s so piping hot at Christmas ¦ time that a fellow needs lobe ever drinking like a fish ; and then at Midsummer-day it ' s * he middle of winter ! Then they tell me that the sun shines at contrary hours to what it does in England , which I don ' t believe . But look at the animals , all unnaturaHike : one of them housing its little ones in a pouch , and sitting on its tail . As to the birds , they ' re like eo many tine folks—only good to be looked at . Those trees haven ' t been taught proper < rnanners , andkeep on their , leaves all the year round . And as to the human beings , they ' connatural , I think—wearing no clothes , and their skin as dark as the- "back of a chirnney ; sand they make their females wait on them , and provide the meals , which is quite contrary to our ways , I ' m sure , though uncommonly sensible . "
George could not help laughing at this list of grievances . " I imagined-you liked "this country , but you speak as if your twenty years' experience in it had produced a different effect . " "Hike Australia , " replied Tom , " and I always write to all my friends to emigrate , except those , perhaps , as have a lot of wee piccaninnies about them , which is troublesome at sfirst ; but Australia ' s like everything in this world : it has its ups and its downs , its good and its bad , and they ' re pretty equal . Now , in the old place there ' s a precious small sight « of good for the poor : it ' s all hard work and small pay , and the workhouse to end it ; here there ' s independence for every one that chooses . You see , sir , when 1 ' rn downheart-ed , lost ¦ Sn the bush , and bruised about by a , set of rascally bushrangers , I ' m ready to find fault with Australia ; but when I 8 e « , as I often do , those who were starving in Iingland , living here in comfort , -with happy faces round them , and a something to fall back upon when they ' re old , then , say I . it ' s a pity and a crirno that one-half of tho poor , starving things in the old country , haven ' t the means given them to come out hero too . "I heartily agree with you , " returned George ; " and since I have been in Australia , it -appears to . me astounding that so few among the wealthy and influential look upon emigration in the- important light it deserves . They know , or ought to know , that there are hundreds almost starving ; , and that there is a land where thoy might live in plenty , yob they dook on supinely , content to watch the efforts of the few who nobly exert themselves to people this vast continent . "
September 30, 1854.] The Leader. 931
September 30 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 931
The Principles Of Hakmony And Contrast O...
THE PRINCIPLES OF HAKMONY AND CONTRAST OP COLOURS , AND THEIR APPLICATION TO THE ARTS . IThe principles of Harmony cuid Contrast of Colours , and their Application to the Arts . By iM . JS . Chovreul , Membre d « l'Institut do France . Translated by Charles Jlartel . JLongmans and Co " The painters have found a cliamelion . The beauty that I sec , says one , is all rod . No ; that ' s impossible , says another , it must be all blue ; while a ¦ third swears , by his eye , it should be all yellow . You arc all wrong , says Mr . Neutral , for true beauty is no colour at all—Chiar-oscuro is my maxim ; you cannot have beautiful colour without light and shade , tone and harmony . There exists a X'aging faction of Neri and Bianehi amongst painters . The one sect contending that " tone" is the grand element of pictorial eiXecjfc—that inere lies the secret of tho old wasters ; the other , despising the bnauty of amystery and tho charm of obscurity , would evcu rival Nature ' s brightest tints f
othe noonday . All these clover men may bo quite right in tlioir way—they may have got Ixold of tine skirt of Truth ; they colour to pleaso their own . eye : what other guide should they , or could they , follovy P Certainly the painter may bo allowed to work by 3 us rule of eye just as tho potter does by his rule of thumb ; tb . o painting of a picture is , we admit , n very delicate matter to Jegislato upon , and yet there must be laws hero as everywhere else , and the sooner thoy are found out the bettor . Artists are about the least likely men to discover tho dry < l laws" that lie at the bottom of their art . Their organisation is not designed for such investigations ; if it were , their art would fade . Art and art-life are so completely rnattera of sensibility , of ideality , of fealty to tho instincts of tho amagination , if tho expression may bo allowed , that if you attempt ; to fetter an artist with the bonds of science and tho calculations of mathematics , you ¦ cripple him at once . He must learn by hia own mistakes , and unless ho bo
more sensitive than his critics of his failures , we may place him without the pale , for no preaching of ours will mend him . That there are certain wholesome academy rules of pictorial colouring 13 true , but they are purely empirical : the science of colouring is yet to be discovered— It required a man like M . Chevreal , a hard-headed experimenter , thoroughly used to tlie scientific method , to make any way in the subject of colour . It must be borne in mind that pictorial colouring is as different irom ornamental colouring as the ornamental is from the natural ; and not being concerned in manufacture , it is not " an exigency" that the artistic habits should be disturbed . So we find M . Chevreul , as director of the dyeing at the Gobelins' factory , devoting himself to the practical and commercial relations of colour .
We had several books putting forth theories and speculations , but the experimental facts were like Falstaff ' s bread to the sack—a beggarly disproportion . And as our so-called Charles Martel fcays , written in " a jargon of lucubrations , valueless and obsolete . " A vast deal of trouble bestowed upon the analogy of the scale in music to the spectrum of light , and terms , such as advancing and retiring applied to colours , which are simply absurd . Or we find it insisted upon that so many square feet of red must have so many of blue " to balance : "—all which we believe to be " moonshine . " Much of the writing hitherto about colour has been really mere ¦ wordse . g . ( Field ) : " Colour depends physically upon a latent concurrence of those principles which are sensible , transiently in fight and shade , and inherently in black and ¦ white , as is demonstrated synthetically by their composing the neutral grey . " This seems worthy of Ennemoser . Or take what an artist writes : —
. Harmony in 1 ' ictonal Colour , does mot 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 .. . . . 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 inust 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 or Tone , the fundamental quality of Harmony .
Now let us see what comfort we shall derive from Chevreul ' s experimental treatment of the subject . Here is the simplest evidence of the existence of the law of contrast ¦ which his -work goes to establish and apply : —• If we look simultaneously upon two stripes of different tones of the same colour , or upon two stripes of the same tone of different colours , placed side by side , if the stripes are not too wide , the eye perceives certain modifications which in the iirst place influence the . intensity of colour , and in . the second , the optical composition of the two juxtaposed colours respectively . Now as these modifications make the stripes appear different from what they really are , I give to them the name of simultaneous contrast of colours ; and I call contrast of tone the modification in intensity of colour , and contrast of colour that ' which affects the optical composition of each juxtaposed colour .
Divide a piece of cardboard into te _ n stripes , oach of about a quarter of an inch in width , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , Gj 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , and cover it with a uniform wash of Indian ink . When it is dry , spread a second wash over all the stripes except the first . When this second wash is dry , spread a third over all the stripes except 1 and 2 ; and proceed thus to cover all the stripe 3 with a flat tint , each one becoming darker and darker as it reccdus from the iirst ( 1 ) . If we take ten stripes of the same grey , but each of a different tone , and glue theui upon a card so as to olserve the preceding gradations , it will serve the same purpose . On now looking at tho card , we shall perceive that instead of exhibiting flat tints , each stripe appears of a tone gradually shaded from the edge a a to the edge b b . In the band 1 , tho contrast is produced simply by the contiguity of tho edge b b with the edge a a of the tripe 2 ; in the stripe 10 it is simply by the contact of the edge a a with the edge b b of tha stripe 9 . But in each of the intermediate stripes , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 0 , 7 , 8 , and 9 , the contrast is produced by a double cause : one , tho contiguity of the edge o « with the edge b b of the stripe which precedes it ; the other by the contiguity of tho edge b b with tho edge a a of the darker stripo which follows it . The first cause tends to raise tho tone of the Imlfc' of tho intermediate stripe , while the seoond cause tends to lower tho tone of tho other hulf of this same stripe ,
The result of this contrast is , that the stripes , seen from a suitable distance , resemble channeled grooves ( glyphs ) more than plane surfaces . For in tho stripes 2 and 3 , for instance , tho groy being insensibly shaded from the edge a < t to the edge b b , they present to tlie eye the same effect as if the light foil upon a channeled surface , so as to light tho part near to b b , wlule tho part a a will appear to fco in the shade ; but with this difference , that in a real channel the lighted part would throw a reflection on tho dark part . He then gives the results of seventeen experiments with strips of coloured paper , or stuff , to show the modifications of tint thrown ovor the two colours pWiced side by side ; bo deduces tho following : — It follows then , from tlio oxporiiuento described in tlib chapter , Mint two coloured surfaces in juxtaposition will exhibit two mollifications to tho aye viowinii them simultaneously ,
tlio one relative to the height of tono of thoir respective lolourti , and tho other relative to the physical composition of these same colours . After having satislied myself that tho preceding phenomena constantly recurred when my sight was nob fatigued , and that many persons accustomed to jmlgo of colours saw thorn as I did , 1 endeavoured to reduco thorn to Homo general expression that wuuld sullioo to onablo us to predict tho oflbct that would bo produced upon thy organ of Bight by tho juxtaposition of two g _ iv « n colours . AH tho phenomena I have obsorvod seem to mo to depend upon ft very wimple law , winch , taken in its most general siguUiciUion , may bo expressed in thflso terms : —
In tlio cuso whore tho eye soos at tho sani Q time two contiguous colours , they will qppoot « s dtaaiiniliir as possible , both in thoir optical composition , and thy height of tlioir tono . Wo have then , at the same time , Bimultunoouu oonlmut of colour properly no called , iuid contruatof tone . In examining tha x-esults of his experiments of contrast , wo soo tjiafc tho tint thrown ovor contiguous colours < or , if we choose to aay so , tlio illusiveimpression on tho retina ) i . s tho complementary colour of oauh ' vvstowoa upon its neighbour . Red beside blue , gets a yellow tint winch m tlio complementary of blue , and blue gets a green tint tuo complementary ot reu : Wo almll hoo tlint tho colours will Acquire n most rwiuu-kiibl .. brilliancy , » l" » K « > «™» purity , and this ronult , iu perfect conformity witli tJioJaw , i « o » i » ily iiiidois too A , jjmwt ample an oningo-colourcd object * reflects blue r « y « , Ju » t . iw « blue objoct roltaota range royk ' ThoMibro , when wo put n blue atri ^ in contact with " » w ™ f . * X ^ J ^ S Bcfinlt that tU « lirat appear * to thu <» yo to rcooKro » om « b u « fl-om «« " \ % *» "JJgH ; fcS ^ iss ^ r & KH ^ iSf ^ ^ srrufrsa ^^^^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 30, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30091854/page/19/
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