Hue

“ Hence the judicious artist purveys for his palette at least two pigments of each colour, one eminent for delicate beauty, the other for richness and depth.
Truth of hue is a relative quality in all colours, except the extreme primaries, in the relations of which, blue, being of nearest affinity to black or shade, has properly but one other relation, in which it inclines to red and becomes purple-blue: it is, therefore, faulty or false, when, tending to yellow, it becomes of a green hue. ”

“ Neither must the pleasant light blue eye, with the honest glance, be confounded with another sort of eye of a pale blue, almost steel-coloured hue, which has a continually shifting sort of motion both of the eyelids and the pupils of the eyes. ”

“ And in a word, most of the colours, or colour'd bodies they use in Limning and Painting, are such, as though mixt with any other of their colours, they preserve their own hue, and by being in such very smal parts dispers'd through the other colour'd bodies, they both, or altogether represent to the eye a compositum of all ”

“ If light is color, why should it seem white in one case and some other hue in another? It is because in the whiteness of light are contained all the colors of which we are conscious. Very likely you know the experiment by which the truth of this is shown. Supposing you are still in the cellar and place in the pathway of the shaft of light a prism—that is to say, a bar of glass not round or square, but triangular—what will happen? The glass being transparent, the light will pass through it. ”

“ Hue is the technical name for color; a change of color means a change of hue. For the designer's purposes we will select twelve equally graded colors or hues from the spectrum and term them standard hues. Each hue will have twenty-seven modifications or gradations, which is a sufficient number for our purpose. These gradations are to be graphically recorded by and contained in a diagram to be known as a hue rectangle. ”

“ Thus red and greenish-blue, yellow and blue, orange and blue-violet are complementary. We may express this all important fact by stating that for every spectral hue there is another which when mixed with it on the retina in approximately equal quantities produces the sensation of white. When other than equal proportions of complementary hues are chosen, colors are produced which are of hues intermediate between those of the complementaries and which are mixed with varying degrees of white. ”

“ Still more important are the changes of hue which coloured [Pg 51] surfaces, and even the pure colours of the spectrum, undergo under the influence of a brighter or dimmer light. As the luminous source is brought nearer, violet takes a bluish tinge, green tends to become a whitish yellow, and red a brilliant yellow. ”

“ They know form, outline, movement, and crude color in large masses, but the refinements of hue, the subtleties produced by light-and-shade, though doubtless seen by the eye, are not recognized by the mind. ”

“ You will not in Turner's largest oil pictures, perhaps six or seven feet long by four or five high, find one spot of colour as large [Pg 345] as a grain of wheat ungradated: and you will find in practice, that brilliancy of hue, and vigour of light, and even the aspect of transparency in shade, are essentially dependent on this character alone; hardness, coldness, and opacity resulting far more from equality of colour than from nature of colour. ”

“ If you begin with the violet, and count till you come to the red, you will find that the soft hues are so blended, or run into each other, that it is not easy to see where one ends and the other begins. ”

“ Why make so much of fragmentary blue
In here and there a bird, or butterfly,
Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,
When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue? ”

“ It is also well worthy of remark that the brightest colours are often used in broad masses, and when so, are always arranged chromatically, in the sequence of the rainbow’s hues, and are hence never displeasing to the eye. The hues, though bright, are subdued by the imperfect light: the countenances of the images are all calm, and their expression solemn. Whichever way you turn, the eye is met by some beautiful specimen of colouring or carving, or some object of veneration. ”

“ 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 lights be of a healthy hue, the shades may be warm, inclining to brown, mixed of various 32colors, broken with light red, carmine, yellow, blue or grey. Some artists represent nature as violet or green, in shade ”

“ OF PAINTING. The hue of an illuminated object is affected by that of the luminous body.
264.
OF SHADOW. The surface of any opaque body is affected by the colour of surrounding objects.
265.
A shadow is always affected by the colour of the surface on which it is cast.
266.
An image produced in a mirror is affected by the colour of the mirror.
267.
OF LIGHT AND SHADE. Every portion of the surface of a body is varied [in hue] by the [reflected] colour of the object that may be opposite to it. ”

“ The eye is quick to note the different hues that appear in the field of vision and readily selects five predominating colors, namely, gray, green, brown, purple and blue, which mingle harmoniously in various combinations with almost every other color that is known. ”

“ The phrase and the day and the scene harmonized in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds. No, it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself. Did he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of words better than their associations of legend and colour? ”

“ Colouring is a distinct and subsequent branch, and is only to be learnt by long and minute observation of the diversified tints and hues of Nature. The principle of Light and Shade, on the contrary, is established by theory. ”

“ Invisible brushes, charged with celestial pigments, seem to sweep over its great expanse, mingling prismatic hues and changing them fitfully, in wayward fancy, as a master might delight to play with a medium that he had conquered. ”

“ And, if you consider for a moment, the distinc{208}tion of warm and cool hues, which is practised by artists and founded on the nature of light, appeals to our own experience. You will have no hesitation in feeling that a bunch of violets, surrounded by green leaves, gives you a feeling of coolness, as compared with another bunch composed of red and yellow poppies. ”

“ Taking ‘colour’ in this sense to stand for specific colours, not for classes or ranges of varying hues, sets of colours, where in certain spatial proportions and in certain relations of saturation, brightness and luminosity relatively to one another, excite responses of emotion and attitude with marked individual characteristics. ”

“ A rainbow is not more rich in hues, a bubble that glitters in the sun is not more light and glossy, a bed of tulips is not more gaudy. A flight of angels with rosy hues and winged glories connects the heavenly and the earthly groups like a garland of blushing flowers. The skill and delicacy of this composition is equal to its brilliancy of effect. ”

“ You may be confused by my first telling you to lay on the hues in separate patches, and then telling you to mix hues together as you lay them on: but the separate masses are to be laid, when colours distinctly oppose each other at a given limit; the hues to be mixed, when they palpitate one through the other, or fade one into the other. It is better to err a little on the distinct side. ”

“ The worlds which surround these can only receive light of a certain colour, or at any rate they are restricted to a few shades and hues. Imagine living in a world where everything was always couleur de rose, or in which the inhabitants were continually looking blue! ”

“ Why are not the bright hues of the rainbow seen in all directions? The absence of brilliant coloring is briefly accounted for by the large amount of surface reflection taking place, through which we see objects as if a gray glazing had been washed over them. ”

“ He looked at the daylight shadows of a yellow hue, dancing with the firelight shadows in blue on the whitewashed chimney corner, but there was nothing in shadows. ”

“ The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen, if the eye is too near. ”

“ so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge—pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; ”

“ Color is the first sensation of which an infant is capable. With the first ray of light that enters the retina of the eye, the presence of color forces itself on the mind.... When light is present, color is present. The first impression which the eye receives of an object is its color; its form is revealed by the action of light upon its surfaces. We recognize at a distance the color of a leaf, an apple, a flower or berry, long before we are able distinctly to make out their forms. In the absence of light, neither the color nor the form of an object can be seen. ”

“ Colour that speaks the tongue of the gods when thought falls dead and the sound of speech is mere hollowness.
When the colour faded big purple clouds began to drift up over the pale yellow sky until it was all a wonderful thick purple-blue darkness in which sounds were both clear and muffled; faraway sounds were clear, and sounds close at hand were muffled and eerie; pale milk-grey lights began to slide through the darkness. ”

“ If now to red and violet we add green, which has a rate of vibration about midway between red and violet, we obtain a sensation of white. Red, green and violet are therefore the three fundamental colours.
4. Physiological Characters of Colours.—Colour physiologically is a sensation, and it therefore does not depend only on the physical stimulus of light, but also on the part of the retina affected. The power of distinguishing colours is greatest when they fall on, or immediately around, the yellow spot, where the number of cones is greatest. ”

“ Complementary Colors.—A colored object shows a certain color by absorbing part of the light rays and reflecting part of the light rays. For instance, we know that light consists of the colors of the spectrum, red, green and violet. If an object is red, it absorbs the green and violet rays, and reflects only the red rays of light. Therefore, green blue which is a combination of green and violet is the complementary color to red or the shade which is absorbed by a red object. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We know that the sensation of light or color, if not too weak or too violent, is in itself pleasing. The bright, the glittering, shining object, so long as it is not painful, is pleasantly stimulating. Gems, tinsel, lacquer, polish, testify to this taste, from the most primitive to the most civilized man. Color, too, if distinct, not over-bright, nor too much extended in field, is in itself pleasing. The single colors have been the object of comparatively little study. ”

“ The eye only takes in and renders sensible to the brain the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and their various tints, but the delicate instruments of science reveal many other colors. ”

“ When, therefore, the main relations of colour have been all set out and decided for your window, turn your attention to small differences, to harmonies round the harmonies. Make each note into a chord, each tint into a group of tints, not only the strong and bold, but also the subtle and tender; do not miss the value of small modifications of tint that soften brilliance into glow. Study how Nature does it on the petals of the pansy or sweet-pea. You think a pansy is purple, and there an end? ”

“ Colors have their greatest importance for us in so far as they are properties of bodies and can serve as signs for the recognition of bodies.... We have become accustomed, in forming a judgment in regard to the colors of bodies, to eliminate the varying brightness and [Pg 18] color of the illumination. We have sufficient opportunity to investigate the same colors of objects in full sunshine, in the blue light of the clear sky, in the weak white light of a cloudy day, in the reddish-yellow light of the sinking sun or of the candle. ”

“ Colors get, it is thought, their value for feeling either through some connection with emotionally toned objects, like vegetation, light, the sky, blood, darkness, and fire, or else through some relation to emotional situations, like mourning or danger, which they have come to symbolize. And there is little doubt that such associations play a part in determining the emotional meaning of colors—the reticence and distance of blue, the happiness of yellow, for example, are partly explained through the fact that blue is the color of the sky, yellow the color of sunlight ”