Purple (color)

“ The rest of the world wear blue and purple, or orange and green, entirely ignorant of the harmonies of nature even as bearing on their domestic surroundings. For myself, I have always held that the most perfect harmonies required in either wall decoration, furniture, dress goods, or any other fabrics that color enters into, have their exact counterpart in some color tones of nature—that the russet-browns and yellows of autumn; the contrasting opalescent hues of a morning sky, rose-pink, pale blue, or delicate tea-rose yellow ”

“ It originally was used in reference to the nobility of Europe, as purple was the insignia of royal blood, due to the fact that purple was the rarest and most costly color and only the rich and noble could buy it. When used in referring to live stock, it signifies that the animal in question has a long line of blooded ancestry. ”

“ Some which stand under our cliffs quite dazzle me with their purple stems now and early in September. They are as interesting to me as most flowers, and one of the most important fruits of our autumn. Every part is flower, (or fruit,) such is its superfluity of color,—stem, branch, peduncle, pedicel, petiole, and even the at length yellowish purple-veined leaves. Its cylindrical racemes of berries of various hues, from green to dark purple, six or seven inches long, are gracefully drooping on all sides, offering repasts to the birds ”

“ It however happens that in the pure aniline colors discovered in recent years a line of purples and violets has been found so much purer than the other pigments that we cannot with our red and violet make a perfect imitation of the brightest aniline purples used in some of the goods now in the market. Purple is a general name for the several modifications of violet, red-violet and violet-red as Peacock Blue is a name given to the beautiful hues of blue-green and green-blue. ”

“ Refine your color perception, and you will be able to get the result without the obviousness of the means which has brought down the condemnation on it. Closer study of the relations is the way to find the art of concealing art.
But yellow and purple are not the only complementaries. All through the range of color, the secondaries and tertiaries as well as the primaries, this principle of complement plays a part. There is no color effect you can use in painting which does not have to do, more or less, with the placing of the complementary color in mass, to emphasize ”

“ Green and purple, again, are complementaries. All{42} the spectral colors added together also make white light, such as we daily experience in the sunshine. Furthermore, both homogeneous ether-waves and heterogeneous ones may make us feel the same color, when they fall on our retina. Thus yellow, which is a simple spectral color, is also felt when green light is added to red; blue is felt when violet and green lights are mixed. Purple, which is not a spectral color at all, results when the waves either of red and of violet or those of blue and of orange are superposed. [15]
Fig. ”

“ These tertiary colors harmonize with the primaries, as they stand in the relation of neutral tints to them, but are in harmonious opposition to the secondaries from which they are combined. Red, blue, and yellow, harmonize with each other, and they may be placed in juxtaposition, but purple should not be near red or blue, as it is composed of these two colors, the rule being that no primary color should be brought into contact with a secondary of which itself is a component part ”

“ We must expect, then, in painting, to find that neutral gray will be more altered by pale tints of red, orange, or yellow, which are slightly lighter than itself, and that the gray will be less altered by these colors when differing considerably from it in luminosity; analogous conclusions with regard to green, blue, violet, and purple, can also be drawn. Saturated or intense colors in a painting have less effect on white or gray than colors that are pale; this was shown in the preliminary experiment when gray was placed on a ground of strong color. ”

“ It admonishes us to be fervent in the exercise of our devotions to God, and zealous in our endeavors to promote the happiness of men. Of the second, purple, which being produced by a due mixture of blue and scarlet, the former of which is the characteristic color of the symbolic, or three first degrees, and the latter, that of the Royal Arch degree, is an emblem of union, and is the characteristic color of the intermediate degrees. ”

“ Over a light yellow purple may be dyed, the result will be a grayed purple. Over a strong yellow much purple will be required and the result will be a very much grayed purple approaching if not becoming a purple black.
In batik decoration by successive dyeings the [Pg 53] craftsman is constantly mixing the new dye with that already in the fiber. Having once introduced an intensity of any primary color, yellow, red or blue, he must thereafter, unless he removes this color, complete his pattern by producing secondary and tertiary colors. ”

“ You must be especially careful in picking out a dye that will suit your material. White, of course, can be dyed any color. Pale shades can be dyed darker or changed into other slightly deeper colors. A material of one color dyed with a dye of a second color will emerge from the fray an entirely different shade from either. For instance, if you dye a yellow material with a light blue dye, you will get green; while the same light blue over light red makes purple, and over light green makes peacock. ”

“ So purple in a violet or a hyacinth is a sign of nearness, because the closer you look at them the more purple you see. But purple in a mountain is a sign of distance, because a mountain close to you is not purple, but green or gray. It may, indeed, be generally assumed that a tender or pale color will more or less express distance, and a powerful or dark color nearness ”

“ This is the only white adapted for oil colors. Chinese white is never used.
Mixing Compound Tints for the Face. Purple is formed of either ultra-marine, Prussian blue, smalt or indigo, mixed with either carmine or lake. Ultra-marine, although the most beautiful and brilliant of colors by itself, loses that 201perfection in any mixture, but it still retains a sufficient share of brightness to render it a desirable tint in the purplish-grey tints of the face. Prussian blue, mixed as before mentioned, makes a bright or dark purple, according to the quantity of either color. ”

“ But the same colors will not appear gray to all color-blind persons, for the reason that the same colors do not act in every case with the same intensity of dissimilation and assimilation. In most individuals it is the purple and the blue-green which give rise to the impression of gray. ”

“ Often in our English mornings, the rain-clouds in the dawn form soft level fields, which melt imperceptibly into the blue; or when of less extent, gather into apparent bars, crossing the sheets of broader cloud above; and all these bathed throughout in an unspeakable light of pure rose-color, and purple, and amber, and blue; not shining, but misty-soft; the barred masses, when seen nearer, composed of clusters or tresses of cloud, like floss silk; looking as if each knot were a little swathe or sheaf of lighted rain. No clouds form such skies, none are so tender, various, inimitable. ”

“ When it first opens it is a pure white dashed with some purple pin points of color. As it grows to be a day or so old it adds a pink blush to its whiteness, and in another day is of a very decided pink, so that, with several on a stalk in different degrees of development, it offers a pleasing range of color. ”

“ A very little light purple is agreeable for a head-dress on light hair, but must be placed near the skin.
Neutral colors, if not too dark, accord well with fair blondes; gray, fawn, drab, and some few shades of brown are the best. Black is good for the fair blonde who has some healthy color, because it increases the rose in the complexion; but it is bad for pale skins, as it bleaches them by the painful contrast. No delicate color can be blended with black without seeming of a lighter tone. ”

“ Yesterday, an entirely glorious sunset, unmatched in beauty since that at Abbeville,—deep scarlet, and purest rose, on purple gray, in bars; and stationary, plumy, sweeping filaments above in upper sky, like 'using up the brush,' said Joanie; remaining in glory, every moment best, changing from one good into another, (but only in color or light—form steady,) for half an hour full, and the clouds afterwards fading into the gray against amber twilight, stationary in the same form for about two hours, at least. The darkening rose tint remained till half-past ten, the grand time being at nine. ”

“ This difference in color has been thought to indicate the sex of the flowers within—the males are said to be shielded by the green, the females by the purple, hoods. In the nearly allied cuckoo-pints of England, matters appear to be reversed: these plants are called “Lords and Ladies” by the children, the purple-tinged ones being the “Lords,” the light green ones the “Ladies.” The generic name, Arisæma, signifies bloody arum, and refers to the dark purple stains of the spathe. An old legend claims that these were received at the Crucifixion:
Beneath the cross it grew ”

“ Orange and violet make russet, violet and green make olive, orange and green make citron.
Black, white and gray are natural tones in which no color is apparent: White pales but does not brighten any color. Yellow is the brightening color and always stands out strong and advancing; to deepen a color, use its complementary color; to deepen yellow add purple; to deepen red add blue; to deepen blue add burnt sienna, then you will have purity of color.
THE TWO EXTREMES OF WARM AND COLD Vermilion or any other red of orange hue (warm) . ”

“ Real secondary purple has a depth, richness, saturation and bloom which cannot be approached by any other colour, the aggressive qualities of the red are effectively subdued by the retiring qualities of the blue, whilst in both is a strength of character which is the basis of the undoubted handsomeness of the purple. There is an air of quiet dignity about purple, qualities are held in reserve which do not strike the eye at first sight, and these undoubtedly form the basis of its use for ceremonial robes, where it is desired to give the fullest expression to dignity, pomp and power. ”

“ Royal Blue, Dark—18 ultramarine blue; 2 Prussian blue; to lighten use white.
Royal Purple—2 ultramarine blue; 1 carmine or lake.
Russet—14 orange chrome yellow; 1 medium chrome green.
Royal Blue—34 white; 19 ultramarine blue; 2 Prussian blue; 1 rose madder or rose lake.
Seal Brown—10 burnt umber; 2 golden ocher; 1 burnt sienna.
23Snuff Brown—50 burnt umber; 50 light golden ocher.
Solid Blue—5 white; 1 ultramarine blue.
Sapphire Blue—2 zinc white; 1 chinese blue.
Terra Cotta—2 white; 1 burnt sienna; 2 French ocher; 1 Venetian red. ”

“ Never was flight more exquisite. As he rose, one caught the glint of the imperial purple; as he descended, its full glory was revealed. Nowhere in nature is the pure radiant effulgence of that purple surpassed. It is the purple of the rainbow itself. ”

“ In nature pure purple is not a common colour, and on the palette purple pigments are singularly few. They lie under a peculiar disadvantage as to apparent durability and beauty of colour, owing to the neutralizing power of yellowness in the grounds upon which they are laid; as well as to the general warm colour of light, and the yellow tendency of almost all vehicles and varnishes, by which the colour of purple is subdued. ”

“ Rich and beautiful as it is, purple madder cannot be called brilliant; while Mars violet is, of course, ochrous. Unlike green and orange, therefore, purple can point to no original pigment at once vivid and durable: as regards purple, brilliancy implies a semi-stability that borders more or less closely on fugacity. Until the advent of a perfect palette, however, brilliancy and semi-stability will doubtless hold their own. ”

“ Nature employs this hue beautifully in landscape, as a sub-dominant, in harmonizing the broad shadows of a bright sunshine ere the light sinks into deep orange or red. Girtin, who saw Nature as she is, and painted what he saw, delighted in this effect of sunlight and shadow. As a ruling colour, whether in flesh or otherwise, purple is commonly too cold, or verges on ghastliness, a fault which is to be as much avoided as the opposite extreme of viciousness in colouring, stigmatized as foxiness. ”

“ Blue is a colour which it serves to mellow, or follows well into shade. The contrast or harmonizing colour of purple is yellow on the side of light and the primaries; while purple itself is the harmonizing contrast of the tertiary citrine on the side of shade, and less perfectly so of the semi-neutral brown. As the extreme primaries, blue and yellow, when either compounded or opposed, afford, though not the most perfect harmony, yet the most pleasing consonance of the primary colours; so the extremes, purple and orange, yield the most pleasing of the secondary consonances. ”

“ Purple is not wanting, rich as that around the neck of the wild pigeon—nor emerald either, bright as the hue that glitters on the body of the house-fly—nor glossy black, deep as the thunder-cloud’s bosom when coming to scathe and destroy. Ah, how the tints glow—ah, how they tremble, such as in the rainbow show, such do they resemble. Ah, how the tints glow, and mingle, and pulsate—now are they woven in one gorgeous robe that really makes plain Pleasant Pond look like some paradisiacal scene of “the reign of Haroun Alraschid.” But at last the colors fade—they die, alas! ”