YIELDS CHROMATOGRAPHY, OR TREATISE ON COLOURS AND PIGMENTS.
" AN eye for colour" is more common than "an ear for music." There are fewer, perhaps, to whom an harmonious arrangement of co- lours is not agreeable, than who are indifferent to the "concord of sweet sounds." We have known persons to whom music is annoying .—for where the sense of harmony is wanting, the mere noise may be offensive ; but we never heard of any one to whom a beautiful combi- nation of colours was displeasing, though many may be blind to its at- tractions. The "ear for music" is cultivated by all who desire the re- fined gratification of that most intellectual of sensual enjoyments ; while the "eye for colour," or "the painter's eye," as it is often called, is rarely improved by scientific exercise, except for professional purposes. Who can fail to be struck with the lavish colours of the flower-garden, the golden hues of autumnal foliage, the gorgeous splendours of sunset, and the mild radiance of moonlight? The eye to whom these broad and prominent charms of nature are grateful, is capable of receiving less vivid impressions and transmitting them to the mind. The har- monious contrast of the yellow corn fields with the green of the trees and hedges, and the blue of the sky; the endless variety of hues in a vernal landscape ; the sober beauty of the wintry scene ; the shifting lights and shades that dapple the surface of the earth ; and, to descend from masses to details, the exquisite painting that makes hedges and banks, woodland paths and commons, trunks of trees and park-palings, ay, even ditches and ponds, beautiful to the eye ; and the infinity of modifications under which the well-known aspects of the seasons appear, ...these are but vaguely comprehended by the generality, who take no pains to trace to their source the sensations which the homeliest scenes of nature cannot fail to produce—to note the subtle gradations of
light and colour, and the numberless objects which form part of the great whole. The gratification of the senses is permanent
and. intense in proportion to the degree of intelligence that accorn-
tames its exercise. Hence the benefit of science in teaching us to reason upon our perceptions. The eye once directed in the search of the beauties of colour and form, learns to distinguish differences by comparison. This is all the science necessary to enjoy the ever- changing feast for the sense of sight, which Nature perpetually spreads before us. Blessed with sight, and this modicum of intelligence, the dweller in cities may find in artificial, as the rural resident in
natural objects, a never-failing source of gratification. The forms of buildings relieved i.gainst the sky, their smoky surfaces varied by
light and shade ; the shops with their many-colwared wares spread out in rich and often tasteful profusion ; even the fog of the last few days,. and the glitter of the mud reflecting the lights of the shop-windows, are not without their beauties. These are among the pleasures of sight denied only to the blind ; and even the blind have an inward sense which the powers of memory and fancy combine to exercise, of whose vividness and activity we may all judge, by calling lo mind the retrospective glimpses that we get at will of scenes long past and never to be viewed again with the outward sense. The painter who has to trace on the canvas the impressions made upon his eye, and whose quickest and subtlest art fails to catch arid embody " the Cyn- thia of the minute," requires not only that more acute and active perception which practice gives, but an acquaintance with those laws of nature by they are produced, produced, and a knowledge of the means of imitating them.
In so far as colours are concerned, this knowledge is conveyed in a clear, accurate, and philosophic manner, by Mr. FIELD, whose Clironw- tography does more to establish the science of colours in relation to the painter's art, upon the solid basis of the laws of nature, than any treatise we are acquainted with. The author appears to possess both. an artistical arid chemical knowledge of the properties of colours and pigments ; arid his enthusiastic feeling for his subject has led him to scatter over the driest paths of investigation the flowers of fancy, which he has culled from the poets with a liberal hand. An eye for colours seems to be one of the qualities inherited by these sons of genius : but none, says our author, " appears to have had juster con- ception of the beauties and powers of colours than SHAKSPEARE; " whose painting (so to speak) has all the freshness, simplicity, and truth of nature. SPENSER is eminently pictorial in his combinations of colour : MILToN is more artificial and ornate : BvaoN's " pallette," says Mr. FIELD, " is principally set with red and black ;" which is. characteristic of his morbid muse, as purple and gold was of the regal fancy of Ilwak.ft. The fair sex, in matters of dress, are in general remarkable for the skill with which they heighten their charms and lessen defects by the aid of colour :if dress. Mr. Firm) tells us of a remark of Sit-- THOMAS LAWRENCE, that " in no iiistance whatever had he occasion to request or desire any change of the colours in which his sitters pre- sented themselves; so judicious and natural was their taste and feel- ing as to what best suited their peculiarities of character." Sir THOMAS was a courtier; but we do net doubt the truth of his remark in the
main. Wherever the natura taste was defective, the modiste could supply the deficiency. Burt this observation also holds good, though not so universally, among humbler beauties. how often do we ad- mire a tasteful combination, as well as a judicious choice of colours, in the simple dress of a rustic lass in her holyday-elothes.
In reference to painters, for whose use this volume is especially in- tended, we agree with the author in his doubt, " whether there was not as much of instinct as principle in the practice of the Venetian and other schools of painting admii able for fine colouring : and that colouring re- mains yet to be established in its perfection as a science." Yet though TITIAN and RUBENS produced their rich and splendid pictures with the aid of no better science than they acquired from the habit of exercising that nice sense of harmony and brilliancy of colours with which they were gifted, there is no doubt that if they had possessed a more scien- tific knowledge of the theory of colours, their pictures would have bene- fited. Science alone cannot make a TITIAN; but as a handmaid to those arts which genius employs to body forth its creations, it is highly valuable. TITIAN would not have lamented like a lover the death of the chemist who prepared his white paint, if he had been as much skilled in the chemical properties of colours as he was in their application ; nor would the Venetian colourists hove died and left no record of the principles upon which they productd their glorious works, had they proceeded upon settled philsophical principles. Some painters affect to despise colour : Mr. FIELD truly remarks- " There never was nor ever will be a painter who does not colour well for any other reason than because he is not able." Mr. FIELD pays a well-deserved tributz to the merit of the British school as regards colour, and deprecates its disparagement on this account. A complaint of the want of good drawing and characteristic expression, is not, how- ever to be mistaken for a depreciation of an excellence. To enter technically upon the subject of colouring, would be foreign to our purpose : we must be content, therefore, with recommending the book to the diligent study of every painter. It treats of the colour- ing of the ancients ; of the moral and physical characteristics of colours, tracing them to their three primitives, and arranging them lucidly upon this basis in a complete and comprehensive scale. A classified cata- logue raisonni of the various pigments, and tables of their common properties, form an important and useful part of the volume. The subjects of vehicles, grounds, varnishes, and picture-cleaning, are intel- ligently touched upon : and in conclusion, there is an account of some optical instruments of the author's invention (the two principal ones being the Chromascope and the Metrochrome), with some ingenious and instructive experiments developing the properties and action of light and colours in a variety of curious phenomena.
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