CHAPTER XXI: COLOR
THE subject of color naturally divides, for the painter, into two
branches, - color as a quality, and color as material. Considered in the
former class, it divides into an abstract, a theoretical and a scientific
subject; considered in the latter, it is a material and technical one. The
material and technical side has been treated of in the Chapter on
“Pigments.” In this chapter we will have to do with color considered as
an æsthetic element.
The Abstract. - The quality of color is the third of the great elements or qualities,
through the management of which the painter works æsthetically. Just as he uses all the
material elements of his picture as the means of making concrete and visible those
combinations of line and mass which go to the making of the æsthetic structure, so he
uses these in the expression of the ideal in combinations of color. In this relation nothing
stands to him for what it is, but for what it may be made to do for the color-scheme of his
picture. If he wants a certain red in a certain place, he wants it because it is red, and it
makes little difference to him, thinking in color, whether that red note is actually made
by a file of red-coated soldiers, by a scarlet ribbon, or by a lobster. The scarlet spot is
what he is thinking of, and what object most naturally and rightly gives it to him is a
matter to be decided by the demands of the subject of the picture; and its fitness as to
that is the only thing which has any influence beyond the main fact that red color is
needed at that point. If he were a designer of conventional ornament, the color problem
would be the same. At that point a spot of red would be needed, and a spot of paint
would do it. The painter thinks in color the same way, but he expresses himself in
different materials.
The Ideal. - This is the reason that a still-life painting is as interesting to a painter as
a subject which to another finds its great interest in the telling of a story. To the painter
the story, or the objects which tell it, are of minor importance. That the picture is
beautiful in color is what moves him. As composition and color the thing is an admirable
piece of æsthetic thinking and æsthetic expression, and so gives him a purely æsthetic
delight; and the technical process is secondary with him, interesting only because he is a
technician.
The representation of the objects incidental to the subject is as incidental to his
interest, as it is to the picture considered as an æsthetic thought.
This is what the layman finds it so impossible to take into his mental consciousness.
And it is probable that many painters do not so distinguish their artistic point of view
from their human point of view. But consciously or unconsciously the painter does think
in these terms of color, line, and mass when he is working out his picture; and whether
he admits it to himself or not, these characteristics are the great influencing facts in his