Colors in Nature Author(s): Charles Louis Borgmeyer Source: Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 36, No. 6 (Jun.

, 1918), pp. 2-12 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25587565 . Accessed: 28/03/2014 04:58
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

DE BV F. H. FIN

PROMENADE Humbert (French)

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

NYMPH RECLINING By Jeant Jacques Henner

Colors
CHARL ES ~-- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~~~------~ F ~wwww ~ -~~ -............

LOUIS ....

in Nature By
BORGMEYER .. .... ............. .............. ..............

E ARE

of a sea, at the bottomll

mosphere
US, lets are ve get alid

tus and r-eaclhces sur-roundi(ls \Vlhich

very are little pure liglit. The xvio and mak blues the poorest tipper tra\velers

four or five hundred miles (leep, an looking up to the sun thr-ouglh that air of (lust-laden, ocean vapor-filled breaks and deflects t&ie rays of light that would blind us wvere wveto see them in their sun it is vio p)urity. As the ray leaves the which we flash the white as let-blue, just see under the anvil at the blacksmith shop, is violet-blue. The myriads of vapor, dlust and smoke particles that fill the air, ob struct the sunbeam, twvistan(d break it up so that by the time it passes tlhrough the at

caughit blue

b)T the skies.

atmosphere.

inig our

The
of two physical

change of color, which

or miore colors produces, Bodies or plheiioinleiioi.

the blendI1in1g
is a have l)plrely no in

dividual
they

color.

AccordIinig to their nature,

greater lesserand we degree (lecomilposinigi suni. This reflectilng learined in

possess

inl a of

the prbperty the lighit

fromil the

our

to mlemilo-ry text book, but to comiminit

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

I'aje
and(i knoNw Colol

IoC
repeat wN'hat valute it like a is olle p)arrot is another. to tIle thlinlg; to

C lOORS
Ilmen1ce to aISk my1'sCelf

IAX

1\A

U REH
1 h a v c

(LIestioons.

it mealls

is sntl)(lnei(l

toIle

value.

Take,
;.nd stil)(lnIc shadow. cord

for exam
p)lace anl(d

Ic a

t
all

-f-)eal
the CoIrs to tonic

shell
\Nvill that Or

it ill Sha(lO\; halrlmonize the the

theillselves is the

1 [ere viz.,

salla(lo tonie. senIse

valtie, in

are but thlree color-s beel tauight that tlherec in nature, re(d yellow anId( blue, btut I see mze_ bis l)lZZlep l)but by t\en1tV Colors. ouit and a II a I z i g the elemiienits siftillng til on I 3 my tlhree of lly1 i11.If)essions 1 (b P nimarv Colors a II d tleil-r combinatiolls. I C'lors beccan e They arc called Primary \ II c 1 comCl)iine(l they go back to white is niot a color and (loes not exist lighit \vlhichI
in the rainbowv or

C'olor

its finecst

is nlot

thling

to

he arranged
exc1 ti w11.

hv any atmilotiunt of illtellecttul

tall it a1 (ItIestioll of warnm anl(l

col(l.
hegill

You

citlher-like or dislike.
tIle opp)ositionls

Tlhenl you
and

ing the tise of thiese colors and thieir coim1

plements

the p)risi.

The

lawNs mtil

to g-asp)

of wvarm

ferent (le(rces that lie he cold and(I the (dif and col(l in tw\eell. E:vcr scenellhas \warmll
it. Take a.s typical lhotcl i\s 1-oo111witll \wC sit ied an1(l grecn (decorations.

ities and wvhat hlappens when they are milis lllated, but \ve have not space to go inlto
thIIat.

forimi ani initereistling

sttu(ly of

affill

in t h i s r o o m,
comiles of red ilito a aln(d gr Cecn,

everytlEng
feelilln \\varm and

g,ei-cral

cold, \witha little l)it of n1etu tral in it. The wvarm in the rMoomis stron1g; the wlite is g,rcele, in this case, let tis say a tei(ler- -r-een, thc rcd l)heing
\vClery strong IlLtiC trast, situationi, sillll). )ro(luces a (r'cit (1reen a dra coii cuir

] f the

tainis ani(I wall

the p)Ct, samile that' value is, if

papeCr \wereof
with they the were car of

eolor the s a ilmC

woul(l

of r e d, the
(lraim]atic.

Whole

niOt he

I \want to see how

kinds of (,rccn1s

m'anv
inl

tlher-e ar.e

tlhis 100111. -I look at the lied cove,- thle paper oi1 tiec wvtall, the curtains at the \iilldows. l ad -e al sOrt of ge C11l'l All one anl lJ)aLg them, w\\itll Coil1 othe-r I (et an enirichic(l idea e f gr-een.
Xv,itll the

In the same wvav

The'lne ) by coIll

reds.

paring and(I looking and trYin1g,

to sec and fecl how i1 ti c 11 /,l El CO N B, Jules A lexvis

bluer on1e redl is than the othi of color. er-, 1 finally g-ct fu1ll ''llcn I' lo k anr)uil ;iiaidco0ii

(ellicr

(Fren ch) _ (uiutc

f of

c8 I. i /,

Li hi

1T

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

COLORS

IN

NATURE

Page Five

"LA NAISSANCE DE Cabanel By Alexandre

VENUS" (French)

a little more toward one haps wandered spot th a n another, and my imagination dow I felt it to be a grey day. Every ob might have peopled this half seen space ject emerged, touched by the haze. The at grey. light the and thick mosphere was with all manner of objects, shop-girls going ferry-boats groping their way My vision was through a thin grey film to work; things color, a of neutral and less across the river; ships coming up the har more or their local of some lost bor, etc., but there was nothing to call me seen through it a by it. When up sharply and say, "See, here I am!" color or were modified picture to The eye penetrates water of a greenish his painter succeeds in giving the it has The eye penetrates it because it is me, color. to the feeling the day. gave clear, and it takes in or absorbs the is the light non-resi.sting quality of tone. Today, vision water is transparent and does to view. The my comes everything therefore or reflect. Now color is reduces not emit, transmit which film, whitish a thin, through by which it emits, if of an object that quality viz.: the local colors; it eats them up, certain rays of light or reflects transmits twenty up of t.ie local colors were made a spe thus producing the and absorbs otlhers, see them all under c(Ilors, I would it d(omination of this whitish film. Were seen a half hazy day the colors would be The atmosphere through a r o s y haze. would eat up less of the local color than on a clear day. on the grey day when my Yesterday eyes and mind looked out toward the hori in Nothing zon there was no opposition. it slal)l)ed1 nie in the face. AMy eyes per cific effect on the eye, dependinig on the nat.ure of the rays reaching the optic nerye. The brass of a lamp when seen in a light place near a window has a green yellow feeling, whiclh is not so resisting as when seen farther away from the window. The red of\the carpet near the window in the light is also less resisting than farther in the interior of the room. The color and

out ofmy win Yesterday.when I looked

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Paqe Six

COLORS

IN

NATURE

I'M A N'TSI'A B;y HIermanz

" IAgladla-Catal

-Courtesy ursa (Spanishl)

of The Luxenbourg,

Paris

slheeniof brass is opaqule, so is the red car l)et and earthlwhleni it is re(l. A/lillet's ear-tlh resists. Resistanice in color ma)y be tranis lated initoopaqueness in color, a color whiclh anid one is not transparenit or tr-anisltucenit Which is impervious to light. An object cani be brillialnt in color anid yet niot tr-ansparenit. A piece of coal is brilliant by its sulrfaces reflecting. There ar-e only two surfaces in this vorld. Onie is rotuglh,the other is smooth. One is wet, the other dry. The smiiootlhsurfaces lose imioreof their- local color thani the rough, because they reflect foreig-n conclitionis, otit while the rough sur-faces do not. si(le thinigs, Different forn1isof the same colors will have differenitdegrees of resistance. Take for- example, the wvhite polka dots of a wvoman's dr-ess. These spots lhold our eyes so that the wvomiianis secondary. Let those spots be wvhite sprigs of flowers and there Will be no resistanice.

Some peolple give the samiei feelinig of resistance that colors clo. A too violenit man, eitlher in words or visual expressioni, resists; a negro is too spotty when fanci fully dressed, and so resists. In a blue sk)y the white cloud hiigh ti) resists, while a miurky sky or a foggy sky at a distanice does not. Resistance in art, as in everythlinig, is a big thinig. It is dIe finedl as the exertion of op)posite effort or effect. Electricity in its natural state is wZithout temiiperatulre. Carbon and tung sten filamenits in all incanidescenit light bulbs offer resistanice to the flow of electricity and( becomle so very hot that they emiiitbriglht lighit,andl tius afford a striking examiiple of resistanice. Take two hum-iani beings, both coming along the street. You fail to see one; hie (loes not resist; he does lnot fight space; he creates no opposite effect, while the otlher one fights so muclh you canl see notlling else

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

COLORS
is like charm; and is lost as

IN NATURE
it is difficult to

Page Seven

for themoment. Resistance describe. Charm is individual must be felt.

described, soon as it is w h i 1e resistance

E a c h generation, indeed, each school of art, has a spe cial sense of color. The Vene all else. Titian

tian School put color before

is spoken of

as the fir st colorist,while

Correggio was a past master of color. Among the Dutch men, Rembrandt was a pow-, erful thinker in color. Dela croix was first among those put color in the first rank of importance. When a man is considered CYGNES". "LES (Prench) By Gaston La Touche a good colorist he has a good Paris of The Luxembourg, -Courtesy appreciation of w a rm a n d is superior them with the care that they exercised in cold. This is where Delacroix had it and Bou Delacroix else. to Bouguereau. everything One of the things required of the old guereau did not. A Bouguereau may touch but will not grip you. You are interested painter was that he produce a good solid lastin6g piece of work, and in order to do but your interest is not held. You hear -thishe was trained for the work, just as two pieces of music; one you endure, the is a mild nowadays a piano maker is trained for his other you enthuse over. One frames and gild Hle could make example of enjoyment, the other is one of work. them, paint houses and do many things far Take for example the "Mar enthusiasm. beneath the dignity of the artist of today. This is full of enthusiasm and sellaise." All this training made for durability andl you want to sing and march with it,while their pictures have staid brilliant through to an ordinary march you simply listen. If the modern artists were centuries. the a of vision, a to be divergency It seems the immortality of their physical of assured and translating, seeing of differenitmainner would surely be whole effect the pictures, to express used for as far as the medium color is concerned, the old Flemish masters had very much the same material to make have their colors of as the manufacturers today. To go further back, the colors of tlhe Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were made of natural metallic oxides, ochres and some. It often happens that pictures change in color greatly after painting. For instance, the black in many of Whistler's pictures has come through and delicate tones of can see One gray have t7urned yellow.

of theNineteenth Century to

eartlhs. Their only advantage was that they without much mental effort how miucil charm must be lost by these tricks of the made their ownl colors and so were assured the Luxemiibourg, pictures of their purity, for undoubtedly they miade paints. Among

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page Eight
.are several that are not lasting well. Of coturse, the care a musetim gives its picttures is more scientific thatn can be given in the usual home.

COLORS

IN

NATURE

d(angers comes through the atmospheric

pressure and the porotisness of the colors. The air and gases are constantly absorbed 'by the colors, engendering chemical com positions capable of attacking the colors. Pictures not protected by varnish naturally suffer the most. Light and dampness help in this destructive work and gas is deadly. About the -best protection the amateur can give is to protect his pictures with glass. Felix Ziem, the painter of Venetian scenes, and contemporary of Puvis de Chavannes, Harpignies, and a small grouip of other celebrities who immediately suc ceeded the great masters of the period of 1830, was b)orn at Beaune in I82I, and died in his atchier on the heiglhts of Montmarte, in I91I. Paris, He was the son of a Croatian soldier w h o w a s made prisoner at Montereau in 18I4. After his liberation he decided to stay in France,
and settled in P r o v e n c e,

One

of the many

threatening

with -a box of colors anid brushes. Rome seemed to him, however, to have bcen thoroughly exhausted, ain(l hie wan d.ered over the r e s t of Italy in q tue s t of a new field, wlhich he f o u n ( at last that he actually at V en ice. Not resolved on the spot, and settled else but Venice to paint nothing the rest of his life, as some h a v e imagined, but the old city of the Doges to his simply, for the moment, appealed fancy more than any other. He continued his travels, paid visits to the East, ventured even as far as Constantinople, which was quite a feat in those days, and returned to France, where he spent some time on the En route he Riviera and at Marseilles. picked up whatever teaching he could from various masters, but mostly studied on his own accord. When he came to Paris, sollme time before the year I848, he was, there fore, already a young painter with set

where he mar ried. The at his baptism boy re ceived the n a m e s of Felix Francois G e o r g e Philibert. He was sent at an early age to complete his education at Dijon, and as he was fond of drawing his parents at first thought that the proper ca reer for him would be that of an architect. He followed the lectures on this subject at the Icole des Beaux-Arts at Di jon, and at the age of eight een he carried off the Grand. Prixv, and started for Rome. But, instead of going to Italy, as a young student of archi tecture, he suddenly devel oped a decided leaning to ward painting, and set out

PORI'1RAI T By Mlflle. HEele^e

Clemsentine

Dufau -Courtesy

(French1) of The Luxemb)our^g,

P.aris

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

COLO?RS

INA NATURE

Page NTinle

-LES CUIRASSIERS" By Guillauwe Regam-ey

Courtesy (French)

of Thle Luxembourg,

Paris

tastes and
provedl on

formiisof art, and merely

the scatterinig knowledge

inm
that

from the lheart in pigmienits of living, fire, an(d flashies all the harmiloniiotis there glow\vs sunsets magnificence of the southi. His Venice." Ziemiiwvas, above all, a colorist, a luminiiious flame wvithmilelodies of color. WVhereRico painter of brillialnt lights alnd gorgeous tints, gives us the Veniice of broad daylight and lher early Zienli an(l Twill tranislate wlvich hie fixed onl canvas witlh enithusiasmii iorninig, niotes of mornings anid nights into rhiythmiiic loved colors. He and witlh passioni. He enjoyed transparenit gloriotus blendings of all the vibrations of bright., ethereal suin slhinie, and(c somlle of Ills Wolrl<s are a synm
p)lhonty o)i color.

I-.leused the sketclhes that lhe lhad acquire(l. he had made in Italy and elsewhlere gave. tlhem the fin i s h anid perfectioni that hie learniedi in Paris, an(I miiade his (lebut as an exhibitor as far back as the Salon of 1849, wvheni lhepresenited twvosubjects, a "Viev of anid the "';rand( Canal of the Bosphorous"

but they are beautiful in tl1eir very disor (ler anidlglowving excess. H-is color, Nwhichi is really the stronlgest featuireof hiis art, lias grandl and mellow splendor. H-e is a cap) but niot a strong oine, as able clraughitsimiani, his early sclhoolinig was brief anid inconm
plete but in hiis VTenetian views, pailited

extravagance,

and overwhlelmii the designi,

They

sonmetimiies

touell

oil

I\'J. discuIssed Ziem lihas been1mu1tlch1 color. aiid decriedl bv somile, anid ini later years lis works \were little spokeni of but wheni with which llis we read of the enithliusiasmii works Nwererecei\ved andl extolle(d forty and(

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PacgcTen
fift years Tlhere

COLORS

IN

NXATURIE

ago, wve are not astoniisled(l. broadl in tecllhnique. A silvery, soothing at is glory and magniificence in hiis mlosplhelre pervades the whole and gives touches, a golden realism ini his 1tlluminouis unity to the picture. The broken liglhts of the Bosphorous, the sky anid landscape are pleasantly re p)ictures of the Levant, aiid, above all, of Veniice. peated in the dress. This pretty child is 1-I uMr ac 1E'RT, F. (Frencih )-"F i dc Protne in perfect nattural, perfectly simnple and niade." Thle fronitispiece for this chapter
p i c tu r e so far as

is a

splendid

appearanice

It attracts, it hol(ds yourl attention; goes. eol)le enter-inig the roomn are absorbed in viewvinrgit. It draNws thiemil to anid into it. Mfuch of this is (Itie to its quality of color an(l the superb use lhe lias made of it. It is a work of the highest quality, comiplex in its elements btit arranged wvithisound taste anid a firm wvill. 1-is portraits are freely and gracefully drawnv,chieerful in color andl

cor(d witlh helr sturrounldings, dressed, as it were, to be a setting for her. Slhe lhas thalt perfection of grace whiclh is bredl of per fect surroutndings and one canl know quite well without the asking that slhe is a nice, be polite little lady. H-Ie makes lharmloniy tween his color andl themiiorale being of the person lhe painlts. Somiletimilessolidity is a "Les REGAMEY, GUILLAUME (Frencl) Citirassier-s." A military painter much less known than

little lacking.

'LA MORTE" B1y Albert Besnard

, (Fr ench)

-Courtesy

of The

Luxemnbourg,

Paris

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

COLORS

IN

NATURE

PagetFleven

"LA FEMME" By Albert Besnard

-Courtesy (French)

of The

Luxembourg,

Paris

many of his friends, but nevertheless a real He gives a certain picturesqule painter. o w e s t seem quality to his soldiers; the 1 heroic. This quality does not show in "Les

as it does in several that are Cuirassiers" owned by the museum at Pau, but there is a feeling of great distinction in this w'ork, which is increased by its color of rusty gold. Jn this picture the reds are oblique and if

you look you will see that the reds of the Cottet next to it are horizontal anil holo(I the oblique. your attention much longer tlhaln This question of distinction of color has a great deal more to do with the enjoyment and ultimate success of a painting than the and see why there is something lacking in feeling in t h e beautiful "La Verite"' of

public ingeneral realizes. Look about you,

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page T1'h.
Lefebvre and "La Jeunesse et l'amour" of Bouguereau. Surely they are no't faulty in.

COLORS

JN NAT lURE

largenessof design, decorativebeauty or

living force. What is it then that causes

us to turn away our eyes and. force them It is the quality back to, say the Cottet? of the color, and nothing else. When we do not find a tint of rose like color the color of a fair face blushing, be something lacking. It may be est in vibrancy, in life. In other of youth, there will

have, botlh of them, to a rare degree, the "sense of themodel"; that is to say, the de termination of the volume of the bodies in space, by the clever calculationl of the oppo sition of light and shade. The bodies they create "turn"; they have the fullness of

statues.

an inter words, a painting should blush quite as much as the face of y o u n g and comely boy or girl. Naturally as our eyes and our views of life and our fund of sentiment varies, our lik ing for one sort of blush or another varies from a faint suggestion of a blush to a painfully embarrassing one. And so it is in paintings, but the life, the vibrating qual ity and joy given forth by a painting de

Benedite's clever comparisonsand opened

my eyes to this point about them both. Per haps no two recent men have been more dis cussed than, these two, but now we will separate them, for surely there can be no other points of similarity that would join them in our mind. Albert Besnard belonged to a family of artists. His father was a pupil of Ingres and his mother a miniature painter. He studied under Cabanel for a short time and that reminds me that the pupils of Cabanel must form an army. He entered into Im

I should never have thought of compar ing the two men myself, but the above is a very free translation of one of M. Leonce

pendmuch upon itsblushingquality.

HERMAN ANGLADA-CAMARSA (Spanish) "Phantasia." A beautiful piece of splendid color; and original in vision; it is not in any way an imitation-an interpretation. It is well d'i vided in values and when you go away from it far enough, all fits in together very well. BESNARD, ALBERT (French) -"La Morte,"

pressionism and the plein air movements

with enthusiasm, and soon emerged with a most remarkable personality. In I884 he' startled the public with one of his studies of two lights. It was of a lady in the con

"La femmese chauffant."

Two Frenchmen at a-bout the same time jumped into publicity, one Albert Besnard, No two per the other Eugene Carriere. sonalities could have been more different. Besnard loves light, joy, movement, color, the splendor of nature and human luxuries. He plays with brilliant n u des, budding flowers, with wonderful hair, with all the lights of the heavens and those created by man. Carriere studied the depth of shade, the silences, the intimate circle of family life; he gave little space in his works to restrained outdoors, abhorred movement, his color and his eloquence, and his strength came from his sobriety and apparent pov erty. But there is one point where these It is two contrary natures entirely accord. in the understanding of the form. They

flicting golden lamplight and the lilac lights of evening. "Femme se chauffacnt"' is a picture with
this same problem, painted in I889. It is a view of an entirely nude figure, with her draperies at her feet. She sits upon a fur rug, resting on cushions placed against a chimney that one does not see. She holds a cup to her lips but stops a moment before drinking to fix the fire that throws bright and pearly reflections on her body. It is this illumination which we have learned to associate with Besnard's work. He sees the

color innatureaboutobjectswith intensity;

lhe creates movement and luminosity a n d makes objects in the flare of the sun blaze

with light.

An altogether different subject is t h e hauntingly powerful and tragic "Morte." The composition is dignified and restful.

This content downloaded from 162.210.196.173 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:58:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions