RECEEA.TIVE SCIENCE, 



239 



have of late been made to revive tlie true 

 artistic spirit. Decorative artists, like Digby 

 Wyatt, like Owen Jones, like Chevreul, bave 

 risen among us to protest against a condi- 

 tion of art no more reasonable than would 

 appear in tbe practice, not bitberto ventured 

 upon by musicians, of composing airs and ' 

 harmonies without tbe slightest regard to tbe 

 laws of thorough bass. 



The name of Chevreul, mentioned by us 

 in conjunction with the names of two emi- 

 nent Englishmen, in each of whom the theory 

 and practice of their art have met to ad- 

 mirably good purpose, may not be known to 

 many readers of these pages. M. Chevreul 

 is a French philosopher, who has devoted a 

 great part of his life to the practical study of 

 the numerous and intricate phenomena of 

 colour. His book is an authority on tbe sub- 

 ject, and we are mainly indebted to it for the 

 basis of all the statements contained in the 

 present paper.* 



M. Chevreul had attained a considerable 

 reputation in his native country by his re- 

 searches in organic chemistry, when, being 

 appointed director of the dye-works of the 

 Gobelins, he began to restrict his laborious 

 investigations, which he now turned into a 

 new and separate channel. A rigid inquiry 

 into the optical as well as the chemical branch 

 of the process under his superintendence was 

 first suggested to him as an immediate ne- 

 cessity, by certain complaints of a want of 

 strength in the black dyes employed, espe- 

 cially for the shadows of blue and violet 

 draperies. He took great pains, first, to 

 ascertain whether or not the dyes in use 

 at tbe Grobelins were inferior to the dyes in 

 use at the most celebrated works in France 

 and other countries. His comparative expe- 

 riments were sufficient to satisfy him that no 

 inherent lack of vigour characterized the 

 Gobelins' dyes. He was then led to suppose 



* " The Laws of Colour, and their Application to 

 the Arts." By M. E. Chevreul. Translated by John 

 Spanton. Third Edition. Koutledge and Co. 



that the real fault belonged to colours which, 

 were brought into juxtaposition with the 

 vilified black dyes, and that, in short, the 

 whole question turned upon those phenomena 

 which pertain to the contrast of colours. For 

 ten years did M. Chevreul piirsue an unre- 

 mitting course of inquiry, the fruits of which 

 will be found in the book we have mentioned. 

 Observations on the aspect of coloured sur- 

 faces, verified by persons much practised in 

 the judgment of colours, were collected by 

 him as a basis of fact. In considering the 

 relations of the various ascertained pheno- 

 mena, and in seeking the principle in which 

 they are founded, M. Chevreul appears to 

 have made the discovery of what he terms 

 the "law of simultaneous contrast of colours." 

 This law, once demonstrated, becomes a 

 means of assorting coloured objects, so as to 

 obtain their best possible efiect ; it becomes 

 a means also of estimating how far the eye 

 is well organized for seeing and judging of 

 colours, and whether painters have copied 

 exactly the colours of natural objects. M. 

 Chevreui's book has been justly called " an 

 excellent example of the Baconian method of 

 investigation." But tbe author does not, as 

 Bacon did, claim for his system the merit of 

 equalizing all students, and making each tyro 

 a Titian. The extravagance ridiculed by 

 Lord Macaulay, as being akin to the assump- 

 tion that Lindley Murray, in his Grammar, 

 sliows bow all men may write as well as 

 Dry den, or that Wbately's Logic and Rhe- 

 toric impart tbe secrets of arguing like 

 Chillingwortb, or speaking like Bui'ke, finds 

 no place in M. Chevreui's recouimenda- 

 tion of his own inductive method He is, 

 nevertheless, entitled to the honour of havmg 

 given the world a perfect grammar of the 

 prismatic spectrum, and of having fully, 

 clearly, and consecutively defined those prin- 

 ciples by which the art-student, who cannot 

 boast the highly organized natural instinct 

 of a Titian, can alone approach to excellence 

 in colour. Beyond the important service to 



