LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION \ii 



mony of foliage color is worthy of the designer's best attention.* He 

 finds himself committed to a study in greens, but, within the limits of 

 this color the possible variations in intensity, in value, and in the 

 admixture of other hues give him ample ability of differentiation of the 

 various parts of his design, either in a scene where the foliage is merely 

 a pleasantly varied enframement of the brilliant color of the flowers, 

 or where, in a landscape all foliage and sky, the delicate distinctions of 

 grayer and browner tones of green may tell for themselves at their full 

 worth. Where gray and misty days are frequent, the landscape archi- 

 tect might plan some portion of his scheme purposely to accent the effect 

 of the atmosphere by a gray and delicate consistency of values. In 

 such an atmosphere, too, subtle contrasts of color would be more easily 

 perceived. When a bright sun throws the landscape architect's work 

 into sharp contrasts of light and shadow, a harmony of values in local 

 color would not be particularly effective. Under tropical skies, scenes 

 can be found of almost unbelievable brilliance of color, consistent in 

 their harmony of intensity, in a high key, as the artist looks at them, 

 but often garish and unpleasant when, translated into pigments, they 

 are seen among the subdued colors of his studio. 



Through thousand-times repeated experience, we have each of us Light 

 learned to know the appearance which most objects present when light "■'^"' ■^'*'"»^ 

 falls upon them. We have learned the sharp-angled arrangement of 

 lights and shadows which represents a cube in sunshine. We can tell 

 with surprising accuracy from the form of delicate gradation of shade 

 whether or not a certain column is truly cylindrical. Our knowledge of 

 shade and shadow is thus of great service to us in interpreting the in- 

 formation of our eyes into three-dimensional form ; and the minor forms 

 which tell in the aggregate as texture are interpreted in a similar way. 

 The smoothness of rubbed sandstone, the comparative roughness of a 

 clipped hedge, are revealed to the eye by their play of little lights and 

 shadows almost as surely as they might be revealed by touch to the 

 hand. 



This effect of light and shade upon the surface of objects, and the Light and 

 falling of a shadow of one object upon the face of another, bears in an- fl^i^„jJ^/jL 

 other way also a very important part in the appearance of the various Composition 



* Cf. Chapter IX, p. 159-160. 



