AUTUMN FLOWERS, SQUIRRELS. 257 



the change in color of the leaves. Light on the 

 country road is colored far more than we think it 

 is, and as a natural consequence the shadows are 

 colored. 



I said that we saw details of form with astonish- 

 ing ease, and that attention devoted to these pre- 

 vented our seeing subtility of color. To prove this 

 let me again suggest that we turn our heads upside 

 down and look at the distant trees and mountains. 

 I imagine that this will be the best way to wean our 

 eyes from petty details, and show us a little more 

 of the subtile color which is present in shadows, 

 and the fire color which illumines autumn leaves ; 

 there is no mistaking the universal presence of it in 

 Nature. Let me quote the testimony of Ruskin, 

 who, at least the impressionist must acknowledge, 

 misleads no one in the following statement about 

 shadows : " Painters who have no eye for color 

 have greatly confused and falsified the practice of 

 art by the theory that shadow is an absence of color. 

 Shadow is, on the contrary, necessary to the full 

 presence of color, for every color is a diminished 

 quantity or energy of light. And, practically, it fol- 

 lows from what I have just told you (that every 

 light in a painting is a shadow to higher lights, 

 and every shadow a light to lower shadows) that 



also every color in painting must be a shadow to 

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