1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



461 



about them which indicate taste or knowledge. They present a monotonous 

 sameness and deficiency of any principles of taste, — the varieties of character 

 which occur, from time to time, being regulated only by the caprices of 

 fashion. Sometimes every room you enter is of one colour. In one of the 

 most splendid of modern houses in the metropolis — we mean in Sutherland 

 House — we have been especially struck with the monotony of white and 

 profuse gilding, in the forms of the Louis Quinze period. Sometimes the rage 

 is for warm shades of colouring, at others for cold, though the preponderating 

 taste seems to take refuge in dull, characterless, neutral colouring. " People 

 of refinement" to quote Goethe again) "have a disinclination to colours. 

 This may be owing partly to weakness of sight, partly to the uncertainly of 

 taste, which readily takes refuge in absolute negation." During one season 

 salmon colour, as it is called, reigns supreme ; then sage colour succeeds 

 salmon ; drab follows sage or slate ; and then all varieties of crimson put out 

 the drabs. Each is employed in its turn, without the slightest reference to 

 any of the questions which should determine its appropriateness or other- 

 wise. It is the same with ornamental patterns. One year you will find 

 every drawing-room papered with patterns of flowers, another year scrolls 

 will be all the rage. One year small patterns are correct — in the following 

 large only can be tolerated ; and whilst each fashion reigned, each was ex- 

 clusively used. Crimson walls in south aspects, leaden coloured ones in 

 north aspects. Small patterns applied to rooms large and small, and large 

 patterns to rooms small and large. A like absence of any recognized prin- 

 ciples is seen in the carpets and hangings. When crimson walls were 

 oftenest seen, then was the call for drab and light-coloured carpets. More 

 by luck, than anything else, it is now the fashion to have the carpets darker 

 in colour than the walls. We may often enter a room which, preserving 

 something of each shifting fashion of the few past years, exhibits a viola- 

 tion of every principle of harmonious decoration. Walls of a hot and 

 positive colour in a room with a southern aspect — blue ceilings fuller of 

 colour than the drab carpets, with curtains and hangings of scarlet — and 

 perchance a huge sofa covered with black horse-hair. Not a single thing 

 appropriate or consistent, but the whole a medley of unsuitableness. 



Having watched this subject with interest for years, we have arrived at 

 some conclusions which, we think, it may possibly be useful to submit to 

 our readers, and we shall endeavour to do so, in such a shape, that they 

 may be turned, perhaps, to some practical account. It appears to us, that 

 certain principles of decoration may be laid down, which, if recognized 

 and applied, would make our dwellings much more cheerful and comfort- 

 able ; which might make them comparatively beautiful, not only without 

 any additional cost, but would make the keep of them more economical, by 

 rendering them, to a great degree, independent of the caprices of fashion. 

 It is the absence of correct principles which causes decoration and furni- 

 ture to be out of fashion — tiresome — palling to the eye, and subject to 

 constant change, — whereas, what is really beautiful, being based on ever- 

 lasting principles, is subject to no change. We think the greater part of 

 the painting of a house might he a work to last for a life, with benefit 

 even to journeyman painters, and infinite satisfaction to the house inha- 

 bitant. A truly melancholy suspension of comfort is the work of painting 

 a house. Your whole little world so turned upside down, that it hardly rights 

 itself before the work has to be done again. What a comfort it would be to 

 undergo the penance only once in a life, instead of every seven years. 



It seems to us quite a mistake — though a very common and popular one — 

 to imagine that Beauty is necessarily costly in its production. Nothing 

 could be cheaper in material or manufacture, than the earthenware pots 

 of the ancient Etruscans, yet they have perfect and everlasting beauty in 

 their forms. The preference of one colour to another, within a very wide 

 range of colours, is not at all a thing of greater or lesser cost. So far from 

 beauty being costly, it would more often happen that in a given number of 

 existing specimens of decoration, the greater beauty and harmony would he 

 obtained at a smaller cost of labour and material, than what are expended 

 to produce ugliness and confusion. Take, at random, a dozen patterns of 

 paper hangings of various colours and devices, and in the majority of them, 

 we believe it could he shown, that their cost of production might be materi- 

 ally lessened, whilst their beauty should be greatly enhanced. 



Before we proceed further in the discussion of any practical rules for co- 

 louring interiors of houses, we must find room to quote, from Mr. Hay's 

 work on Decorative Painting, some of his statements of the principal defects 

 which he has observed in internal decorations. A conviction that our prac- 

 tice is not what it ought to be, and a humble recognition that there may 

 exist rules for our guidance, though we may not he cognizant of them, are 

 the first steps in amendment. The popularity of Mr. Hay's excellent work 

 renders any further commendation on our part superfluous, and its arrival at 

 a fourth edition affords a good sign of increasing attention to the subject. 

 We wish it had been somewhat more specific and practical in its details for 

 general use. It is essentially a work of principles. Mr. Hay considers the 

 first and most obvious defect to be when there is no particular tone or key 

 fixed on for the colouring of an apartment ; " that is, when one part of the 

 furniture is chosen without any reference to the rest, and the painting done 

 without any reference to the furniture. This generally produces an incon- 

 gruous mixture." The reader will understand what is meant by " tone or 

 key " by what follows. 



The " tone or key is generally fixed by the choice of the furniture ; for as 

 the furniture of a room may he considered in regard to colouring in the same 

 light as the principal figures in a picture, the general tone must depend upon 

 the colours of which it is composed : for instance if the prevailing colour be 



blue, grey, cool green, or lilac, the general tone must be cool; but if, on the 

 other hand, it is red, orange, brown, yellow, or a warm tint of green, the 

 tone must be warm." We may give an example of the principles here in- 

 sisted on. The important masses of colour, independent of those on walls 

 in most rooms, are furnished by the carpet, the covering of the sofa, chairs, 

 &c., the draperies of the curtains, and the covering of the tables. The co- 

 lours of all these are too frequently chosen without any reference one to the 

 other. If the colour of the furniture be light blue, then it would be bad 

 taste to colour the walls crimson, or select a carpet with any amber colour 

 or much warm brown colour in it. There is a very apt illustration of this 

 in a drawing-room in the Reform Club, which we have noticed for another 

 purpose below. So with the objects vice versa. The blue furniture might 

 fitly he surrounded with any colour in which its own colour predominated, 

 or even with a lemon colour — full toned or light in degree according to the 

 tone of the key fi. e. the blue) colour. Mr. Hay's advice is perfectly sound 

 in this case ; and, as a case often occurs, where the decoration has to be 

 adapted to furniture already existing, it is wise to lay down the proper prin- 

 ciple for its mode of treatment. But it must not hence be inferred that fur- 

 niture of any colour may be chosen at random, and then the decorative co- 

 louring of the apartment suited to it. In cases where both the furniture and 

 decoration are to be newly provided, where the whole department of deco- 

 ration is to begin ab initio, then the choice of colours for all objects should 

 be determined upon principles mutually applicable to all. In such cases (of 

 which we shall have to speak hereafter), the tone of the general colouring 

 should be fixed with reference to much broader principles than any one de- 

 pendent merely on the accidental colouring of the furniture. 



" A second and more common fault," proceeds Mr. Hay, " is the predo- 

 minance of some bright and intense colour either upon the walls or floor. 

 It is evident that the predominance of a bright and overpowering colour 

 upon so large a space as the floor or wall of a room, must injure the effect 

 of the finest furniture." Very often indeed do we meet with illustrations of 

 this fault. Look over half the paper-hangings in London, and it is most 

 palpable in them. Nothing more common than to find a paper with a cool 

 leaden-coloured ground or surface covered over with staring bright yellow 

 scrolls. It is a defect no less prevalent in carpets, which are everywhere to be 

 seen strewn with flower-patterns, Louis Quatorze scrolls, and affected imita- 

 tions of forms manifested in intense brightness. " A third error is introducing 

 deep and pale colours, which may have been well enough chosen in regard to 

 their hues, but whose particular degrees of strength or tint have not been at- 

 tended to. Thus the intensity of one or more may so affect those which they 

 were intended to balance and relieve, as to give them a faded and unfinished 

 appearance. This may proceed from applying the fundamental laws without 

 any regard to the minutia; ; for although it is always necessary to subdue 

 and neutralize such colours as are introduced in large quantities, yet when 

 they are reduced by dilution alone the effect cannot be good. This error is 

 also very common in the colouring of carpets and paper-hangings. In such 

 productions the degree of intensity of the individual colours is seldom taken 

 into account. A pale tint of blue is often introduced as an equivalent to 

 the richest orange colour, and sometimes a small portion of lilac — one of the 

 lightest tints of purple — as a balancing colour to a quantity of the most in- 

 tense yellow. This is inverting the natural order of colours altogether. 

 Every one may understand by this, that if it is desired to contrast effectively 

 one colour with another — say a crimson with green — if one is deep toned or 

 dark, so should be the other." 



Having thus briefly stated what appear to be the most obvious defects of 

 the present modes of coloured decoration in our domestic residences, we 

 shall submit some hints for the consideration of any of our readers who may 

 contemplate employing the House Painter and Decorator. We must how- 

 ever premise, that in treating a subject like the present, the absence of po- 

 sitive and practical illustration places us under much disadvantage. To il- 

 lustrate fully the force of our observations, this paper should be read hand 

 in hand with specimens of colours. The house-painter, states Mr. Hay, 

 " must take into consideration not only the style of architecture, the situa- 

 tion, whether in town or country, but the very rays by which each apartment 

 is lighted, whether they proceed directly from the sun or are merely reflected 

 from the northern sky." Without undervaluing the importance of attending 

 to the architecture and situation, it appears to us that Mr. Hay places that 

 consideration which has tbe greatest weight last in order — namely that which 

 depends on the aspect of the room to be coloured. To us it appears, after 

 bearing in mind the nature and characteristics of the climate, that the first 

 question to be asked before commencing any work of internal decoration is, 

 What is the 



Aspect 



of the room to be decorated ? In considering Climate, Nature herself seems 

 to offer us abundant analogies for our guidance. In countries where light 

 is least abundant, there the objects of nature have tbe least dark colouring. 

 Near the North Pole, where the darkness of night is almost perpetual, nature 

 clothes the ground and animals in snowy whiteness. In the regions of the 

 Tropics, where the light is strongest, the deepest colours, approaching to 

 black, are most frequent. In countries advanced in art, where the light is 

 abundant and powerful, we find the greatest employment made of deep-toned 

 colouring. The ancients, in brightly lighted countries, as at Pompeii, were 

 accustomed to paint large surfaces of their interior habitations positive 

 blacks. In those cases where we find such examples, the rooms were en- 

 tirely open above to the heavens, and the supply of light was altogether un- 



