1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



463 



the active side. As pure yellow passes very easily to red-yellow, so the 

 deepening of this last to yellow-red is not to be arrested. The agreeable 

 cheerful sensation which red-yellow excites, increases to an intolerably pow- 

 erful impression in bright yellow-red. The active side is here in its highest 

 energy, and it is not to be wondered at that impetuous, robust, uneducated 

 men should be especially pleased with this colour. Among savage nations 

 the inclination for it has been universally remarked, and when children, left 

 to themselves, begin to use tints, they never spare vermillion and minium. 

 In looking steadfastly at a perfectly yellow-red surface, the colour seems 

 actuallv to penetrate the organ. It produces an extreme excitement, and 

 still acts thus when somewhat darkened. A yellow-red cloth disturbs and 

 enrages animals. I have known men of education to whom its effect was in- 

 tolerable if they chanced to see a person dressed in a scarlet cloak on a grey, 

 cloudy day." In reference to this effect, we are inclined to ascribe great 

 part of it to the strength of the contrast between the scarlet and the sur- 

 rounding cool tones. Yellow is not distinguishable from white in most ar- 

 tificial lights, which are themselves of a yellow tone, and cause white to ap- 

 pear so yellow that it is undistinguishable from yellow; and though the fact 

 is often recognized in the preference of lemon-tinted gloves over white, as 

 they serve both for morning and evening wear, it is not so often remembered 

 when papering a room, or selecting a chintz furniture. Mr. Hay recom- 

 - mends that both pure yellow and orange should be avoided in large masses, 

 and used chiefly as heightening colours. 



The colours on what Goethe calls the minus side, are blue, red-blue, and 

 blue-red. "They produce a restless, susceptible, anxious impression. As 

 yellow is always accompanied with light, so it may be said that blue brings a 

 principle of darkness with it. As the upper sky and distant mountains ap- 

 pear blue, so a blue surface seems to retire from us. Blue gives us an im- 

 pression of cold, and thus again reminds us of shade. It has some affinity 

 with black. Rooms hung with pure blue, appear in some degree larger, but 

 at the same time empty and cold." The blue room at the Reform Club again 

 comes to mind as an illustration in point. The appearance of objects seen 

 through a blue glass is gloomy and melancholy. Red-blue, in an attenuated 

 state, or lilac, is pronounced to be " something lively without gladness." 

 Blue-red generates an unquiet feeling. A carpet of a perfectly pure deep 

 blue would be intolerable. " As the higher dignitaries of the church," con- 

 tinues Goethe, " have appropriated this unquiet colour to themselves, we may 

 venture to say that it unceasingly aspires to the Cardinal's red, through the 

 restless degress of a still impatient progression." 



" In Red we must forget everything that borders on yellow or blue. We 

 are to imagine an absolutely pure red, like fine carmine, suffered to dry on 

 white porcelain. The effect of this colour is as peculiar as its nature. It 

 conveys an impression of gravity and dignity, and, at the same time, of grace 

 and attractiveness. The first in its dark deep state, the latter in its light 

 attenuated tint, and thus the dignity of age and the amiableness of youth 

 may adorn itself with degrees of the same hue. History relates many in- 

 stances of the jealousy of sovereigns with regard to the quality of red. 

 Surrounding accompaniments of this colour have always a grave and magni- 

 ficent effect. The red glass exhibits a bright landscape in so dreadful a hue 

 as to inspire sentiments of awe. The French prefer generally scarlet which 

 inclines to yellow, whilst the Italians choose a crimson with a tinge of blue." 

 The employment of red requires skilful management, and it is often used too 

 indiscriminately. " We have only," observes Mr. Hay, " to look at nature 

 for the proper use of this colour. We shall see that red seldom appears in 

 its full intensity, and when it does so, it is at that season when its effect is 

 balanced and neutralized by the general verdure which clothes the earth." 

 Neither pure red nor scarlet should be used in large masses — it ought not to 

 be contrasted with bright green unless in the smallest quantity. Where the 

 direct light falls upon the ground, and not on the walls, Mr. Hay recom- 

 mends a bright scarlet on the walls, heightened with gold, with deep-toned 

 colours on the carpet. Crimson makes a capital background for the hanging 

 of pictures, but care should be taken that its tint does not approximate to 

 scarlet or pink. This approximation to pink is a common error. In the 

 new decorations at St. James's Palace, now in progress, where the walls of 

 the state rooms are covered with crimson flock paper, the colour is much too 

 near pink. 



Purple, though a good colour by daylight, is much injured and neutralized 

 by artificial light. Greeyi is the result of mixing blue and yellow. If mixed 

 "in perfect equality, so that neither predominates, the eye and the mind re- 

 pose on the result of this junction as upon a simple colour. The beholder 

 has neither the wish nor the power to imagine a state beyond it. Hence, 

 for rooms to live in constantly, the green colour is most generally selected." 

 Goethe remarks, that "the juxtaposition of yellow and green has always 

 something ordinary, but in a cheerful sense ; blue and green, on the other 

 hand, is ordinary in a repulsive sense. Our good forefathers called these 

 last fools' colours." " The colours on the active side (yellow and yellowish) 

 placed next to black, gain in energy; those of the passive (blue and blueish) 

 lose. The active, conjoined with white and brightness, lose in strength, the 

 passive gain in cheerfulness. Red and green, with black, appear dark and 

 grave, with white they appear gay." We see these effects strikingly illus- 

 trated in book-wrappers. Black letter-press is applied indiscriminately to 

 red, blue, lilac, green, and yellow covers. A publisher of taste would do 

 well to consider how much the purchase of a book is affected by the first im- 

 pression it makes. 



In the practical application of the foregoing observations to the colouring 

 of surfaces, it seems to us that Nature herself suggests to us those parts 



Where Colour shall be lightest — where darkest. 



If we look at a landscape, we find three distinct gradations of colour. The 

 greatest light comes from above, the next gradation of light lies in the put 

 between the sky and the ground, and the darkest part is on the ground. The 

 exceptions to this statement, arising from partial obscuration of the direct 

 rays of light, and from reflexions, do not materially affect the principle here 

 laid down, and which we think is applicable to the artificial use of colour in 

 interior decoration. In accordance with it, we say, let the ceiling be the 

 part lightest in colour and tone, the walls darker than the ceiling, the fl>or 

 darker than the walls. The reverse is too often found in practice. In the 

 Reform Club, the mouldings of the ceilings of the upper and lower quad- 

 rangles surrounding the great ball, and those of the upper library, are pa nted 

 to imitate bronze, and in the quadrangles especially they are much heavier in 

 colour and appearance, than the walls by which they are supported. In the 

 drawing-room floor where the colouring of the frieze and festoons is light 

 and mean, the ponderous look of the ceilings is objectionable. And here, 

 though we are not considering especially the decorations of the Reform Club, 

 we take the opportunity of remarking on the poverty of invention, not to say 

 the contradiction, of colouring the ceiling of the lower quadrangle as if to re- 

 present blue sky, when it is palpable to the eye at the time, that it supports 

 the floor of the passage above it. In the upper drawing-room of the same 

 Club, the light maple wood book-shelves are much less positive in colour 

 than the beautiful ceiling above them, which is of bright blue, heightened 

 with gilding between the bronze-painted divisions. Fortunately, the dark- 

 green furniture and the deep crimson carpet in this room, are some balance 

 against the full tones of the ceiling, or we should have here an example of 

 the reverse of the principles which Nature seems to suggest. In the great 

 drawing-room, it appears that the decorations are far more consistent. There 

 the ceilings, being shades of white and light pink with gilding, are elegant 

 and rich, yet lightsome and cheerful ; less coloured than the walls, which are 

 of a yellowish brown damask, the colour Goethe seems to reprobate, and the 

 walls again are subordinate in the strength of their colouring to the fl 'or, 

 which is a deep-toned maroon in its masses. We are not unmindful of the 

 full-toned colouring of the Venetian ceilings, which might be quoted appa- 

 rently in opposition to what we have here advanced. For the present, without 

 discussing particular instances of the practice of painting ceilings in intensely 

 full tones, it is sufficient to point out, that what might be tolerated or even 

 defended in the works of a Paolo Veronese, is not to be safely upheld as a 

 precept for the common house-painter, whom alone, and not the poet-painter, 

 we are attempting to influence. It may be as well to observe, that accord- 

 ing to the depth of colouring in the ceiling, so the apparent height of the 

 room is lowered and brought near to the eye: and, as in London houses, the 

 height of the rooms is seldom suitably proportioned to the size of the room, 

 this artificial lowering becomes a consideration, which ought not to be disre- 

 garded. Not only, to our mind, ought the ceiling to he the lightest in point 

 of tone, but it ought to he the least decorated part of the room — What ? 

 venture to say this with Michael Angelo's Sistine Chapel in remembrance ? 

 Certainly — and we would call in evidence all who have seen this marvellous 

 work, the strongest case perhaps that can be produced, to testify their regret, 

 that those wondrous works are on the ceiling, and the extreme difficulty, no 

 less than lying flat on the back, which is experienced in viewing them. But 

 because we object to having the chief decoration on the ceiling — the part 

 obviously most difficult to see, we would not have it imagined that the ceil- 

 ing is to be left bare, as it generally is in practice. On the contrary, we 

 desire to see special attention bestowed on the — 



Decoration of Ceilings, 



and Mr. Barry is to be thanked for the good example he has set at the Re- 

 form Club, although some of the details do not seem, in our judgment, 

 to be quite right. The coloured decoration of this part of a room, generally 

 extends little beyond the tinting in one or two faint colours the cornice or 

 the plaster ornament in the centre; though sometimes, indeed, we meet 

 with the hideous practice of painting artificial skies and clouds — a miserable 

 conceit, always to be eschewed. We are convinced, from actual experi- 

 ments, that very effective and cheap decorations might be used in ceilings, 

 The colouring of mouldings and cornices by the hand, and indeed all hand 

 labour on a small scale, is slow, and therefore costly, but the plan we would 

 recommend, and hope to see extensively used for the adornment of ceilings. 

 is much more simple and easy of performance. Ceilings may be treated as 

 easily as walls. Papers may be prepared expressly with suitable patterns, 

 and "they may be attached, afterwards, to the walls like common paper 

 banging. After making some little allowance for the extra trouble in affixing 

 the paper to the ceiling, there seems to be no reason why the ornamental 

 papering of ceilings should be more costly than that employed on the walls. 

 In one experiment, we directed a paper surface of about ten fen in diameter 

 to be prepared, which contained Pompeian forms expressed in four colours, 

 and which cost, in its preparation, about forty shillings. Had the same de- 

 sign been executed in great numbers, there is no doubt that it might have 

 been produced for half the money, or even less. On the other hand, bad 

 the design been painted on the ceiling itself, by the hand, the cost would 

 have been much increased. The economy of the process of affixing the or- 

 nament in a large surface at once to the ceiling, is obtained precisely on the 

 same principle as that of laying the tessera in blocks on pavements, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Singer's patent, instead of laying tessera; one by one on the floor. 



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