NA TURE 



[January 7, iqcq 



happen in Alpine scenery, the rocks have come out too 

 dark. Among the full-page illustrations, hoar-frost on 

 a tree, a frozen lake in the Engadine, and a view at 

 Ragaz strike us as particularly good. In fact, though 

 the book is certainly not free from defects, it has not a 

 few countervailing merits. 



COLOUR AND PIGMENTS. 

 Colour-sense Training and Colour Using. By E. J. 



Taylor. Pp. 88. (London : Blackie and Son, Ltd., 



1908.) 

 ' I ■'HIS should prove a very useful little book to 

 ■L teachers who wish to explain the fundamental 

 laws of colour to their pupils. The old division of 

 the spectrum into the three primaries — blue, yellow 

 and red — still persists among artists and leads to much 

 confusion of thought, and doubtless a book of this 

 character will assist in bringing in a truer perception 

 of the nature of colour-vision, while it is not so diffi- 

 cult as Prof. Church's book or Sir \\"illiam Abney's 

 " Colour Measurement and .Mixture." 



The author in dealing with this subject takes the 

 ordinary Young-Helmholtz theory of the primary 

 colour sensations, and is quite right in so doing. It 

 is simpler, and at any rate covers most of the facts, 

 and there is no need in a book of this character to 

 discuss any rival theories which may exist. The 

 weakest chapter in I he bo;)k Is that dealing with the 

 mixing of pigments, .ind in a future edition this 

 chapter might well be re-written and developed. One 

 of the most important lessons the artist can learn 

 from the study of the theory of colour is the extent to 

 which he can limit his p;ilette and get all the effects 

 he requires. For instance, by means of a rich madder, 

 cobalt yellow, viridian, and cobalt blue, every tint can 

 be obtained, including a deep, rich, velvety black, 

 while a complete spectrum can be constructed on a 

 lower key by the use of black, Indian and Venetian 

 red and yellow ochre, and it is therefore of great 

 importance that the art student, having once mastered 

 the theory, should test it by experiments with a few 

 selected pigments, and should realise for himself that 

 lampblack and yellow ochre really give a green, and 

 that he can get practically a complete absorption of 

 the spectrum frt)m not more than three or four 

 pigments. 



It is also of importance that he should be trained to 

 use a palette consisting of permanent pigments, and 

 should avoid as far as possible those that are fugitive. 

 It is therefore a pity to see in a modern text-book an 

 artist advised to use such pigments as crimson lake, 

 carmine, indigo and gamboge. These should all be 

 excluded. The writer has also apparently not realised 

 the extent to which his theory will assist the artist 

 who wishes to paint in the method of the French 

 impressionist school by the juxtaposition of small dots 

 of colour instead of by an actual mixing of the 

 pigments. If, for instance, blue and yellow are 

 painted in small dots side by side, from a little 

 distance the effect is to give a grey and not a green ; 

 in fact, green is the one colour which cannot be 

 produced by such juxtaposition of pigment, but must 

 XO. 2045, VOL. 79] 



be obtained either by the use of a green pigment m 

 the mixing of a blue and yellow so as to leave the 

 net result of their mutual absorptions. A short dis- 

 cussion, therefore, of the French method of painting 

 as opposed to the method of mixing pigments, and a 

 statement of the actual results obtained by the 

 blending in the eye of the lights reflected from two 

 separate pure pigments painted side by side, would be 

 of great value to the modern artist. Most of our 

 painters to-day make use of both methods to get their 

 effects, and would probably be much helped by being 

 taught a few fundamental principles. The only refer- 

 ence which the author has to this method of painting 

 is to be found on p. 60, where he says the designers 

 avoid dirty tones by placing the pigments very close, 

 with the alternate colours in dots and dashes, but ho 

 does not seem to realise that the resulting colour may 

 be quite different from that obtained by blending the 

 pigments. 



There is another dilVicully which faces the artist in 

 dealing with actual pigments, and which has not been 

 discussed by the author. Many when mixed with 

 white completely alter in tint, and the matter is not 

 so siinple as it would appear from the description in 

 the text of the graded tones to be obtained in this 

 way. To take a simple instance, the great value of 

 yellow ochre to an artist is that it can be mixed with 

 white without an alteration in the tint, so that the 

 yellow ochre let down w ith white has the same colour 

 value to the eve. This is not true of most other 

 yellows, and consequently yellow ochre is invaluable 

 for producing the effect of bright sunlight falling on 

 a white surface. With reference to the training of 

 children in the meaning of colour, it is open to 

 question if the modern kindergarten methods are 

 wise. The colours w hicli ;irc used in practice for 

 tiaining young cliildren, and from which they arc 

 supposed to build up various patterns, are remarkable 

 for their peculiar ugliness and the hideous colour 

 schemes which result from them. Children grow up 

 with a beautiful perception of true colour schemes in 

 many lands where the kindergarten methods have 

 never been heard of, and one of our greatest diffi- 

 culties at present is that those engaged in trade 

 processes which involve the use of colour have no fine 

 sense of what is beautiful. It is surely an open 

 question whether the hideous colours presented to 

 very young children in the kinderg'arten classes are 

 not positively injurious, and tend to destroy any in- 

 stinctive taste for colour with which they have been 

 endowed by nature. 



THE ATL.^S OF CANADA. 

 Atlas of Canada. Prepared under the direction of J. 

 White. Pp. 21; 83 plates. (Canada: Department 

 of the Interior, igo6.) 



THIS atlas, which has been compiled with great 

 care, shows, in a fcjrm which can usually if no' 

 always be easily comprehended, much of the informa- 

 tion which is at present obtainable concerning th" 

 Great Dominion. It contains about forty maps, and 

 rather more ih.-m that number of plates of diagrams. 



