Contrast of Colours. 631 
The association of these colours and their numerous shades 
in twos or threes, or in a greater number, produce a very 
different effect upon the eye, according to the combinations 
adopted. There are certain tints that mutually set off each 
other by approximation, and are pleasing to the eye; and there 
are others which lose by association, producing a very poor 
effect, and are even unpleasant and offensive to the eye. In the 
arrangement of colours we cannot choose a better guide than 
the eminent Professor Chevreuil, who has deeply studied the 
subject as applied to art, dyeing of fabrics, and the dispo- 
sition of flowers in a parterre. We give the substance of the 
essential parts of his instructions. 
1. The three simple colours, blue, red, and yellow, when 
pure, or nearly pure, contrast agreeably together ; but in close 
contiguity each of them absorbs, as it were, something of the 
shade which would result from a proper combination with the 
complementary colours of its neighbours. For instance, red 
by the side of yellow assumes a slight tinge of violet, which is 
the complementary of yellow, and the yellow a shade of green, 
which is the complementary of red. 
2. The colours complementary to one another contrast 
advantageously. This is sufficiently evident by the approxi- 
mation of yellow and violet-—composed of red and blue; red 
and green—composed of yellow and blue; or blue and orange 
——composed of red and yellow. 
3. The binary association of composite colours will also pro- 
duce pleasing results, because in each group all three of the 
elementary colours will be found reunited. That the contrasts 
will be strong and effective may be judged by bringing together 
violet (red and blue), and orange (red and yellow), or the 
former with green (yellow and blue). 
4. But the results are poor or bad when simple colours are 
associated with mixed colours into, whose composition they 
enter, as in this case only two of the primary colours are re- 
presented. Hence red contrasts badly with orange—yellow 
and red, and with violet—red and blue; blue with violet— 
red and blue, or with green—blue and yellow. Yet if the 
simple colour form but a small proportion of the mixed colour 
with which it is associated, the contrast’ will be sufficiently 
strong to please the eye. Thus a lively blue produces a good 
effect, by the side of a bright or yellowish green, and bright 
yellow by the side of a deep green—in which the blue element 
predominates. But these two cases, as will be seen, come 
