24 
though an object, drawn contrary to these rules, be s w oi 1 shaded^and 
coloured, so as to escape hurting the eye at first sight, yet, to an attentive 
observer, the defect would appear, and lessen the value of the picture. So 
will a group of objects, though separately well painted nenpna^ «£iU 
be less pleasing than when mhmUkmk they are well arranged as to colour. 
It may lay a pamtgr under some difficulty to admit only aw o h- ajjuantity 
of one colour, andjkeep to nature ;—as for instance, in a flower-piece, where 
the -winrk specimen of a red, or any other coloured flower,^placed in the 
full light,^nay be too much for f|nir >:i ']’ the other colours ;—yet it 
is by no means an insurmountable one, though it certainly requires judgment, 
and ingenuity in the disposal ofAegroup. But the exercise of these will 
be amply repaid by the effect^an observance of the laws of harmony will 
produce. 
The art of arranging colours lies in bringing all those forward in order , 
that most nearly resemble light and heat, and putting all those back in order, 
as they depart from those standards, and apportioning them according to the 
rule before mentioned*, for the distribution of light and shadow: ob¬ 
serving that, though one quarter of the globe may be said to be enlightened 
at one time, yet it is not all equally enlightened; that quarter contains a 
gradation of light, as does the dark quarter of shade, and the remaining 
quarters contain a gradation between the two extremes of light and shade: 
and in the same manner, to produce true harmony, must the colours be 
arranged, graduating from the extreme bright and warm tints to the extreme 
cold ones, for if one colour is out of place it destroys that harmony of colour, 
which is as pleasing to a nice eye, as true harmony in music is to a nice ear. 
But, though every practitioner in the art of painting must feel the advantage 
of a scientific arrangement of colours, and all aim at harmony, and succeed in 
a degree proportionate to the method taken to produce it, yet no one can 
succeed entirely without a fixed principle, or theory to work by; but must 
In a preceding page of this work, and which will be found to agree pretty nearly with what 
Sir Joshua Reynolds has said upon the subject. 
