drapers; it is due to the law of simultaneous contrast of colours. In fact, when the patterns appear white, the ground acts by contrast of tone (9.); if they appear coloured (and this appearance generally succeeds to that where they appear white), the ground then acts by contrast of colour (13.); the manufacturer of printed stuffs, therefore, will not seek to attribute the cause of these phenomena to the chemical actions manifested in his operations. (444.) Ignorance of the law of contrast has among drapers and manufacturers been the subject of many disputes, which I have been happy to settle amicably, by demonstrating to the parties that they had no possible cause for litigation in the cases they submitted to me. I will relate some of these, to prevent, if possible, similar disputes. Certain drapers having given to a calico-printer some cloths of a single colour,-red, violet, and blue,-upon which they wished black figures to be printed, complained that upon the red cloths he had put green patterns, upon the violet the figures appeared greenish-yellow,-upon the blue-they were orange-brown or copper-coloured, instead of the black, which they had ordered. To convince them that they had no ground for complaint, it sufficed to have recourse to the following proofs: 1o. I surrounded the patterns with white paper, so as to conceal the ground; the designs then appeared black. 2o. I placed some cuttings of black cloth upon stuffs coloured red, violet, and blue; the cuttings appeared like the printed designs,-i.e. of the colour complementary to the ground, although the same cuttings, when placed upon a white ground, were of a beautiful black. (445.) Finally, the following are the modifications which black designs undergo upon different coloured grounds: Upon Green stuffs, they appear of a Reddish- Upon Blue stuffs, they appear of an Orange- Grey. Grey. Upon Red stuffs, they appear Dark-Green. Upon Yellow stuffs, they appear Black, the violet These examples are sufficient to enable us to comprehend their advantage to the printer of patterns which are complementary to the colour of the ground, whenever he wishes to mutually strengthen contiguous tints without making them go out of their respective scales. SECTION II. PAPER-STAINING. CHAPTER I.-GENERAL REMARKS (446.-447.). ON THE LAW OF SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST OF COLOURS CHAPTER III.-ON THE LAW OF SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST OF COLOURS IN CHAPTER IV.-ON THE LAW OF SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST OF COLOURS IN RELATION TO THE BORDERS OF PAPER-HANGINGS (454.-500.). SECTION II. PAPER-STAINING. CHAPTER I. GENERAL REMARKS. (446.) Ar the point to which the manufacture of paperhangings has now arrived, we may, without exaggeration, assert that a knowledge of the law of contrast of colours is indispensably necessary to the artists who are engaged in this branch of industry with the intention of carrying it to perfection. I consider as essential to their instruction the study of the First Division (Part II.), where I have treated of the imitation of coloured objects by means of coloured materials in a state of extreme division, as well as most of the facts treated of in the Second Division directed to the imitation of coloured objects by means of coloured materials of a certain magnitude. (447.) We cannot really estimate the true relations between the law of contrast and the art of paper-staining without dividing the papers into the several categories to which the law is applicable; it is not applicable to all, as there are some papers of but a single colour. I rank in the first category papers having figures and landscapes, as well as those representing flowers of different sizes and of varied colours, not intended for borders. Of all kinds of paper-hangings those in this category approach the nearest to painting. Papers with patterns of one colour, or of colours but slightly varied, form a second category. Finally, I rank in the third category those employed as borders. CHAPTER II, ON THE LAW OF SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST OF COLOURS IN RELATION TO PAPER-HANGINGS WITH FIGURES, LANDSCAPES, OR LARGE FLOWERS OF VARIED COLOURS. (448.) THE study which I have prescribed (446.) to artists occupied in fabricating paper-hangings is in some measure that of the generalities, and at the same time the specialities immediately applicable to every composition which resembles a picture, or, in other words, the tapestry of figures and landscapes; but, whatever be the merit of paper-hangings of this category, and the difficulty which has to be surmounted in executing them in a satisfactory manner, nevertheless, they are not sought by persons of refined taste, and they do not appear to me destined to be so in future any more than at the present time; for the twofold reason, that the taste for arabesques painted upon walls or upon wood, and that for lithographs, engravings, and paintings is every day increasing. For if these three last objects do not absolutely prohibit, as do arabesques painted on walls, every kind of paper-hangings, they exclude at least all those with figures and landscapes in various colours. (449.) The applications of the law of contrast to the fabrication of paper-hangings of the first category are so easy when we thoroughly understand the divisions of the book to which I have referred (446.), that, in order to prove the advantage to be derived from knowing this law, I shall be content to refer to the bad effect presented by contiguous bands of two tones of the same scale of grey (serving as the ground to the figure of an infant), in consequence of the contrast of tone arising from their juxtaposition (333.); for we cannot doubt that the artist who consulted me to remove the ill-effect of which I speak, would not have produced it at all had he known the law of contrast, because he would in that case have made the dark band lighter, and the light band darker at the contiguous parts. |