DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0213
chap, hi Colour Impressions 193
white ray, it is only affected by a portion of it. The
resultant impression will in this case also be one of an in-
complete or coloured ray. Now in the experiment just
suggested a little spot in the retina upon which fell the rays
reflected from the blot of red has grown after the half-
minute somewhat tired and incapable of being affected by
red light. Hence when the white ray comes in from the
white paper this part of the retina is less sensitive to the
red part of the complete ray (if the expression may be
allowed), and the ultimate impression received is that of
the other colours in the complete white ray excluding red,
and these resolve themselves into the general impression
of green. Green is thus the colour which in conjunction
with red makes up the complete or white ray, or is the
complementary colour of red, and if we reverse the experi-
ment and look first at a green spot, we should see its ghost
appearing in the same way as red on the white paper.
This well-known phenomenon has not been adduced
here for its own sake, but only as an example to show what
very marked qualitative changes—such as the change from
red to green which to the eye sensitive to colour is immense
—can result from excessively minute disturbances of the
normal order of things in the delicate apparatus of vision.
It can be readily understood from what has been said, that
colours affect each other by their proximity or in their
succession one to another, and the laws and conditions of
this influence go to make up a large part of the modern
science of colour.1 This science is however more a matter
of practical concern to the decorative artist than to the
painter of pictures. As was explained above (§ 94) the
modern painter so breaks up his tints that they are no
longer red, blue or green, but rather ‘ greys with certain
predominant tendencies.’ The decorative painter uses
1 Fully dealt with in numerous treatises of the day.
O
white ray, it is only affected by a portion of it. The
resultant impression will in this case also be one of an in-
complete or coloured ray. Now in the experiment just
suggested a little spot in the retina upon which fell the rays
reflected from the blot of red has grown after the half-
minute somewhat tired and incapable of being affected by
red light. Hence when the white ray comes in from the
white paper this part of the retina is less sensitive to the
red part of the complete ray (if the expression may be
allowed), and the ultimate impression received is that of
the other colours in the complete white ray excluding red,
and these resolve themselves into the general impression
of green. Green is thus the colour which in conjunction
with red makes up the complete or white ray, or is the
complementary colour of red, and if we reverse the experi-
ment and look first at a green spot, we should see its ghost
appearing in the same way as red on the white paper.
This well-known phenomenon has not been adduced
here for its own sake, but only as an example to show what
very marked qualitative changes—such as the change from
red to green which to the eye sensitive to colour is immense
—can result from excessively minute disturbances of the
normal order of things in the delicate apparatus of vision.
It can be readily understood from what has been said, that
colours affect each other by their proximity or in their
succession one to another, and the laws and conditions of
this influence go to make up a large part of the modern
science of colour.1 This science is however more a matter
of practical concern to the decorative artist than to the
painter of pictures. As was explained above (§ 94) the
modern painter so breaks up his tints that they are no
longer red, blue or green, but rather ‘ greys with certain
predominant tendencies.’ The decorative painter uses
1 Fully dealt with in numerous treatises of the day.
O