Howard, Frank: Colour, as a means of art: being an adaptation of the experience of professors to the practice of amateurs (London, 1838)

HARMONY. 25

beauty is required for a picture. ■ The colours of
the Rainbow may perfectly harmonize ; but it is
more than doubtful whether the person whose
whole picture was a representation of a Rainbow,
would be considered to have produced a finely
coloured work of Art.

Harmony in Pictorial Colour, does not depend
upon any particular proportionate quantities of
the different tints; nor in any particular disposition
or arrangement of them; but upon the qualities
and the treatment of the individual colours. A
picture may be painted with every variety of the
most brilliant colours: or, on the other hand as
Rembrandt treated light, the work may contain
only one small spark of colour, the remainder being
made up of neutral tints; and even the small
spark of colour may be dispensed with, and the
whole picture be made up of a variety of tones.

Having dwelt so much in the Sketcher's Manual,
upon the principle of Breadth being indispensable
for the production of Pictorial Effect, it will
scarcely be requisite to point out, that it is equally
necessary that Colours should be so treated as to
produce Unity; and that, as with lights and shadows,
so whatever variety of tints may be introduced into
a picture, they must be so blended and incorporated