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

SO PRINCIPLES OF

cathedral tower represent them of a dark
grey. Mountain scenery is represented of a deep
Indigo blue, sometimes inclining to a decided
purple, as all must remember in the drawings of
the late Mr. Robson.

If this exaggeration or pictorial license be
objected to, as an unnecessary departure from
truth or the beauty of Nature, let the most
inveterate worshipper of verisimilitude place
himself before a landscape under bright sunshine,
on a clear day, and make an exact representation,
if he be able, of what he sees; and he will be
convinced that in such an instance, something
more and very different is required, to make a
finely coloured picture. It cannot be that the
colours of the original are deficient in beauty,
but that an essential quality of the beauty of
Nature cannot be preserved by Imitative Art.
He will find that it will not be possible
to preserve even slightly the gradation of tints
before him, without descending almost to
blackness in the shadows, which will be destructive
brilliancy of sunshine, and at the same time,
of that quality which is indispensable in a
work of Art, breadth. He will find that in
comparison with the brightness of the sky, the