DOI Heft:
No. 296 (November 1917)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure: on the curatice value of colour
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21264#0102
The Lay Figure
THE LAY FIGURE : ON THE CURA-
TIVE VALUE OF COLOUR.
“ X X AVE you heard anything about
I I this suggestion that special colour-
schemes should be used for hospital
■X wards ? ” asked the Man with the
Red Tie. “ The idea, I believe, is to see whether
shell-shock patients can be cured by a sort of
colour treatment. Do you think there is any-
thing in it ? ”
“ About as much, I should say, as there was
in the notion of some lunatic that Piccadilly
should be painted green and orange to improve
the spirits of the people,” laughed the Plain
Man. “ I have no patience with such nonsense.”
“ But is it nonsense ? " said the Critic.
“ Most people are to a greater or less degree
susceptible to the influence of colour, and I can
quite imagine that the sick man, and especially
one suffering from any kind of nervous ailment,
would be considerably affected by the colour
of his surroundings.”
“ I think that if his surroundings are suffi-
ciently clean and tidy and include a pretty nurse
or two he is much more likely to be happy than
he would be in an atmosphere of primrose-
yellow and apple-green,” chuckled the Plain
Man. “You artist people are so taken up
with your funny fads that you cannot under-
stand the point of view of the ordinary human
person.”
“ I suppose you would reckon yourself to be
an ordinary human person,” broke in the Man
with the Red Tie. “ Do you mean to say that
it is a matter of indifference to you what sort
of surroundings you live in ? ”
" Why, of course not! That is a silly ques-
tion,” returned the Plain Man. “ It would be
unpleasant to live in a room with black walls
and a drab ceiling—that would give me the
hump. But so long as my surroundings are
cheerful I do not care whether my rooms are
pink or blue or any other old colour you like
to paint them.”
“ There you are ! That is an admission that
colour is a matter of importance to you after
all,” cried the Critic. “ You have a colour
sense, but you are unable to analyse your own
emotions. Can’t you see that what you call
a cheerful room is cheerful only because the
colour makes it gay and bright ? ”
“ And can’t you see that it is the absence of
86
colour that gives you the hump in a black and
drab room ? ” added the Man with the Red
Tie.
“ Well, if you put it that way, I suppose
colour does count,” admitted the Plain Man.
“ But my point is that you need not fuss about
any particular colour so long as the effect you
get is lively enough.”
“ That is only because you have never studied
the influence of different colours upon different
temperaments,” declared the Critic. " If you
grant that any bright colour livens up one’s
surroundings, it follows, I think, that some
colours are more likely than others to be en-
livening to certain people, and from that it can
be deduced that the man who has an instinctive
preference for yellow would not feel quite so
happy or comfortable if you surrounded him
with blue.”
“ Yes, and from that it follows, too, that if
that man were ill he would be more likely to
feel stimulated and to be helped to recovery
by being put in a yellow room than in a blue
one,” commented the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Quite so ; that is where the curative value
of colour comes in,” agreed the Critic. “ More-
over, I believe that not only can sick people be
helped to recovery by the appropriate use of
colour, but that the sound man also can ward
off certain disorders, nervous ones particularly,
by keeping always about him the colours that
are congenial to him. Some medical au-
thorities are strongly of the opinion that the
cause of many nervous troubles is simply eye-
strain, and surely there could be no better
safeguard against eye-strain and its conse-
quences than a surrounding which was restful
to the eyes and pleasing to the senses. If
what you look at irritates your eye it is quite
possible for this irritation, if long continued,
to upset your whole nervous system.”
“ Well, we live and learn,” laughed the Plain
Man. “ Perhaps the time will come when a
blue room will make me want to commit suicide
and a pink one make me feel as if I were out on
the spree. I may even decide that it is better
to paint the town green and orange than red.
Who knows ? ”
“ If you can be converted to such a belief
I am sure it will be better for the nervous
systems of the people you come in contact with,
as well as your own,” said the Man with the
Red Tie. The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE : ON THE CURA-
TIVE VALUE OF COLOUR.
“ X X AVE you heard anything about
I I this suggestion that special colour-
schemes should be used for hospital
■X wards ? ” asked the Man with the
Red Tie. “ The idea, I believe, is to see whether
shell-shock patients can be cured by a sort of
colour treatment. Do you think there is any-
thing in it ? ”
“ About as much, I should say, as there was
in the notion of some lunatic that Piccadilly
should be painted green and orange to improve
the spirits of the people,” laughed the Plain
Man. “ I have no patience with such nonsense.”
“ But is it nonsense ? " said the Critic.
“ Most people are to a greater or less degree
susceptible to the influence of colour, and I can
quite imagine that the sick man, and especially
one suffering from any kind of nervous ailment,
would be considerably affected by the colour
of his surroundings.”
“ I think that if his surroundings are suffi-
ciently clean and tidy and include a pretty nurse
or two he is much more likely to be happy than
he would be in an atmosphere of primrose-
yellow and apple-green,” chuckled the Plain
Man. “You artist people are so taken up
with your funny fads that you cannot under-
stand the point of view of the ordinary human
person.”
“ I suppose you would reckon yourself to be
an ordinary human person,” broke in the Man
with the Red Tie. “ Do you mean to say that
it is a matter of indifference to you what sort
of surroundings you live in ? ”
" Why, of course not! That is a silly ques-
tion,” returned the Plain Man. “ It would be
unpleasant to live in a room with black walls
and a drab ceiling—that would give me the
hump. But so long as my surroundings are
cheerful I do not care whether my rooms are
pink or blue or any other old colour you like
to paint them.”
“ There you are ! That is an admission that
colour is a matter of importance to you after
all,” cried the Critic. “ You have a colour
sense, but you are unable to analyse your own
emotions. Can’t you see that what you call
a cheerful room is cheerful only because the
colour makes it gay and bright ? ”
“ And can’t you see that it is the absence of
86
colour that gives you the hump in a black and
drab room ? ” added the Man with the Red
Tie.
“ Well, if you put it that way, I suppose
colour does count,” admitted the Plain Man.
“ But my point is that you need not fuss about
any particular colour so long as the effect you
get is lively enough.”
“ That is only because you have never studied
the influence of different colours upon different
temperaments,” declared the Critic. " If you
grant that any bright colour livens up one’s
surroundings, it follows, I think, that some
colours are more likely than others to be en-
livening to certain people, and from that it can
be deduced that the man who has an instinctive
preference for yellow would not feel quite so
happy or comfortable if you surrounded him
with blue.”
“ Yes, and from that it follows, too, that if
that man were ill he would be more likely to
feel stimulated and to be helped to recovery
by being put in a yellow room than in a blue
one,” commented the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Quite so ; that is where the curative value
of colour comes in,” agreed the Critic. “ More-
over, I believe that not only can sick people be
helped to recovery by the appropriate use of
colour, but that the sound man also can ward
off certain disorders, nervous ones particularly,
by keeping always about him the colours that
are congenial to him. Some medical au-
thorities are strongly of the opinion that the
cause of many nervous troubles is simply eye-
strain, and surely there could be no better
safeguard against eye-strain and its conse-
quences than a surrounding which was restful
to the eyes and pleasing to the senses. If
what you look at irritates your eye it is quite
possible for this irritation, if long continued,
to upset your whole nervous system.”
“ Well, we live and learn,” laughed the Plain
Man. “ Perhaps the time will come when a
blue room will make me want to commit suicide
and a pink one make me feel as if I were out on
the spree. I may even decide that it is better
to paint the town green and orange than red.
Who knows ? ”
“ If you can be converted to such a belief
I am sure it will be better for the nervous
systems of the people you come in contact with,
as well as your own,” said the Man with the
Red Tie. The Lay Figure.