Life, art, and letters of George Inness . s of crude pigment, giveone absolutely no sense of color, and to a man sosensitive to the truth and poetry of nature as myfather was would seem a most horrible distortion. Color is not paint. A sense of color is obtained byarranging the three primary colors, red, yellow, andblue, so that they will make a harmony, and so blend-ing them that they will give a sense of light andwarmth that is felt in nature. When it gives a brightvivid feeling we call it color, when it gives an evensubtle luminosity, as in Corot, we call it two combined give the
Life, art, and letters of George Inness . s of crude pigment, giveone absolutely no sense of color, and to a man sosensitive to the truth and poetry of nature as myfather was would seem a most horrible distortion. Color is not paint. A sense of color is obtained byarranging the three primary colors, red, yellow, andblue, so that they will make a harmony, and so blend-ing them that they will give a sense of light andwarmth that is felt in nature. When it gives a brightvivid feeling we call it color, when it gives an evensubtle luminosity, as in Corot, we call it two combined give the very glory of is that indescribable something that permeatesthe whole tone of a picture and gives it the sense offullness, depth, and completeness. To have a color-ful picture with quality of tone, the colors must becomplimentary. A red must not jar against a blue;the blue and red must be toned to harmonize. Onecolor coming against another will so change that colorthat it is hard to believe that it is the same pigment 228. THE ART OF GEORGE IXXKSS that was mixed on the palette. If one paints a toneof black and white, making 8 light gray sky, andthen paints in white clouds against it, it will look gray,but if the clouds are given a pinkish tone, the skywill change from gray to blue. White paint nevergives the sense of light. It must be modeled, so tospeak, with other tones to give contrast, to expresslight. The white or whatever color used must be incontrast to the forms around it. If a picture ispainted all in sunlight, and the colors are imitated asthe artist thinks he sees them, the picture will notexpress light. It will be merely a hodgepodge ofpigment and a mass of paint, as many Plein-air orflat-sunlight pictures are; but if forms are painted inin shadow, a contrast is established, and if theseshadow forms are kept full and permeated with thegeneral tone and color of the picture, there is a pleas-ant harmony that lends beauty to the whole. Some artists have
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