It is a very common objection to what are called artistic colors to say that they are
gloomy, dismal, and unbecoming. If this is true of any particular shade, the fact would
merely go to prove that it is not a color properly so-called, but some muddy confusion of
tints, mistaken for an artistic color for want of a right apprehension — and it owes its
existence to a foregone conclusion that everything heavy and dull must be artistic.
Delicacy of effect is gained by suiting exactly the color to the material. To muslin and
ART AT HOME. 17
such like filmy substances full bright tints are most unsuitable ; pale tender hues, and light
tracery of pattern belong to them ; still delicacy in these does not involve insipidity, which
poverty of tone and design would cause. For richer stuffs, in silk and satin and velvet,
fuller hues are quite suitable. The shimmer, the shifting of lights and shadows, the bloom
of the texture modifies the effect of a full color which in a dull common stuff would be flat
and heavy.
It is a immemorial custom that dining-room curtains should be red, with leather chairs,
red tablecloth, and Turkey carpet in which red prevails. There is not much variety in
this time-honored fashion; nor is there sometimes in the manifestations of the new. I saw
a drawing-room the other day with a peacock feather patterned wall-paper, dado and wood
work of peacock blue, and curtains and chair-coverings of peacock patterned chintz, ex-
actly matching the wall-paper. The result was flat and monotonous, in my opinion. Both
these are instances of want of variety. I would never recommend chairs to be covered
with stuff like the curtains, or the walls to be like either. The walls of the dining-room
may be a brownish yellow, the curtains of a mixed red and yellow — the yellow a little
pinkish; the chairs plain red, and the carpet brown and yellow and red, and a little green.
A great deal of pleasure can be felt in the variety of these tints, which nevertheless pro-
duce a unity of effect when regarded as a whole. It is a good rule, if the walls have
a pattern on them, that the curtains should be plain, and vice versa; so a dress should not
be entirely figured or embroidered, but only in portions, that the design may show all the
more richly. Red is the color that first attracts the untrained sense. Green has been
said to be a color that is only appreciated by cultivated faculties. Yellow is a color of
which, I am inclined to think, the best effects are neglected; it ought to be more used
in town houses, so as to bring a little artificial sunlight into them. It cannot be used in
masses, but must be broken and mingled with other colors. Yellow and white are as
agreeable in their way as blue and white. Mixed shades of yellow and white and a little
myrtle green form a pleasing combination. Now as blue is called cold, so is yellow said
to be warm. It is the color of the intensest heat we can imagine — white-heat; and as
blue cools and chills, yellow warms any color with which it is mixed. Red being neutral.
is incapable of imparting either cold or warm effect to a color to which it is added in
any proportion. In the prismatic spectrum, the original type of color, or the rainbow, are
found what are called the three primary colors — yellow, red, blue.
Page 12
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
It is a very common objection to what are called artistic colors to say that they are gloomy, dismal, and unbecoming. If this is true of any particular shade, the fact would merely go to prove that it is not a color properly so-called, but some muddy confusion of tints, mistaken for an artistic color for want of a right apprehension — and it owes its existence to a foregone conclusion that everything heavy and dull must be artistic.
Delicacy of effect is gained by suiting exactly the color to the material. To muslin and
such like filmy substances full bright tints are most unsuitable ; pale tender hues, and light tracery of pattern belong to them ; still delicacy in these does not involve insipidity, which poverty of tone and design would cause. For richer stuffs, in silk and satin and velvet, fuller hues are quite suitable. The shimmer, the shifting of lights and shadows, the bloom of the texture modifies the effect of a full color which in a dull common stuff would be flat and heavy.
It is an immemorial custom that dining-room curtains should be red, with leather chairs, red tablecloth, and Turkey carpet in which red prevails. There is not much variety in this time-honored fashion; nor is there sometimes in the manifestations of the new. I saw a drawing-room the other day with a peacock feather patterned wall-paper, dado and wood work of peacock blue, and curtains and chair-coverings of peacock patterned chintz, exactly matching the wall-paper. The result was flat and monotonous, in my opinion. Both these are instances of want of variety. I would never recommend chairs to be covered with stuff like the curtains, or the walls to be like either. The walls of the dining-room may be a brownish yellow, the curtains of a mixed red and yellow — the yellow a little pinkish; the chairs plain red, and the carpet brown and yellow and red, and a little green. A great deal of pleasure can be felt in the variety of these tints, which nevertheless produce a unity of effect when regarded as a whole. It is a good rule, if the walls have a pattern on them, that the curtains should be plain, and vice versa; so a dress should not be entirely figured or embroidered, but only in portions, that the design may show all the more richly. Red is the color that first attracts the untrained sense. Green has been said to be a color that is only appreciated by cultivated faculties. Yellow is a color of which, I am inclined to think, the best effects are neglected; it ought to be more used in town houses, so as to bring a little artificial sunlight into them. It cannot be used in masses, but must be broken and mingled with other colors. Yellow and white are as agreeable in their way as blue and white. Mixed shades of yellow and white and a little myrtle green form a pleasing combination. Now as blue is called cold, so is yellow said to be warm. It is the color of the intensest heat we can imagine — white-heat; and as blue cools and chills, yellow warms any color with which it is mixed. Red being neutral. is incapable of imparting either cold or warm effect to a color to which it is added in any proportion. In the prismatic spectrum, the original type of color, or the rainbow, are found what are called the three primary colors — yellow, red, blue.