Is a color that has often been worn by martyrs; formed of a union of red
and blue, it signifies love and truth, and their passion and suffering.
It is the court mourning color all over Europe, with the exception of
England. It is the softest of the prismatic colors, and its very name
carries us in thought to the modest sweet flower which is Flora's emblem
of humility.
* * * * *
Of one of the colors of the spectrum I have failed to speak, because
there was so little to say. Orange is a bright, warm color, not quite as
intense as red, still one which the eye does not readily seek. Its
suitableness in dress is confined mainly to children. Upon them our eye
naturally seeks for bright, warm colors, and rests with a kind of
pleasure upon rich hues. There is nothing upon which the public taste
requires more education than upon the arrangement and modification of
colors. Gardeners need it in setting their plants and putting in their
seeds; florists, in the arrangement of their bouquets; furnishers, in
the decoration of apartments; and especially the fashion leaders, who
decide what colors or shades must or must not be worn together.
Sometimes hues are conjoined by them, that, no matter how loudly
proclaimed _au fait_, the height of style, or _à la mode_, are never
artistic, and no _dicta_ can make them so. A fashion framer should needs
be a natural philosopher, and hold the rudiments of all science in her
grasp. Botany, mineralogy, conchology should walk as handmaidens to
philosophy; optics should steer the rudder of color's bark when launched
upon the sea of taste.
If, when dressed, the aim is to present a light and graceful toilet,
light and delicate shades of color must be worn; no crimson, dark green,
purple, or indigo, but rose, light green, azure, or lavender, with a due
admixture of white, must be the hues chosen. White serves as an
admirable break, and prevents the appearance of violent transition. It
is none the less requisite in bouquets, where no two shades of the same
color should be allowed without either white or green as a separator.
Very handsome self-colored bouquets can be arranged by giving a finish
of the complementary shade. One of the most beautiful I ever remember to
have seen was scarlet verbenas with a base of rose-geranium leaves, the
whole set in a small antique green-and-gold vase.
Although the mature fall of the year clothes itself in gay colors, it is
deemed an evidence of immaturity for women in the fall time of life to
sport crimson and scarlet and orange. Sober grays (which mean old,
mature), quiet brown, and even sombre blacks, are rather what are looked
for. To dress young when people are old, deceives no one. There is a
beauty of age as well as a beauty of youth. Those who live to be old
have had their share of the former: why should they seek to deprive
themselves of the latter? Aside from the appropriateness of color as to
age, there are yet others as to size and complexion. Light-haired men
should always wear _very dark_ cravats, in order to give tone and
expression to the face. Large women should wear warm colors, if they
wish to create a pleasant impression. They cannot attain grace by any
aid of color, while they will lose the dignity they might naturally
claim if they confined themselves to warm, grave shades.
An unartistic arrangement of light or drapery in an apartment will
totally destroy the harmony of the most carefully prepared toilet. Rooms
can be toned warm or cold, but, unless some especial object is sought,
neutral tints should predominate, and violent contrasts should be
avoided.
Who has failed to notice the fantastic tricks played at times upon some
body of worshippers, where light to the church is admitted through
stained glass windows? A lambent red flame lighting up the hair of a
man's head, while at the same moment his beard is blue and luminous.
Over the shoulders of another, the purple mantle of royalty seems about
falling, investing him for a moment with regal splendors, while perhaps
the cadaverous hue of his next neighbor's face well fits him to be some
imagined victim of his new majesty's anger.
Color ranks as one of the earliest arts. No nation is so low but it
makes some attempt at decorative color, and we may be well assured it
was one of the earliest, if not the earliest method employed in
transmitting intelligence. When this country was first discovered, the
Peruvians were making use of small knotted cords of various colors,
termed _quippu_, as mediums of records and messages. Our own North
American savages employed wampum, made from various colored shells, for
a similar purpose. Color played its part in ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics. It speaks to the eye sooner than form. A black flag
hoisted upon the battle field proclaims louder than words the demoniac
cruelty that reigns, while a white signifies that submission has been
decided upon. Joseph's coat of many colors proclaimed the father's
favoritism to his brothers, and worked a mighty change in the history of
the race to which he belonged. This very instance, if we possessed no
other, would prove to us the high estimation in which color was held,
and its symbolic meaning, in the most ancient times.
The ermine is an animal of such spotless purity it will tolerate no
stain on its fur, and by this symbolic name we designate the judge, who
should be stainless, unbiassed, and incorruptible.
The highest art of the florist is put forth to procure change of color.
Self tulips are valueless beside sports, and to induce this breaking
various methods are put in requisition, as there is no sporting of
colors from natural causes among flowers. A green rose, a blue verbena,
are hailed as triumphs, and secure the propagator an enviable name
either as an amateur or professional florist.
Perhaps the most curious thing connected with color is that some stars
give colored light; and in one instance, in a northern constellation, a
_double_ star gives forth blue rays from one and red from the other. How
our fancy might be permitted to soar away beyond the stars themselves in
wondering fancies as to the meaning of this--truth and love united in a
star, not as a compound color, but each retaining its own hue of blue
and red! What a happy abode of truthful, loving spirits we can imagine
this the dwelling place! And may there not here be a symbol of such a
union?
The art of color is yet in its infancy, and although Tyrian purple was
magnificent and famous, and the highly prized Turkey red unfading, yet
modern chemical discovery has opened a wide variety of hues unknown to
the ancients.
Colors obtained from vegetable substances have been the most numerous,
those from the animal kingdom the most brilliant, and from the mineral
the greatest variety from the same substance. A buff, a blue, and a
black, and again a red, a blue, a purple, and a violet, are produced
from the same metal.
The recent discovery of aniline colors, to be extracted from coal
refuse, has given art new, beautiful, and durable shades of red, blue,
purple, and violet. We know but by description what the lauded Tyrian
purple was, for monopoly caused the art to be lost; but for softness,
richness, and beauty of purple we have none to approach that extracted
from this refuse. Nature means nothing to be lost, and waste arises from
ignorance. She is a royal mistress when royally represented.
To the mineral kingdom we are indebted for most of the mordants which
fix the hues derived from other sources. That in union is strength is
taught by the most common art.
Much is yet to be learned in regard to color. Men have understood its
correspondence sufficiently to associate red and cruelty as its lowest
expression, so that the men of the bloody French Revolution received an
undying name from the red cap of the Carmagnole costume--and yellow with
shame, for a ruff of this color on the neck of a woman hanged drove this
fashion out of England--and white with purity, as the ermine of the
judge shows; although, thousands of years ago, the men of Tartary and
Thibet prized the wool of the Crimean sheep stained of a peculiar gray
by its feeding upon the _centarina myriocephala_, and although modern
gardeners deepen the hues of plants by feeding them judiciously, yet few
attach the requisite importance to color as history. Writers for the
most part pass silently by this great aid to a correct understanding of
past events. Color in costume is no less essential to a true description
or representation than form; in some instances it is more so.
The _color_ of the silken sails of Cleopatra's vessel, as she sailed
down the Cydnus, proclaimed her royalty as no other could have done.
A fairy could not be depicted without her green robe, or young Aurora
unless tinted with the hues of morn.
Here lies the great fault of all sun pictures. The distinctive hues of
complexion, hair, and eyes are not preserved. The flaxen, the auburn,
the brown hair alike take black. Light eyes and dark are
undistinguishable; the clearest complexion becomes muddy and full of
lines if the color of the dress is such as to throw the shade upon it.
A mixture of colors in dress in which either two of the primitives
predominate, is a token of barbarism, even if occurring among so-called
enlightened people.
Color is an exponent of the degree of civilization.
RED finds its fitness among savage races, and with undeveloped
natures.
YELLOW indicates transition from barbarism to civilization.
GREEN, advanced civilization.
PURPLE, monarchical enlightenment, which is will individualized
in but one.
Modification and harmony are only with people free to follow taste and
select for themselves. Among the most enlightened nations these five
states are all found. The highest type, shown by culture, discovery,
art, literature, science, equity, and government, exists with but a few.
The mass are civilized, and continue 'the mass.' It is the natural
tendency of enlightenment to individualize. In proportion to genius,
culture, and _perseverance_, is one set apart, becomes a leader of the
masses, and should be a teacher of the harmony and correspondence of
color, both by precept and example.
Strong contrasts are admissible in what is designed to illustrate
particular things, and especially if to be viewed from a distance. To me
no sight is ever more beautiful than the American flag, red, white, and
blue, as the breeze opens every fold and waves it abroad for the gaze of
men; the blue signifying a league and covenant against oppression, to be
maintained in truth, by valor and purity; the very color proclaiming to
despots and tyrannized man that in one land on the broad face of the
earth liberty of conscience prevails, and freedom of speech exists. We
shall not want to change it when this war is over. It is the symbol of
an idea which has never yet found its full utterance. When Liberty and
Union become one and indivisible, it will be the harmonious exponent of
those grand ideas rooted, budded, blossomed, and bearing fruit
forevermore.