Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1
p.172
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Lonsdale Magazine, 1820, vol.1 p.172
[some]what inclining to the purple; but an air of reddish purple hue is not only unpleasant in nature, but ought to be avoided in a picture. "Landscape air is generated by the action of the sun upon terrestrial bodies. A hot sun after much rain, causes much exhalation: this, unaccompanied by wind produces a medium, which exhibited between the eye and distant objects, is the cause of that wonderful diversity of appearance in the same scene, even in a flat, but more especially in a mountainous, country. "Among these mountains the summer rains usually commence in the beginning of July: frequently the early part, and sometimes the whole, of June, is fair: and if a wet April is succeeded by a dry and sunny June, the beauty sought for will be produced. "Now, should the progress of evaporation by a hot sun be all along accompanied by gentle breezes, the consequence will be a fine though not a first-rate atmosphere; and as the highest state of such an atmosphere requires a shorter time for its production than one derived from calm and sunny weather, and as a parching sun is more injurious than moderate winds to the freshness of objects near at hand, it will follow that in such seasons a complete landscape will appear in a higher degree of beauty, than one exhibited through a medium arising from the action of the sun during a state unruffled elements. "The quantity of air required in aid of any scene, will always be in proportion as the objects of that scene are near unto or remote from the eye, thus the medium that would render fascinations to the rugged features of a scene not one mile from the eye, would not only ruin one at five, but totally extinguish all objects in remote distance. "The writer has sometimes observed the finest atmospheres in September and October, but those displays of beauty are rare at this season of the year: in the months of June and July there is frequently more of the heavenly blue, than in all the other months put together. But should the weather be cold with occasional rains onward from July till late in September, the above extraordinary sights will in vain be looked for. "In regard to quantity, the writer will venture to advance his opinion, that an atmosphere giving on the shadowed side of objects five miles from the eye, their component parts just not invisible, will be generally found more agreeable than any other quantity: and this may be in a scene where some of those parts are seven or eight miles from the eye." After detailing the charms of a perfect atmosphere, he says these "divine atmospheres" are seldom seen by any but the mountain shepherds; and on these the beauty has little effect, for "an acre of their own mountain green, has more charms than distant thousands, the property of others, however delightful the scene." Through the whole of his work, Mr. Green intersperses remarks and animadversions on the introduction and exclusion of wood. In many places he observes that the beauty of a scene has been intirely destroyed by the indiscriminate use of the axe; while the beauty of others has been extremely injured by a redundance of trees. He even regrets that there should be no law to punish those who thus wantonly ruin some of the finest objects in nature. Mr. Green offers some very judicious remarks on the colours most proper for Gentlemen's seats, when designed to add beauty to the landscape. "A tint appropriate to such a house or to any other in a mountainous district, ought to be a mixture of all the colours of the neighbouring rocks and stones: such a neutral tint is composed of blue, red, and yellow, in any required proportion, and toned with white; or, instead of blue, black may be used; and, in many cases, black and red, without yellow, will answer, and white will give all the necessary gradations. To black and red, yellow may be added at pleasure; or, if required by the situation, or preferred, black and yellow made lighter by white, or red and yellow with white, or yellow with white alone; but wherever red and yellow are used unitedly, and heightened by white, or either of the self-colours with white, the tints must of necessity be light. Deep tints of red, or of yellow, or their mixture, ought invariably to be avoided; the unaccommodating glare of such colours is always repugnant to the feelings of an artist. It will then follow, that wherever a deep colour is required, that blue or black will of necessity be one of the component colours. White alone is infintely to be preferred to any |
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