ld be so generally ignorant of the laws of color harmony. We
were nicely critical of music, yet in color were constantly committing
the gravest solecisms. He did not think there were seventeen interiors
in London that the educated eye could wander over without pain. Yet what
knowledge was so useful? We were not competent to buy a picture, choose
a dress, or furnish a house without a knowledge of color harmony, to say
nothing of the facility such knowledge gave in all kinds of painting on
porcelain, art needlework, and a hundred occupations.

An important consideration in choosing colors for dress was the effect
they would have in juxtaposition. Primary colors should be worn in dark
shades; dark red and dark yellow, or as it was commonly called, olive
green, went well together; but a dress of full red or yellow would be
painful to behold. The rule for full primaries was, employ them
sparingly, and contrast them only with black or gray. He might notice in
passing that when people dressed in gray or black the entire dress was
usually of the one color unrelieved. Yet here they had a background that
would lend beauty to any color placed upon it.

Another safe rule was never to place together colors differing widely in
hue. The eye experienced a difficulty in accommodating itself to sudden
changes, and a species of color discord was the consequence. But if the
colors, even though primaries, were of some very dark or very light
shade, they become harmonious. All very dark shades of color went well
with black and with each other, and all very light shades went well with
white and each other.

A much-vexed question with ladies was, "What will suit my complexion?"
The generally received opinion was that the complexion was pink, either
light or dark, and colors were chosen accordingly, working dire
confusion. But no one living ever had a pink complexion unless a painted
one. The dolls in the Lowther Arcade were pink, and their pink dresses
were in harmony. No natural complexion whatever was improved by pink;
but gray would go with any. The tendency of gray was to give prominence
to the dominant hue in the complexion. When an artist wished to produce
flesh color he mixed white, light red, yellow ocher, and terra vert. The
skin of a fair person was a gray light red, tinged with green; the color
that would brighten and intensify it most was a gray light sea green,
tinged with pink--in other words, its complementary. A color always