t is in
reality. It is quite true that in certain objects, blue is a _sign_ of
distance; but that is not because blue is a retiring colour, but because
the mist in the air is blue, and therefore any warm colour which has not
strength of light enough to pierce the mist is lost or subdued in its
blue: but blue is no more, on this account, a "retiring colour," than
brown is a retiring colour, because, when stones are seen through brown
water, the deeper they lie the browner they look; or than yellow is a
retiring colour, because when objects are seen through a London fog, the
farther off they are the yellower they look. Neither blue, nor yellow,
nor red, can have, as such, the _smallest_ power of expressing either
nearness or distance: they express them only under the peculiar
circumstances which render them at the moment, or in that place, _signs_
of nearness or distance. Thus, vivid orange in an orange is a sign of
nearness, for if you put the orange a great way off, its colour will not
look so bright; but vivid orange in sky is a sign of distance, because
you cannot get the colour of orange in a cloud near you. So purple in a
violet or a hyacinth is a sign of nearness, because the closer you look
at them the more purple you see. But purple in a mountain is a sign of
distance, because a mountain close to you is not purple, but green or
grey. It may, indeed, be generally assumed that a tender or pale colour
will more or less express distance, and a powerful or dark colour
nearness; but even this is not always so. Heathery hills will usually
give a pale and tender purple near, and an intense and dark purple far
away; the rose colour of sunset on snow is pale on the snow at your
feet, deep and full on the snow in the distance; and the green of a
Swiss lake is pale in the clear waves on the beach, but intense as an
emerald in the sunstreak, six miles from shore. And in any case, when
the foreground is in strong light, with much water about it, or white
surface, casting intense reflections, all its colours may be perfectly
delicate, pale, and faint; while the distance, when it is in shadow, may
relieve the whole foreground with intense darks of purple, blue green,
or ultramarine blue. So that, on the whole, it is quite hopeless and
absurd to expect any help from laws of "aerial perspective." Look for
the natural effects, and set them down as fully as you can, and as
faithfully, and _never_ alter a colour because it won't look i