ater color, employed by F. Hopkinson
Smith and others, of working over a tinted paper such as the general tone
of the subject suggests, has its warrant in the early art of the Venetian
painters. If a blue day, a blue gray paper is used; if a mellow day, a
yellow paper.

In pictorial art the science of light and dark is not reducible to working
formulae as in decoration, where the measures of _Notan_ are governed on
the principle of interchange. Through decoration we may touch more
closely the hidden principles of light and shade in pictures than without
the aid of this science, and the artist of decorative knowledge will
always prove able in "effect" in his pictorial work.

With that clear conception of the power of the light and the dark measure
which is acquired in the practice of "spotting" and filling of spaces,
especially upon a middle tint, the problem of bringing into prominence any
item of the picture is simplified upon the decorative basis.

Pictorially the light measure is more attractive than the dark, but the
dark in isolation is nearly as powerful.

With this simple notion in mind the artist proceeds upon his checker-board
opposing force to force.

With him the work can never be as absorbing as to the decorator whose
items are all of about the same value and of recurring kinds. The subject
dictates to the painter who must play more adroitly to secure an effect of
light and shade by the use of devices such as nature offers.

As a matter of _brilliancy of light,_ with which painting is concerned,
the effect is greater when a small measure of light is opposed to a large
measure of dark than when much light is opposed to little dark.
Comparison between Whistler's "Woman in White," a white gown relieved
against a white ground, the black of the picture being the woman's hair,
and any one of the manger scenes of the fifteenth century painters with
their concentration of light will prove how much greater the sense of
light is in the latter.

When much light and little dark produces great brilliancy it is usually by
reason of a gradation in the light, giving it a cumulative power, as is
seen in the sky or upon receding objects on a foggy day. A small dark
added, intensifies the light, not only by contrast of measure, but in
showing the high key of the light measures.

Accents of dark produce such snappiness as is commended by the publisher
who esteems the brilliancy which a rapid interchange of lights an