Much has been written about color through the centuries and especially in the twentieth century there seems to be a particular interest in color and color relationships. We seem to be searching for something to signify on a symbolic level what our work is about and what we find most interesting. In the past, painting did not primarily rely on color as a language in itself, although one must say, their color had its own harmony and was beautiful. These paintings were created with a very limited selection of colors that achieved their luminosity through the juxtaposition of neutrals and pure color. By neutral, I mean a color composed by combining the compliments – i.e. red and green; blue and orange or violet and yellow. This neutral, which approached a grey or brown provided a color of transition between passages from light to shadow.
In painting, this area of transition between the light and the shadow, especially in the flesh, is the most illusive. It is always a color that is mysterious and indefinite. If it is too colorful or too dull, the form will not turn. It needs to be precisely what it should be. And the artist needs to find what that is.
The old masters used the neutral in such indescribable passages- the neutral taking on the compliment of the color it is in sympathy with. This creates a transference of color and intensity. What is by itself a grey or brown, becomes a subdued green next to a red. Rubens has a wonderful blue in the area of transition between the half tones and the shadow edge. It appears in all of his figures. It is less blue than you would think. It is a cool neutral.
Robert Henri gives the neutral a significant place within his palettes of triads. The neutral becomes the unifying element. But his neutral comes not from the direct compliments but from the combining of the triadic primaries in the palette. If my triad is RO,Y,B, my neutral would be achieved by combining these three. Because it is not a perfect selection of primaries, the neutral takes on its own particular aspect specific to this palette. It becomes that subtle color that binds the image together. Henri believed that the combining of near compliments produced a more powerful effect than direct compliments. I have found this to be very effective. The neutral floats and shifts seamlessly between the colors of the triad. This simplicity allows one to find the necessary color vibration more easily. The effect binds the image together adding unity and harmony to the whole.
One of the extraordinary things about the color theory of Robert Henri is its simplicity. He believed much could be said with very little. But that limited sense does not mean meager by any regard. “Employ such colors as produce immensity in a small space. Do not be interested in light for light’s sake or in color for color’s sake, but in each as a medium for expression.”(Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, p.58) In most cases, Henri used a simple triad of color based on the spectrum band- the spectrum band referring to the order of light as it appears to the eye- it can be seen in a rainbow or a prism where the light is clearly divided in bands of color, i.e. PR- R-RO-O-OY-Y-YG-G-GB-B-BP-P. Once this spectrum palette is developed, one can then select the colors necessary for one’s composition, being clear to only use what is necessary. With much use, one discovers how little color is necessary to produce the effect of brilliance in a painting. In most cases, three colors seems enough and if another accent is needed it is fairly easy to draw down another color from the original spectrum palette.