Abstract
II.
WE next come to the absorption of light. I do not know whether you have had any opportunity yet in your laboratory course of observing the spectral phenomena produced when white light, or say solar light, is absorbed by different substances. The white light is broken up by the dispersion of the prisms into a rainbow band; while it is possible, by one means or another, one substance or another, to filch out of this coloured band some of the constituent colours, now at one end, now at another, sometimes in different parts at once; and when this has been done, the light which finally reaches the eye may be of any colour, as is evidenced by the different colours you see in a stained glass window. This is what happens also by the absorption of our atmosphere, due in all probability in great part to the contained aqueous vapour. The sun is white in the middle of the day and red at sunset. The blue part of the light, which, when all the colours reach us, looks white, has been taken away, and practically nothing but red is left; only certain parts of the spectrum are left. It is easy, after two or three hours' experiments with the absorption of light by different media, to grasp the laws which govern sunset colours precisely, as it is easy in the anatomical school to study the facts relating to the human form, particular muscles and the like. A diligent student will thus have the world of colour at his feet. This can, however, only be done by one interested in physical science, and I think it should be done by anyone who wishes to deal with landscapes or seascapes, anything, in fact, which has to do with the natural world. The results obtained in this way of course come to us pictorially, chiefly in the colour of sky and water and in the colours of clouds, and they are mixed up in pictures by the knowledge, or want of knowledge, of the artist who paints these various reflecting surfaces. The reflecting surface, whether water or cloud, or what not, must not only be true in colour, but perfectly formed, in order to give an absolutely perfect and pleasant picture.
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LOCKYER, J. Physical Science for Artists. Nature 44, 227–229 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/044227a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/044227a0