artist, because it enables him to try almost any scheme of colour he may have in his mind without the laborious process of transferring it to canvas or paper. He can sit down at the keyboard of the colour instrument, and starting from some chord of colour which pleases him can try various sequences of other colours and other combinations without the least difficulty. He can come back to his original chord and try fresh ones without having to clean his palette or provide a new canvas, and he can, at any moment, if he wishes to make a study of the effects he has decided upon, reproduce these colour schemes upon the screen and make notes of them before he begins his picture.
Many artists wisely keep objects of beautiful colour in their studios in order to be able to bring their minds into tune with the beauty of colour in nature or art. Some choose Oriental china, others Limoges enamel, others the plumage of birds or collections of gems and minerals, others, again, mediæval and oriental draperies or stained glass. But the artist who has access to a mobile colour
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