Christa Giles

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beyond descriptive ones.˝ 528 Colour was used by Matisse as
a synaesthetic equivalence which could evoke the sensory:
heat and cold, tactile sensations. Des Esseintes reacts to the
painting of Salomé on this level primarily because the
subject matter triggers something in his own imagination,
and only partially because of the chromatic composition of
the work. However, his response is at least in part due to
the use of colour in the painting, and his own interest in
colour has been prepared for in an earlier chapter. In his
decoration of Fontenay he analyses the various shades of
colour and their psychological import. He affirms:
…the truth of a theory to which he attributed
almost mathematical validity: to wit, that
there exists a close correspondence between
the sensual make-up of a person with a truly
artistic temperament and whatever colour
that person reacts to most strongly and
sympathetically. 529
He posits the concept of the evocation of sensations by
means of forms and colours, thereby adumbrating the trend
towards abstraction in the twentieth century. According to
Ricketts, who was at one point Wilde’s choice as designer for
his production, Wilde sought inspiration in Gustave Moreau
and Japonisme. Ricketts suggested a black floor