J. C. Leyendecker is strongly light-biased - shadow is suggested rather than declared. J. C. Leyendecker keeps warm and cool in parity, a balance that lends the work a perceptual shimmer. Every colour is desaturated; the palette proceeds through near-neutrals and gently-coloured greys. The highest-chroma note - #9D6F42 - appears at just 8.6%, deployed as a precision accent against the quieter ground. At 68 units of value range, the palette has the tonal breadth to sustain complex spatial readings. This is palette 1 of J. C. Leyendecker's sequence - a single chapter in a chromatic story told across many works.