Back نظرية الألوان Arabic Вучэнне пра колер Byelorussian Теория на цветовете Bulgarian Teoria dels colors Catalan Goethes farvelære Danish Farbenlehre (Goethe) German Θεωρία των Χρωμάτων Greek Theory of Colours English Teoría de los colores Spanish Koloreen teoria (Goethe) Basque
 Light spectrum, from Theory of Colours – Goethe observed that colour arises at light-dark edges, and the spectrum occurs where these coloured edges overlap. | |
| Author | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zur Farbenlehre |
| Translator | Charles Eastlake m0422/is 2 82/ai 64573524/pg 6 |
| Language | German |
| Publisher | John Murray |
Publication date | 1810 |
Published in English | 1840 |
Theory of Colours (original German title, Zur Farbenlehre) is a book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published in 1810. It contains some of the earliest and most accurate descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration.
Its influence extends primarily to the art world, especially among the Pre-Raphaelites. Turner studied it comprehensively, and referred to it in the titles of several paintings.[1] Wassily Kandinsky considered Goethe's theory "one of the most important works".[2]
Although Goethe's work was never well received by physicists, a number of philosophers and physicists have been known to have concerned themselves with it, including Arthur Schopenhauer, Kurt Gödel, Werner Heisenberg, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Hermann von Helmholtz. Mitchell Feigenbaum even convinced himself that "Goethe had been right about colour!"[3]
In his book, Goethe shows how colour is perceived in a variety of circumstances, and considers Isaac Newton's observations to be special cases.[4] Goethe's concern was not so much with the measurement of colour phenomenon, but with how qualities of colour are perceived. Science has come to understand the distinction between the optical spectrum, as observed by Newton, and the phenomenon of human colour perception as presented by Goethe.
- ↑ Bockemuhl, M. (1991). Turner. Taschen, Koln. ISBN 978-3-8228-6325-1.
- ↑ Rowley, Alison (Sep–Dec 2002). "Kandinskii's theory of colour and Olesha's Envy". LookSmart FindArticles. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- ↑ Ribe, Neil; Steinle, Friedrich (July 2002). "Exploratory Experimentation: Goethe, Land, and Color Theory". Physics Today. 55 (7): 43. Bibcode:2002PhT....55g..43R. doi:10.1063/1.1506750.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ↑ "Physics Today July 2002". Archived from the original on 2007-04-03. Retrieved 2008-05-23.