“Colour – A visual History” book, is an outstanding historical presentation on how colour systems and colour theory was created and implemented since the 18th century.
In the 18th century chapter, the author outlines how colour and light was first discovered from a scientific perspective. It was the Englishman Sir Isaac Newton who published the first book on colour, titled “Optics” in 1704.
He was the first person to depict a colour wheel. However, what is astonishing, is that this was the VERY FIRST colour wheel ever created and it contained absolutely no colour at all!
It wasn’t until a few years later in 1708, that the first actual colour wheels, WITH COLOUR, were created, illustrated and published by frenchman, Claude Boutet.
Isn’t this one gorgeous?
What I love about the early 19th century chapter, is how it discusses how colour and art, began to be taught.
The English painter Mary Gartside used painterly colour diagrams to teach art to their students.
Between 1805-1808, Gartside, created a series of watercolour blot-diagrams, to show a tint at varying degrees of saturation, along with other colours, most notably green and brown. It was evident that she was influenced by Boutets colour wheels and other colour wheels that had been developed around that time.
In the late 19th century chapter much is discussed about how PRINTING evolved through mass production and therefore the availability of colour became more accessible to all kinds of creatives. However, it’s the chapter about Georges Seurat that captures my imagination the most. Here we see the birth of Pointillism or Divisionism, which was a revolutionary art movement characterised by small dashes of paint, placed near each other in order to create luminescent landscapes and figures.
In this painting title “seascape” we can see the vibrancy that Seurat created that, literally pulses through the canvas and is a delight to behold! I recommend this book to all Creatives and Art enthusiasts, wholeheartedly!
If you are interested in creating paintings and learning more about this exciting time period, please check out the Revolutionary Paintings Course on artandcraftszone.com. It’s suitable for absolute beginners and those with some experience.
