The principles of harmony and contrast of colours : and their applications to the arts / by M. E. Chevreul ; translated from the French by Charles Martel.

  • Chevreul, M. E. (Michel Eugène), 1786-1889.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of harmony and contrast of colours : and their applications to the arts / by M. E. Chevreul ; translated from the French by Charles Martel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    I have been obliged to treat of subjects whicb at first sight seemed foreign to the law of simultaneous contrast of colours; but upon reflectiDg that a great many things are unknown to the reader, I thought a summary of my re- searches, placed at the end of this work, would possess all the advantages of my first intention without the objections which upon reflection I discovered in it. I beg the reader never to forget when it is asserted of the phenomena of simultaneous contrast, tJiat one colour placed heside another receives such a modification from it that this manner of speaking does not mean that the two colours, or rather the two material objects that present them to us, have a mutual action, either physical or chemical; it is really only applied to the modification that tahes place hefore us when we perceive the simultaneous impression of these two colours. L'Hay, near Paris, 19th April, 1835. POSTSCRIPT. This work, written three years ago, has formed the subject of eight public lectures delivered at the Grobelins in the course of January, 1836, and January, 1838 ; I should have earnestly desired to publish it as soon as I had finished writing it; but the condition which I set that the price should not be too dear, notwithstandiug the expense occa- sioned by numerous coloured plates, was an obstacle in find- ing a publisher, just at the time when M. Pitois-Levrault wished to become such. In stating the cause of the delay of this publication, I should certainly neglect a duty, if I did not publicly thank an illustrious foreigner for the offer he made me of the aid of his sovereign to hasten it; although I have not availed myself of it, I shall nevertheless always retain it in grateful remembrance. Au Mus^e d'Histoire Naturelle, 1st June, 1838