11 Colour Education

History of Colour Education

Historical survey of teaching color in art and design (Roy Osborne, 2018)

• http://www.iscc-archive.org/Munsell2018_Presentations/Osborne-Presentation-HistoricalSurvey.pdf

Where is color education now? (David Briggs, 2018)

• http://www.iscc-archive.org/Munsell2018_Presentations/Briggs-Presentation-WhereIsColourEducationNow.pdf

• http://www.huevaluechroma.com/119.php (abstract to this presentation)

Traditional and modern colour theory (David Briggs, 2015)

• https://youtu.be/4enFjTGVTnc

• A webinar contrasting the conceptual framework of colour in modern and traditional theory, with particular reference to the most influential source behind the revival of the latter, "The Art of Color" published by Johannes Itten in 1961. 

• Full text available in two parts on The Dimensions of Colour: Part One and Part Two.

Did your primary school teacher lie to you about colour? (Neil Dodgson)

• http://neildodgson.com/blog/2019/05/31/did-your-primary-school-teacher-lie-to-you-about-colour 

• Blog post on the author's paper in the Journal of Perceptual Imaging; link to preprint provided at end of post.

Textbooks on Colour, 1860 to present

In his survey of colour education in art and design cited above, Roy Osborne identifies Chevreul's De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs  as "the first of a new category of scientific books for artists". But although Chevreul (1786-1889) lived well into the Helmholtz-Maxwell revolution that overturned the traditional red-yellow-blue primary colours he never accepted these developments, and in this sense his later works also foreshadow "traditional" colour theory that rejects or ignores ongoing scientific research into colour. This section lists textbooks from these two traditions that can be perused online. For Chevreul and earlier educational texts that form the common legacy of both traditions please see the preceding page, 10 History of Colour Studies.

Blanc, Charles. Grammaire des arts du dessin : architecture, sculpture, peinture (1867)

• https://archive.org/details/grammairedesarts00blan_2 (French, 1st edition).

• https://archive.org/details/grammarpainting00Blan (English translation by Kate Newell Doggett,  The grammar of painting and engraving, 1st edition, 1874)

• https://archive.org/details/grammarofpaintin00blan/page/n5/mode/2up (English translation by Kate Newell Doggett, , The grammar of painting and engraving, 3rd edition, 1889)

Benson, William, Principles of the science of colour concisely stated to aid and promote their useful application in the decorative arts (1868).

• https://archive.org/details/principlesscien00bensgoog/mode/2up  [1868 edn]

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125010862080/mode/2up [1876 edn]

• English architect William Benson's book was the first in English to explain the new science of colour specifically for an audience of artists and designers. It includes diagrams illustrating additive and subtractive mixing and a cubic colour space, all based on red, green and blue "primary colours" (thought at this stage to correspond to "simple, elementary or primary sensations of colour") and "Seagreen, Pink and Yellow" "secondary colours". Later editions were published in 1872, 1876 and 1886.

Church, Arthur Herbert, Colour (1870)

• https://archive.org/details/colour00chur/mode/2up 

• Another very early text on modern colour theory. Reissued in revised edition Colour : an Elementary Manual for Students in 1872, 1887, 1891, 1897, 1905, 1907 and 1911.

Benson, William, Manual of the science of colour, on the true theory of the colour-sensations, and the natural system (1871)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125012656225/mode/2up 

• Benson's discusses additional aspects of colour in his second book, which also illustrates his concept of an RGB "colour-cube".

Bezold, Wilhelm von, The theory of color in its relation to art and art-industry (1876)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125011189517/mode/2up 

• Translation of original German edition of 1874. This text and Rood's (below) are the two most substantial of the many late 19th century books explaining the new scientific view of colour for artists and designers.

Rood, Ogden. Modern chromatics: with applications to art and industry (1879)

• https://archive.org/details/b2806656x/page/n10/mode/2up 

• Rood's thorough account of colour science for painters was reissued with the title "Students' Text-book of Color" in 1881 and in various later editions and translations into the early 20th century. The book is said to have been highly valued by artists throughout this period, and Osborne (above) notes that "almost every important painter working in Paris between 1885 and 1915" experimented with some form of the technique of pointillism that Rood advocated. Rood's science is solid though he is commonly accused of misunderstandings that actually belong to his readers, for example when he systematically and correctly demonstrated that spinning-disc mixtures exhibit higher "luminosity" (meaning higher lightness) than physical mixtures of the same paints. 

Taylor, John Scott, Field's Chromatography : a treatise on colours and pigments for the use of artists, modernized by J. Scott Taylor (1885)

• https://archive.org/details/fieldschromatogr01fiel/mode/2up 

• Taylor completely replaced Field's text with an excellent account of current scientific colour theory for artists.

Prang, Louis, and Hicks, Mary Dana, Color instruction : suggestions for a course of instruction in color for public schools (1893)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125012743320 

• Outlines a course of progressive instruction for eight years of school and includes sets of twelve and twenty four painted chips serving as hue standards. However, "care should be taken to have the impression or sensation of a color precede its name" (p. 7). Elaborated over the next decade or so as the Prang Text Books of Art Education and accompanying teachers manuals.

Bradley, Milton, Elementary color (1895)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125012656167 

• Includes a page of painted colour chips embodying an 18-hue system based on six "spectrum standards of color" namely red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet (while emphatically rejecting the traditional division of these into primary and secondary colours).

• Bradley's approach to colour education in schools was distinctly more science-based than Prang's rival system, involving for example the use of spinning discs to investigate how additive complementary pairs differ from the opposite hues in the system. See also Bradley's Color in the School-Room (1890) and Color in the Kindergarten (1893), and the allied books, Mark Maycock's A Class Book of Colors (1895) and Caroline Van Helden's A Note on Color for Teachers of Elementary Schools (1902).

Hurst, George Henry, Colour: a handbook of the theory of colour (1900)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125011579212/mode/2up 

• Yet another treatise on contemporary colour science intended for "artists, painters, dyers, calico printers, and others who use colour or colours in their everyday work". Second edition published 1916.

Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes, Color problems; a practical manual for the lay student of color (1903)

• https://archive.org/details/colorproblemspra00vand_0/mode/2up 

• Written by American artist Emily Vanderpoel "to combine the essential results of the scientific and artistic study of color in a concise, practical manual" to provide a better understanding of colour "to decorators, designers, lithographers, florists, dressmakers, and milliners; women in their dress and home decoration, and many others". 

Munsell, Albert Henry, A color notation (1905)

• https://archive.org/details/colornotation00muns/mode/2up (1919 edition)

• Munsell's account of his new system is followed by A Color System and Course of Study Based on the Color Solid and its Charts. Reissued in numerous editions until at least 1988, after which it was replaced by Joy Turner Luke's New Munsell Student Color Set (1995).

• For other texts by Munsell see Section 10.

Ross, Deman Waldo, A theory of pure design (1907)

• http://www.archive.org/details/theoryofpuredesi00rossuoft

• Albert Munsell's friendly rival Denman Ross developed a classification of colours similar in structure to the Munsell system but with more generalized scales not tied to a physical atlas. Diagrams explaining his system had previously been published in the Prang Text Books of Art Education (above). See also On Painting and Drawing (1912) and The Painter's Palette; a Theory of Tone Relations, an Instrument of Expression (1919).

Hatt, Joseph Arthur Henry, The colorist (1908)

• https://archive.org/details/coloristdesigned00hatt/mode/2up 

• Full title: The colorist, designed to correct the commonly held theory that red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors, and to supply the much needed easy method of determining color harmony; together with a system of color nomenclature and other practical information for artists and workers or designers in colors.

Luckiesh, Matthew, Color and its applications (1915)

• https://archive.org/details/coloritsapplicat00luck 

• Comprehensive textbook on the science of light and colour and its applications, with chapters on colour photography, colour in lighting, colour for the stage and displays, painting and materials. At a similar level is Ralph Evans' outstanding An Introduction to Color (1948 and reissued several times), unfortunately not available for inspection online.

• See also second edition (1921), third edition (1927) and by the same author The Language of Color (1918), Visual Illusions (1922) and Color and Colors (1938)*.

Carpenter, H. Barrett. Suggestions for the study of colour (1915)

• https://archive.org/details/b30009339/mode/2up (1923 edn)

• H. Barrett Carpenter of the Rochdale School of Art recorded that he published his book for students of "Industrial" and "Pictorial" art out of frustration that many recent authors were still "content to follow Chevreul, and to accept without question the 'yellow, red and blue' theory". Based on a "long series of experiments" Carpenter affirmed the different system of contrasts established by Ogden Rood, along with his own new concept of "discord" based on "the natural order of colours" in relation to lightness. The second edition of 1923 also includes a coloured illustration of an Ostwald hue circle.  

Ostwald, Wilhelm, Die Farbenfibel (1916)

• https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/3f462642b (1921 edn)

• This is Ostwald's concise educational primer on his colour order system that he explained much more fully elsewhere. 

Cleland, T.M.,  An practical description of the Munsell Color System with suggestions for its use (1921)

• https://archive.org/details/gri_c00033125006531145/page/n17/mode/2up 

• Same volume includes Albert Munsell's An Introduction to the Munsell System (1921).

Sargent, Walter, The enjoyment and use of color (1923)

• https://archive.org/details/enjoymentuseofco00sarg/page/n7/mode/2up 

• Textbook on colour intended for art departments of secondary schools and colleges. Mainly practical but includes discussion scientific theories and demonstrations. 

Jacobs, Michel, The art of colour (1923)

• https://archive.org/details/artofcolour0000jaco/page/n5/mode/2up  (1926 edn)

• See also by the same author The Study of Colour (1925). Both books were republished in numerous editions until 1956. 

Anderson, Anna Marie, Syllabus of design and color (1933)

• https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89047224175&view=1up&seq=1 

• Design syllabus using colour framework of Denman Ross.

Guptill, Arthur L., Color in sketching and rendering (1935)*

• https://archive.org/details/colormanualforar00arth (abridged edition, 1980)

• For beginning students Guptill recommends a compromise between purely practical paint mixing and studying the science of colour and light, emphasizing the former initially but noting "whatever course the student adopts at first, it is quite likely that he will eventually find himself anxious to explore some of the theories and laws of the scientist. ... If one fails to investigate this scientific material, he is almost certain to deprive himself of a wealth of adaptable suggestions which have been developed during centuries of intelligent and conscientious research on the part of many earnest workers approaching the subject of color from every possible point of view".

Fletcher, Frank Morley, Colour control (1936)

• http://petercullum.com/studio/339 

Allen, Arthur, Colour harmony, its theory and practice (1937)

• https://archive.org/details/colourharmonyint006800mbp/page/n7/mode/2up 

• British text and exercises explaining basic colour science and the Ostwald System, aimed primarily at art teachers in schools.

• The Ostwald System was widely used in art education between the wars in Britain and Germany (including the Bauhaus outside the painters’ classes, and after WWII in the USA, where it inspired the Color Harmony Manual (figured below) and Jacobson's Basic Color, an Interpretation of the Ostwald System (1948). 

Graves, Maitland E., The art of color and design (1941)*

• https://archive.org/details/artofcolordesign00grav (1st edn, 1941)

• https://archive.org/details/artofcolordesign00grav_0 (2nd edn, 1951)

• Widely used design textbook implementing the Munsell System, still held in more than 1000 libraries worldwide. Along with H. Barrett Carpenter's book above, The Art of Color and Design had a considerable influence on colour education in Australia as a direct contributor to the curriculum of Phyllis Shillito from the mid-1940s to the close of her career (Briggs and Fay, 2022, Briggs, 2024). Evidence for this influence includes the diagrams  of value chords, indisputably derived from Graves' text, that are found in all known Shillito portfolios throughout this period (six examples shown below), and text notes abridged  from Graves found from the earliest to the latest of these portfolios (Briggs, 2024; cf. O'Connor, 2024).

Itten, Johannes, The art of color (1961)*

• https://archive.org/details/artofcolorsubjec00itte/page/n7/mode/2up (1973 edition)

• As the basis of his teaching of colour at the Bauhaus Johannes Itten used a star-shaped diagram that he published as a lithograph in the book Utopia (Adler, 1921). This diagram employed a 12-hue circle based ultimately (via Itten's mentor Hoelzel) on one devised by the scientist Wilhelm von Bezold in 1874, and shows yellow, cyan blue and purple at equal intervals, and green opposite purple. In The Art of Color, published four decades after his time at the Bauhaus, Itten replaced this scientifically-based hue circle with one showing equally spaced red, yellow and blue "primary" colours placed opposite the "secondary" colours green, violet and orange respectively, and presented a simplistic view of colour that largely excludes developments in scientific understanding later than 1850.

• See also Faber Birren's abridged edition The Elements of Color (1970)* and some discussion of colour in Itten's Design and Form (1975)*.

Albers, Josef, Interaction of color (1963)**

• This very influential book is not available free online, but a substantial part including much of the text of the abridged paperback version can be previewed here: https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Interaction_of_Color.html?id=A_MYU_XDXfcC 

• https://archive.org/details/IntersectingColors  Vanja Malloy (editor), Intersecting colors (2015):  multidisciplinary reappraisal of the immense impact of Albers’s thinking, writing, teaching, and art on generations of students.

• https://albersfoundation.org/teaching/josef-albers/introduction/ (site includes lectures and other texts from throughout Josef and Anni Albers' careers)

• http://samesameordifferent.com/ (interactive version of one of Albers' demonstrations)

• https://vimeo.com/80809863 (complete lecture by Albers, January 19, 1966, University of South Florida)

• https://vimeo.com/77608435 (silent film of Josef Albers teaching at Yale by John Cohen, c. 1955)

• Colour seems to have played a very small part in Albers' Bauhaus teaching, and it was not until he emigrated to the United States to teach at Black Mountain College that he began to investigate colour in any systematic way" (Gage, Colour and Culture, 1993, p. 264). Albers records (IOC., pp. 65-67) that he originally began his colour course with a presentation of colour systems and theories, but later moved the theory component to the end of the course, beginning instead with practice focused on the phenomenlogy of colour, especially contrast and transparency. Albers' theory component began with Goethe and Schopenhauer, followed by the Munsell System, the Ostwald System, the Faber Birren Color System and the spectrophotometer (he makes no mention of Itten's system published two years earlier), and he encouraged "extended interest in private study of theories" after the course.

Ellinger, Richard G., Color structure and design (1963)*

• https://archive.org/details/colorstructurede00rell 

• "a practical book on color composition for students, teachers, artists, painters, commercial illustrators, and everyone who works creatively with color" applying the framework of the Munsell system.

Hellman, Hal, The art and science of color (1967)*

• https://archive.org/details/artscienceofcolo00hell

Zakia, Richard D; Todd, Hollis N., Color primer I & II (1974)*

• https://archive.org/details/colorprimeriii00zaki 

Osborne, Roy, Pigments & light: colour principles for artists (1980)*

• https://archive.org/details/lightspigmentsco00osbo 

Hurvich, Leo, Color vision (1981)*

• https://archive.org/details/colorvision00hurv 

• Accessible but specifically scientific textbook on colour vision.

Kuehni, Rolf, Color : essence and logic (1983)*

• https://archive.org/details/coloressencelogi00rolf

Rossotti, Hazel, Colour (1984)*

• https://archive.org/details/colour00ross 

De Grandis, Luigina, Theory and use of color (1986)*

• https://archive.org/details/theoryuseofcolor00degr

Agoston, George A., Color theory and its application in art and design (2nd edn, 1987)*

• https://archive.org/details/colortheoryitsap00agos_0 

• The first edition was published in in 1979. 

Kuehni, Rolf, Color : An introduction to practice and principles (1997)*

• https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780471145660 

• Kuehni's Color, now in its third edition (2012), is arguably still the best introduction to colour science for artists and designers in print today.

Ware, Colin, Information visualization: perception for design (3rd edn, 2013)**

• https://books.google.ca/books/about/Information_Visualization.html?id=UpYCSS6snnAC 

• Excellent example of the in-depth application of current science to design, now in its 4th edition; includes a chapter on color part of which can be seen in preview on Google Books. See also the simpler treatment in Visual Thinking for Design by the same author.

Kirk, Richard, Colour: Sense & Measurement (free pdf from FilmLight)

• https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/support/documents/colourbook/colourbook.php

Plutino, Alice, Gabriele Simone, Gabriele, and Rizz,i Alessandro (eds), Color Design & Technology A Multidisciplinary Approach to Colour Parts 1-3 (2021-2022)

• https://www.rcasb.eu/index.php/RCASB/catalog (free pdf download)

Outreach Websites

Why is color? (Mark Fairchild)

• http://www.rit-mcsl.org/fairchild/WhyIsColor/

• Provides exceptionally reliable answers to many of the most commonly asked questions about colour.

Mainly on colour  (Dietrich Zawischa)   

•   https://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/fileadmin/arbeitsgruppen/zawischa/static_html/indexe.html

• Entries on a diverse range of colour-related topics, especially on the physical basis of colour.

Handprint (Bruce MacEvoy)

• https://www.handprint.com/LS/CVS/color.html 

• Huge website providing very detailed discussion of all aspects of colour science and colour theory for artists.

The dimensions of colour (David Briggs)

• http://www.huevaluechroma.com/ 

• Website focused primarily on those aspects of colour science most directly applicable to painting in traditional and digital media.

*Titles marked with an asterisk were published between twenty-five to one hundred years ago and are available to read online for an hour at a time or be borrowed (subject to a wait list) for 14 days, but can not be downloaded.

**Not available free online but too important to omit!