By the time Goethe's Theory of Colours appeared in 1810, the wavelength theory of light and color had been firmly established. To Goethe, the theory was the result of mistaking an incidental result for an elemental principle. Far from pretending to a knowledge of physics, he insisted that such knowledge was an actual hindrance to understanding. He based his conclusions exclusively upon exhaustive personal observation of the phenomena of color.

Of his own theory, Goethe was supremely confident: “From the philosopher, we believe we merit thanks for having traced the phenomena of colours to their first sources, to the circumstances under which they appear and are, and beyond which no further explanation respecting them is possible.”

Goethe's scientific conclusions have, of course, long since been thoroughly demolished, but the intelligent reader of today may enjoy this work on quite different grounds: for the beauty and sweep of his conjectures regarding the connection between color and philosophical ideas; for an insight into early nineteenth-century beliefs and modes of thought; and for the flavor of life in Europe just after the American and French Revolutions.

The work may also be read as an accurate guide to the study of color phenomena. Goethe's conclusions have been repudiated, but no one quarrels with his reporting of the facts to be observed. With simple objects—vessels, prisms, lenses, and the like—the reader will be led through a demonstration course not only in subjectively produced colors, but also in the observable physical phenomena of color. By closely following Goethe's explanations of the color phenomena, the reader may become so divorced from the wavelength theory—Goethe never even mentions it—that he may begin to think about color theory relatively unhampered by prejudice, ancient or modern.

Full bibliographic data for Theory of Colours

TitleTheory of Colours

Authors and contributorsBy (author) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translated by C.L. Eastlake

Physical propertiesFormat: Paperback

Number of pages: 488

Width: 134.00 mm

Height: 202.00 mm

Thickness: 25.00 mm

Weight: 600.00 g

AudienceCollege/higher education

Professional and scholarly

Language German

ISBNISBN 13: 9780262570213

ISBN 10: 0262570211

ClassificationsBISAC category code: SCI037000

Dewey: 701.85

LC classification: QC495.G5 1

Nielsen BookScan Product Class: T1.0

BIC subject category: ABA

EditionNew edition

Edition statementNew edition

Illustrations noteIll.

PublisherMIT Press Ltd

Imprint nameMIT Press

Publication date01 January 1970

Publication City/CountryCambridge, Mass./US

Review text"Can you lend me "The Theory of Colours" for a few weeks? It is an important work. His latest things are insipid." --Ludwig van Beethoven, "Conversation-book," 1820