history of mixed color contrast
M.E. Chevreul: what is his full name?
Birth & Death Dates
Fields of Study
Country he lived and worked in:
Dye Master for what industry
What is Chevreul's major color theory concept
J. Albers: what is his full name?
Birth & Death Dates
Fields of Study
Countries he lived and worked in:
Instructor for what course at what school?
In what way did Albers develop Chevreul's major color theory concept
based on Chevreul's theory of the Interaction of Colors
1. Simultanious Contrast
One of the 3 color concepts that was describe by the scientist,
Michele Eugene Chevreul, is the concept of Mixed Color Contrast.
As the Director of Dyes at the Gobelin Manufacturer, Michele Eugene Chevreul was keenly aware of how colors are relative, that all colors interact with each other andhow each color's appearance is dependent on its relationship to its adjacent colors.
woven sample below show are weaving different colors of yarn,
optically mix to create a color blend.
This optical mix contrast was also called broken colors by the Impressionist painters as, for example, green is made by breaking yellow & blue or as in this case on the right, red & blue are broken creating an optical mix of violet.
Even before Prof. Chevreul wrote about the effects of Mixed Color Contrasts, artists were aware of this optical phenomena. You can see this concept of broken color as far back as Leonardo da Vinci (Italian Renaissance Painter), Rembrandt van Rijn van Rein (Baroque Dutch Painter) and Eugène Delacroix (French Romantic Painter).
In the late 1800's, The French Impressionist and Pointillist used mixed contrast - also called broken colors - with innovative and rich results - by painting small, distinct dots of pure color that optically blend into a full spectrum of colors.
These artists would have known about Chevreul's color theory as they could have readily read his book: “De la loi du contrast simultane des couleurs” (“On the Law of Simultaneous Color Contrast”) published in 1939 and, as likely, even have met him and attended his lectures.
Island of La Grande Jatte
