Abstract
M. M. A. ROSENSTIEHL has made an interesting contribution to the science of colour in the form of a brochure recently published under the auspices of the Société Industrielle of Rouen, and entitled “Les premiers Eléments de la Science de la Couleur.” In this treatise, which is a model of brevity and of demonstrative clearness, the author shows that the empirical methods which have hitherto prevailed amongst colourists of all classes are radically imperfect. These methods are based entirely upon the study of colouring matters, and ignore altogether the fundamental distinction between colour as a property of such matter, and colour in the physiological sense of a particular affection of the organ of sight. It is to the study of colour by means of colour-sensations that our attention is directed; and it is to the synthesis and analysis of the retinal impressions that we are to look for exact views on the relationships of the colours. The distinction in question once stated is so obvious that the author's claim for recognition of the new system or method as the necessary complement of the older will be at once admitted. But the author's aim is not so much to obtain the intellectual assent of those accustomed to the propositions of abstract science, as rather to convince colour-artists of every denomination of the direct utility of the method—to show them, in fact, that it supplies the means of solving problems in colouring with rapidity and certainty, and furnishes valuable criteria with which to strengthen the aesthetic judgment.
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Colour . Nature 31, 58–61 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031058b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031058b0