Goethe's Theory of ColoursGoethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Philosophy
Goethe's Theory of Colours
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Color
We have hitherto seen the opposite colours producing each other
successively on the retina: it now remains to show by experiment
that the same effects can exist simultaneously. If a coloured object
impinges on one part of the retina, the remaining portion at the same
moment has a tendency to produce the compensatory colour. To pursue
a former experiment, if we look on a yellow piece of paper placed
on a white surface, the remaining part of the organ has already a
tendency to produce a purple hue on the colourless surface: in this
case the small portion of yellow is not powerful enough to produce
this appearance distinctly, but, if a white paper is placed on a yellow
wall, we shall see the white tinged with a purple hue.
57.
Although this experiment may be made with any colours, yet red and
green are particularly recommended for it, because these colours seem
powerfully to evoke each other. Numerous instances occur in daily
experience. If a green paper is seen through striped or flowered
muslin, the stripes or flowers will appear reddish. A grey building
seen through green pallisades appears in like manner reddish. A
modification of this tint in the agitated sea is also a compensatory
colour: the light side of the waves appears green in its own colour,
and the shadowed side is tinged with the opposite hue. The different
direction of the waves with reference to the eye produces the same
effect. Objects seen through an opening in a red or green curtain
appear to wear the opposite hue. These appearances will present
themselves to the attentive observer on all occasions, even to an
unpleasant degree.
58.
Having made ourselves acquainted with the simultaneous exhibition of
these effects in direct cases, we shall find that we can also observe
them by indirect means. If we place a piece of paper of a bright
orange colour on the white surface, we shall, after looking intently
at it, scarcely perceive the compensatory colour on the rest of the
surface: but when we take the orange paper away, and when the blue
spectrum appears in its place, immediately as this spectrum becomes
fully apparent, the rest of the surface will be overspread, as if by a
flash, with a reddish-yellow light, thus exhibiting to the spectator
in a lively manner the productive energy of the organ, in constant
conformity with the same law.
59.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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