Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was one of the greates figures in the entire history of science. Although he is most widely known for his mathematical and gravitational theories, his contributions to oureveryday understanding of color were equally significant. Prior to Newton's experiments with optics and light,it was generally believed that color existed in two forms; real, as in the color of a flower, and etherial, as in a rainbow. The magic of creating a rainbow by passing light through a prism was already commonly known beforeNewton's time, but it was believed that the colors were in the glass, not in the light itself.

In 1666, when Newton was twenty three years old, he conducted a series of experiments in which he used two prisms. After the light passed through the first prism and created a rainbow, he then passed the rainbow through the second prism and discovered that the individual colors actually recombined into the beam of white light. Taking these tests a step further, he isolated the individual colors and allowed only one color to pass through the second prism. The second prism bent the light again, but the color remained the same. He concluded from these and further experiments, that what we see as white light, is actually a mixture of all colors, and that colors were not in the prism, bit in the light itself.

Albert H Munsell (1858-1918) was an American painter and instructor who received many scholarships as a student, to study inEurope. Gradually his interests evolved from painting to understanding and teaching Color. When he was twenty-one,he was impressed by a book written by Ogden Rood, titled "Modern Chromatics".In Europe at the time, Rood's book was condsidered by many to be the "Bible of Color". However, in 1898, Munsell developed what might be called the "New Testament". He visualized and created his now famousColor Sphere, which is a solid three dimension sphere that organizes andidentifies an infinite variety of colors. The essence of Munsell's colormodel would resemble a peeled orange. Each segment of the orange wouldcontain all the variations of one Hue (red, or blue,etc.). The poles of his sphere represent black and white, and the absolute center of the sphere represents middle gray. All around the circumference of the sphere, at the equator, lie all the possible variations of color.

After the development of the Munsell Color System,people worldwide had a rational way to describe color based on its location in the color sphere, not by an arbitrarily slang name such as "evergreen".Munsell was an artist in his own right, but it was scientists not artists that held him in such high esteem because of his scientific method of describing color. Although he was widely acclaimed for his color system, Munsell also developed theories regarding the principles of ideal balance, beauty and harmony in colors. The Munsell Color System has evolved and presently is more commonly referred to as the Hue, Saturation, and Value (Lightness,Brightness) system.

Johannes Itten (1888-1967) was a great teacher of art and color. His theories reflect the relationships that he saw between music and color, though he was by no means merely a color theorist. He was a Master in the famous German design school, Bauhaus, with other noted masters such as Paul Klee, Oscar Schlemmerand Vasily Kandinsky, and developed a basic course on form and color.

Following his theme of music and color, Itten developed "color chords" that were analagous to music chords.He developed a series of color harmonies, using his twelve member colorwheel as the basisfor his demonstrations. Any two complemenetary colors, any three colors(triads) that form an equalateral or isosceles triangle, and all four color combinations (tetrads) forming squares or rectangles are harmonious. The geometric figures shown may be rotated anywhere in the circle, and the resulting color combinations will remain harmonious.

By color harmony, Itten refers to "the craft of developing themes from systematic color relationships capable of servingas a basis for composition." In addition to his color harmonies, Itten developed a systematic approach to contrasts. His now famous Seven Contrasts include Hue Contrast, Light and Dark Contrast, Warm and Cool Contrast,Complementary Contrast, Contrast of Saturation, Simultaneous Contrast andContrast of Extension. Jump to the "Real Books" page for a listof books that elaborate on Iten, Munsell, Newton and various color topics.