Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.17621

    Colour circle

    Date
    1861
    Creator
    Michel Eugene Chevreul (1786 - 1889, French) , Chemist
    Object type
    Library reference
    33074
    Material
    Subject
    Description
    A colour circle displaying a range of primary and secondary colours in a variety of shades, namely: green, yellow, orange, red, violet and blue.

    Figure 4 from Michel Eugene Chevreul’s Expose d'un moyen de definier et de nommer les coleurs d'apres unem ethode precise et experimentale… [Presenting a way to define and name the colours according to a precise and experimental method…]

    The inscription in the centre of the circle, Chevreul explains that the circle is based on three primary ‘zones’:
    ‘La zone RR represente le rouge
    La zone JJ represente la jaune
    La zone BB repersente le bleu [..]
    Toutes les zones intermediares sont formees de 2 couleurs’
    [‘The RR zone represents the red
    The JJ zone represents the yellow
    The BB zone represents the blue [..]
    All intermediate areas are formed of two colours.’]

    In utilising the form of a circle, Chevreul was promoting his theory from The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours (1839): when viewed side-by-side colours will influence each other.

    Michel Eugene Chevreul (1786-1889) French chemist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826.
    Associated place
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