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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
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  4. Color Theory
  5. Color Theory

Color Theory: Color Theory

  • Color Theory
  • Artists and Color
  • Paint & Pigments
  • Dartmouth College Color
  • Art & Architecture Research Guide

Visual Arts Librarian

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Laura Graveline
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Sherman Art Library & Art Special Collection
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Subjects: Art History & Studio Art
  • History of Color
  • Science and Theory of Color
  • Explore Color

 

 
  • Blue - The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau
    Call Number: BF789.C7 P369 2001
    ISBN: 0691090505
    Publication Date: 2001-09-17
    Blue has a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. Once considered a hot color, it is now icy cool. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now pick it as their favorite color. In this entertaining history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearances in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today in blue jeans and Gauloises cigarette packs.Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color entered the Church despite the efforts of chromophobic prelates.Bluewas reborn as a royal color in the twelfth century and functioned as a formidable political and military force through the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created, and blue became the color of romance. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans, and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space.With an exceptionally elegant design and strikingly illustrated with one hundred color plates,Bluetells the fascinating history of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and created great art with it.
  • Black by Michel Pastoureau
    Call Number: BF789.C7 P3813 2009
    ISBN: 9780691139302
    Publication Date: 2008-11-16
    Baker Berry
    Black--favorite color of priests and penitents, artists and ascetics, fashion designers and fascists--has always stood for powerfully opposed ideas: authority and humility, sin and holiness, rebellion and conformity, wealth and poverty, good and bad. In this beautiful and richly illustrated book, the acclaimed author of Blue now tells the fascinating social history of the color black in Europe. In the beginning was black, Michel Pastoureau tells us. The archetypal color of darkness and death, black was associated in the early Christian period with hell and the devil but also with monastic virtue. In the medieval era, black became the habit of courtiers and a hallmark of royal luxury. Black took on new meanings for early modern Europeans as they began to print words and images in black and white, and to absorb Isaac Newton's announcement that black was no color after all. During the romantic period, black was melancholy's friend, while in the twentieth century black (and white) came to dominate art, print, photography, and film, and was finally restored to the status of a true color. For Pastoureau, the history of any color must be a social history first because it is societies that give colors everything from their changing names to their changing meanings--and black is exemplary in this regard. In dyes, fabrics, and clothing, and in painting and other art works, black has always been a forceful--and ambivalent--shaper of social, symbolic, and ideological meaning in European societies. With its striking design and compelling text, Black will delight anyone who is interested in the history of fashion, art, media, or design.
  • Gods in color : painted sculpture of classical antiquity
    Call Number: NB93 .B8613 2007
    Publication Date: 2007
  • Greek Color Theory and the Four Elements by Benson, J.L.
    Publication Date: 2000
  • Green : the history of a color by Michel Pastoureau
    Call Number: BF789.C7 P39513 2014
    ISBN: 9780691159362
    Publication Date: 2014-08-24
    Baker Berry
    In this beautiful and richly illustrated book, the acclaimed author of Blue and Black presents a fascinating and revealing history of the color green in European societies from prehistoric times to today. Examining the evolving place of green in art, clothes, literature, religion, science, and everyday life, Michel Pastoureau traces how culture has profoundly changed the perception and meaning of the color over millennia--and how we misread cultural, social, and art history when we assume that colors have always signified what they do today. Filled with entertaining and enlightening anecdotes, Green shows that the color has been ambivalent: a symbol of life, luck, and hope, but also disorder, greed, poison, and the devil. Chemically unstable, green pigments were long difficult to produce and even harder to fix. Not surprisingly, the color has been associated with all that is changeable and fleeting: childhood, love, and money. Only in the Romantic period did green definitively become the color of nature. Pastoureau also explains why the color was connected with the Roman emperor Nero, how it became the color of Islam, why Goethe believed it was the color of the middle class, why some nineteenth-century scholars speculated that the ancient Greeks couldn't see green, and how the color was denigrated by Kandinsky and the Bauhaus. More broadly, Green demonstrates that the history of the color is, to a large degree, one of dramatic reversal: long absent, ignored, or rejected, green today has become a ubiquitous and soothing presence as the symbol of environmental causes and the mission to save the planet. With its striking design and compelling text, Green will delight anyone who is interested in history, culture, art, fashion, or media.
  • Historical color guide, primitive to modern times
    Call Number: 763 B944h
    ISBN: Burris-Meyer, Elizabeth
    Art Special Collection
  • Mauve by Simon Garfield
    Call Number: TP140.P46 G37 2001
    ISBN: 0393020053
    Publication Date: 2001-04-01
    Before 1856, the color in our lives -- the reds, blues, and blacks of clothing, paint, and print -- came from insects or mollusks, roots or leaves; and dyeing was painstaking and expensive. But in 1856 eighteen-year-old English chemist William Perkin accidentally discovered a way to mass-produce color in a factory. Working on a treatment for malaria in his London home laboratory, Perkin failed to produce artificial quinine. Instead he created a dark oily sludge that turned silk a beautiful light purple. Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London, but its importance extended far beyond ball gowns. It sparked new interest in industrial applications of chemistry research, which later brought about the development of explosives, perfume, photography, and modern medicine. With great wit, scientific savvy, and historical scope, Simon Garfield delivers a fascinating tale of how an accidental genius set in motion an extraordinary scientific achievement.
  • New horizons in color by Birren, Faber
    Call Number: ND1280 .B58 1955
    Publication Date: 1955
    Art Special Collection
  • Paint and Color in Decoration by Tom Helme; Ivan Terestchenko (Photographer); Joseph Friedman; Farrow and Ball Staff
    Call Number: NK2115.5.C6 F75 2003
    ISBN: 9780847825936
    Publication Date: 2004-02-21
    Paint and Color in Decoration celebrates the work of some of the greatest names in interior design, from Robert Adam to David Hicks, and reveals the techniques and materials they pioneered. It is a fascinating history of 400 years of paint, color, and decorative style from Farrow & Ball, the world's leading manufacturer of traditional and modern fine paints. This volume explores the process of making fine paints and the varying effects produced by different formulations, finishes, and painting methods. Through a wealth of illustrations and in-depth analysis, the book demonstrates what we all instinctively know: color is an essential element in interior design and decoration. The colors have names almost as rich as the history of the houses they adorn, with Passage Yellow, Feasting Green, and Cook's Blue among a panoply of hues whose origins and adaptations for the home are described here in detail. A source of inspiration for professional and amateur decorators and interior designers alike, Paint and Color in Decoration contains a wealth of ideas and practical information at a time when historic paints have never been more in fashion.
  • A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield
    Call Number: TP925.C63 G74 2005
    ISBN: 0060522755
    Publication Date: 2005-04-26
    Baker Berry
    A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the worlds most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spains cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. Desperate to find their own sources of the elusive dye, the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans tried to crack the enigma of cochineal. Did it come from a worm, a berry, a seed? Could it be stolen from Mexico and transplanted to their own colonies? Pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies -- all joined the chase for cochineal, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. A Perfect Red tells their stories -- true-life tales of mystery, empire, and adventure, in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
  •  
  • Pink : the history of a punk, pretty, powerful color by Valerie Steele; A. Cassandra Albinson
    Call Number: TT502 .S74 2018
    ISBN: 9780500022269
    Publication Date: 2018-09-04
    Today, with the advent of 'millennial pink', the colour formerly associated with Barbie has acquired a new identity. Nor is this the first time the symbolism of pink has been radically transformed. In this volume, in collaboration with a major exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, curator and fashion historian Valerie Steele explores the history and significance of pink in fashion, art and culture from the 18th century to the present. Steele and her co-authors tell the whole story of his controversial colour, emphasizing how its meanings changed throughout the centuries and across the globe, in cultures as diverse as France, India, Japan, Mexico and the United States. In 18th-century France, men and women alike wore pink, which was a fashionably 'new' colour. A century later, however, pink had become feminized and eroticized in the West (although it took longer for pink-versus-blue gender coding to develop). Pink is beautifully illustrated, with illustrations of stunning pink fashions given context by photographs, advertisements and works of art. It features essays by scholars across the disciplines, giving readers access to a wealth of research into subjects as diverse as Hollywood films and the symbolism of the pink triangle. This book will appeal to all those interested in fashion and culture, as well as those who love pink.
  • Cover ArtThe Rarest Blue by Baruch Sterman
    Call Number: BM657.T44 S74 2012
    ISBN: 9780762782222
    Publication Date: 2012-11-20
    For centuries, blue and purple dyed fabrics ranked among the ancient world's most desirable objects, commanding many times their weight in gold. Few people knew their secrets, carefully guarding the valuable knowledge, and strict laws regulated their production and use. The Rarest Blue tells the incredible story of tekhelet, the elusive sky-blue color mentioned throughout the Bible. Minoans discovered it; Phoenicians stole it; Roman emperors revered it; and Jews--obeying a commandment to affix a thread of it to their garments--risked their lives for it. But as the Roman Empire dissolved, the color vanished. Then, in the nineteenth century, a marine biologist marveled as yellow snail guts smeared on a fisherman's shirt turned blue. But what had caused this incredible transformation? Meanwhile, a Hasidic master obsessed with the ancient technique posited that the source of the dye was no snail but a squid. Bitter controversy divided European Jews until a brilliant rabbi proved one side wrong. But had an unscrupulous chemist deceived them? In this richly illustrated book, Baruch Sterman brilliantly recounts the amazing story of this sacred dye that changed the color of history.
  • Cover ArtYellow by Michel Pastoureau; Jody Gladding (Translator)
    Call Number: BF789.C7 P37513 2019
    ISBN: 9780691198255
    Publication Date: 2019-11-26
    From the acclaimed author of Blue, a beautifully illustrated history of yellow from antiquity to the present In this richly illustrated book, Michel Pastoureau--a renowned authority on the history of color and the author of celebrated volumes on blue, black, green, and red--now traces the visual, social, and cultural history of yellow. Focusing on European societies, with comparisons from East Asia, India, Africa, and South America, Yellow tells the intriguing story of the color's evolving place in art, religion, fashion, literature, and science. In Europe today, yellow is a discreet color, little present in everyday life and rarely carrying great symbolism. This has not always been the case. In antiquity, yellow was almost sacred, a symbol of light, warmth, and prosperity. It became highly ambivalent in medieval Europe: greenish yellow came to signify demonic sulfur and bile, the color of forgers, lawless knights, Judas, and Lucifer--while warm yellow recalled honey and gold, serving as a sign of pleasure and abundance. In Asia, yellow has generally had a positive meaning. In ancient China, yellow clothing was reserved for the emperor, while in India the color is associated with happiness. Above all, yellow is the color of Buddhism, whose temple doors are marked with it. Throughout, Pastoureau illuminates the history of yellow with a wealth of captivating images. With its striking design and compelling text, Yellow is a feast for the eye and mind.
  • Cover ArtWhite by Michel Pastoureau; Jody Gladding (Translator); Roland Betancourt (Foreword by)
    Call Number: BF789.C7 P3513 2023
    ISBN: 9780691243498
    Publication Date: 2023-01-24
    From the acclaimed author of Blue, a beautifully illustrated history of the color white in visual culture, from antiquity to today As a pigment, white is often thought to represent an absence of color, but it is without doubt an important color in its own right, just like red, blue, green, or yellow--and, like them, white has its own intriguing history. In this richly illustrated book, Michel Pastoureau, a celebrated authority on the history of colors, presents a fascinating visual, social, and cultural history of the color white in European societies, from antiquity to today. Illustrated throughout with a wealth of captivating images ranging from the ancient world to the twenty-first century, White examines the evolving place, perception, and meaning of this deceptively simple but complex hue in art, fashion, literature, religion, science, and everyday life across the millennia. Before the seventeenth century, white's status as a true color was never contested. On the contrary, from antiquity until the height of the Middle Ages, white formed with red and black a chromatic triad that played a central role in life and art. Nor has white always been thought of as the opposite of black. Through the Middle Ages, the true opposite of white was red. White also has an especially rich symbolic history, and the color has often been associated with purity, virginity, innocence, wisdom, peace, beauty, and cleanliness. With its striking design and compelling text, White is a colorful history of a surprisingly vivid and various color.
      Atlas of the Munsell color system by Munsell, A.H. 
  Call Number: 763 M927a
      Publication Date: 1915
      Art Special Collection
  • The color printer by Earhart, John F.
    Call Number: Z258 .E13
    Publication Date: 1892
    Art Special Collection
  • Color standards and color nomenclature by Ridgway, Robert
    Call Number: QC495 .R5
    Publication Date: 1912
  • The elements of color; a treatise on the color system of Johannes Itten by Birren, Faber
    Call Number: ND1493.I8 I813 1970
    Publication Date: 1970
  • Goethe's color theory by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
    Call Number: QC495 .G4813 1971 c.2
    Publication Date: 1971
  • Interaction of color by Albers, Josef
    Call Number: 763 A332
    Publication Date: 1963
    Art Special Collection
     
    Interaction of Color Online

    The A&AePortal version of the Interaction of Color is based on the 2013 edition, and includes original video commentary by experts explaining Albers's principles in some of the color exercises featured in the book. The electronic version also combines the classic texts with the plates and commentary, chapter-by-chapter, providing a seamless reading experience.

  • De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs by Chevreul, M.E.
    Call Number: ND1280 .C53 1889
    Publication Date: 1889
    Art Special Collection
  • Pantone Book of Color by Leatrice Eiseman; Lawrence Herbert
    Call Number: QC494.2 .E36 1990
    ISBN: 0810937115
    Publication Date: 1990-09-01
     
    Werner's nomenclature of colours by Werner, Abraham Gottlob
    Call Number: 763 W495w
    Publication Date: 1821
    Art Special Collection
  •  
  • Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours Online
    A recreation of the original 1821 color guidebook with new cross references, photographic examples, and posters designed by Nicholas Rougeux

Search the Library Catalog for more materials on your subject.

There are wonderful resources available on the history, theory and techniques of working in color. The items listed in this research guide can provide a starting point, and in many instances, you can find other editions of these books, and similar  works by searching the library catalog
  • Next: Artists and Color >>
  • Last Updated: Apr 21, 2025 9:05 AM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/color
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