
While Newton’s system was based on scientific observation of additive color mixing, Goethe’s method was more conceptual, based on the psychological effects of color. But he found that creating a so called “equilateral triangle” was better suited to representing his emerging theories. At first he intended to create a new color wheel. Johann Wolfgang Goethe sought a system to govern the use of color in art. Until Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) came along, no one had questioned the validity of Newton’s ideas about light and color. Since 1666, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept. red opposite green), as a way of denoting that each complementary color would enhance the other’s effect through optical contrast. This allowed the painters’ primaries (red, yellow, blue) to be arranged opposite their complementary colors (e.g. His most useful idea for artists was his conceptual arrangement of colors around the circumference of a circle. Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666. Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for color. In order to prove that the prism was not just “coloring” the light, he refracted the light back together, resulting in a beam of “white” light. Newton set up a prism near his window, and projected a beautiful spectrum of 7 “component” colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

He was the first to understand the rainbow.

Our modern understanding of color theory begins with Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726).
