THE OSTWALD SYSTEM OF
COLOUR HARMONY
ARTHUR B. ALLEN
Colour is sensation. The translation by
the brain of sensations received by the
eye imply psychological properties of the
mind in relation to its surroundings. The
psychological interpretation of colour is
the keynote of the Ostwald theory.
DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE WORLD OF COLOUR FOLLOWS
a twofold track. There is the one route which shows
the gradual expansion of the palette of the artist, and
there is the other route which shows the artist and the
colour-scientist striving to formulate a system of colour
classification and colour usage whereby the maximum
results may be obtained in the shortest and the most
accurate manner.
So colour science has always had its place in the life of
the professional artist, for he sees in the findings of
the colour scientist the raw materials from which he will
be able to build surer harmonies.
Great names arise as we reflect upon the past—Rood
Maxwell, Lambert, Mile, Clerk-Maxwell, Young,
Helmholtz, Brewster, Chevreul. Some sure of their
place, others passing with the passage of time and the
sureness of modern investigation. Until we come at
last to Dr. Wilhelm Ostwald, of Leipsic, whose work
Colour Science has engendered new interest and a
tremendously active period of experiment and reassess
ment of colour values and colour classification and
colour measurement.
Dr. Wilhelm was born in 1853 and died in 1932. He
was a man full of honours, for the Universities had
recognized his greatness and in 1909 he received the
Nobel Prize.
The Ostwald System has been known among serious
students of colour for quite a long time, but it was per
haps not until J. Scott Taylor, M.A., translated Colour
Science that England grew alive to this latest develop
ment within the world of colour. 21b
The educational world in this country has been quick
to seize upon the Ostwald Theory for the very purity
of its colours has brought more life and more creative
effort into the art room and the class-room since the
onslaught of Thring than perhaps any other pro
nouncement.
What, then, is the Ostwald Theory that it should cap
ture so quickly the imagination of our educators and so
enter the field of the professional artist and designer?
If I were to be asked to reply to that question in one
wordas I have been asked to do soI would say, as
I then said, Simplicity.
It is the rational, the logical, the common sense basis
of the theory that constitutes its strength. Ostwald has
charted the coloured worldthe world of colours. His
basis is easy to understand. If you will look at my
chart you will see the whole analysis there. The eye is
the organ of vision. Colour is a sensation. Light enters
the eye and sets up a sensation by its interplay upon
the retina of the eye, for when the rays of light fall upon
the retina, a sensory impulse results and this is
conveyed to the brain by the optic nervethereby
creating a sensation.
The recognition of colour follows the same process
and this must, of necessity, include the recognition of
black as a colour. For although to say so to a physicist
is to invite disaster, black gives a negative sensation and
must therefore take its place among the colours.
Sir William Bragg, in one of his excellent broadcasts
upon Colour and Vision, indicated that there were
three stages in colour recognition. The first when the
eye is attracted by a colour. This attraction was due to
the physical properties of a coloured surface. The
second when the retina receives the sensory impulse
and conveys the impression to the brain. Such a con
veyance implies the physiological properties of the
human organism. And, thirdly, when the brain receives
the "message" and translates it. The translation
implying the psychological properties of the mind and
its relationship to its surroundings.
So to revert to my chart. See page 219.)
The eye is the basis of vision and dominates the whole
