See highlights and high-quality resources for advanced investigations.

Color (an element of visual art and design) is the aspect of any object that may be described in terms of hue, (the name of the color) value (how light or dark it is), and saturation (intensity: how bright or dull it is).   — Encyclopedia Britannica

The Origins of Color  (11:43)

Isaac Newton's (1642-1727) youthful experiments with sunlight and prisms established an entirely new basis for the understanding of light and colour.   His manuscript collections in Cambridge University Library hold crucial clues to how he worked.   This film uses this invaluable evidence to explore Newton's remarkable notebooks and experimental explorations at Cambridge and at his Lincolnshire home. Newton Papers: — Cambridge University Library

Next, learn about some of the rarest color pigments.

History of Color: Forbes Pigment Collection

The materials collection, at the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, MA, houses thousands of pigments, including some of the world’s rarest.   Explore the stories behind some of history’s most fascinating colors found in the world renowned Forbes Pigment Collection—an assemblage of more than 2,700 pigments (and counting!). — Harvard Art Museums

Patience is required. Remaining page under construction!

Next, see contemporary and historical texts and/with charts that became standards to help naturalists identify plants and animals and helped manufacturers to produce consistent dyes and paints. We begin with the contemporary history book "Color Charts: A History," written by anthropologist Anne Varichon, available now!

Next is the amazing 1686 Tabula Colorum Physiologica:

The Tabula Colorum Physiologica, 1686, by Richard Waller is "A Catalogue of Simple and Mixed Colours with a Specimen of Each Colour Prefixt Its Properties," in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 6.

The next image (by Rihard Waller) is located on p. 26.

Richard Waller FRS (d. 1715) was an English naturalist, translator and illustrator, long-time member and secretary of the Royal Society. — and his color charts, created as early as the 1600s, included color samples and names, providing a standard for others to follow.

These charts helped naturalists to identify plants and animals and helped manufacturers to produce consistent dyes and paints. Color in a New Light — Smithsonian Libraries

Now see the first documented color wheels!

Colour are light’s suffering and joy. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Book: Farben-Kugel [Theory of Colors] Tübingen: J.G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1810

Goethe challenged Newton’s views on color, arguing that color was not simply a scientific measurement, but a subjective experience perceived differently by each viewer... — Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Natural History

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749 — March 22, 1832) German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist, considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era... — Encyclopedia Britannica

Next is mixing art and science to see the boundaries between light and darkness showing a hidden set of colors.

Color is the ultimate in art. It is still and will always remain a mystery to us, we can only apprehend it intuitively in flowers. —Philipp Otto Runge in a letter (February 1802) quoted in L. Eitner Neoclassicism and Romanticism, 1750-1850: Enlightenment (1970), p. 150.

Philipp Otto Runge (July 23, 1777 — December 2, 1810, German Romantic painter, draftsman, and art theorist known for his expressive portraits and symbolic landscapes and for his groundbreaking colour theory, expounded in Farben-Kugel (1810; Colour Sphere)... — Encyclopedia Britannica

His book: Farben-Kugel oder Construction des Verhältnisses aller Mischungen der Farben zu einander, und ihrer vollständigen Affinität (Color sphere or construction of the ratio of all mixtures of colors to one another, and their complete affinity), 1810 — Getty Conservation Research Foundation Museum, California, USA.

Book Trailer Above: The Brilliant History of Color in Art  ~1.5m Getty Publications

Color is Mesmerizing. Explore the bookmark links down to each color's hypnotic power that includes links to brief video histories, fine art at Google Arts & Culture, scientific definitions, design tools: color wheels, palettes and more.

Queen Elizabeth I, The Armada Portrait 

oil on panel detail, c.1590, by George Gower, at the Queen’s House, the original Greenwich Palace, UK

  Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I Secured for the Nation

The iconic painting, painted circa 1590, commemorates the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English in 1588, remembered as the most famous conflict of Elizabeth I’s 45-year reign (1558-1603).   The inspiration for countless portrayals of Elizabeth I in film and on stage, it is one of the most famous images in British history, capturing a vital moment in the English Renaissance.   When she sat for the portrait, Elizabeth I was in her late 50s, and at the height of her power. —Christie's