V - The Theory of Colours

Summary

A year after the appearance of the Metamorphosis essay Goethe published his first work in the field of chromatics. This was the Contributions to Optics, no. I. It was followed in 1792 by a second work on the same lines, but in neither case did Goethe make any impression on the learned public, which regarded the intervention of a poet in so technical a field as out of place, and was in any case not convinced by his anti-Newtonian arguments. Goethe was not daunted however by the criticisms encountered from friend and foe alike, but continued to develop his theory for almost twenty years. In 1810, when he felt that his ideas could be experimentally demonstrated as clearly as they were ever likely to be, he published what was to remain the classic exposition of his theory, in the volume entitled Zur Farbenlehre. Didaktischer Theil. Since this resumes all that was said in the earlier Contributions, and was only amplified, not altered, by his subsequent publications, an account of its theories will cover almost all the ground required.

The way in which Goethe came to be interested in colour theories at all deserves however some preliminary attention. Even in his student days at Strasbourg they appear to have had some attraction for him, sufficient at all events for him to note down the title of a fairly specialized work.