Goethe's 1810 work was rejected by many contemporary scientists because it appeared to contradict the physical laws laid down by Isaac Newton. However, its focus on the human perception of the colour spectrum, as opposed to the observable optical phenomenon, was attractive to, and influential upon, artists and philosophers. Yellow is light which has been dampened by darkness; Blue is a darkness weakened by light. The color spectrum is the overlap between light and dark, the meeting of opposites. Light in a dark room, shadow in a lit room. Red is in between yellow and blue. Goethe's color theory inspired the color wheel of chromatic opposites. Description. Though best known for his superlative poetry and plays, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) also produced a sizable body of scientific work that focused on such diverse topics as plants, color, clouds, weather, and geology. Goethe's way of science is highly unusual because it seeks to draw together the intuitive awareness of art MIT Press, Sep 11, 2009 - Science - 156 pages. Goethe's influential text, newly illustrated with stunning color photographs. The Metamorphosis of Plants, published in 1790, was Goethe's first major attempt to describe what he called in a letter to a friend “the truth about the how of the organism.”. Inspired by the diversity of flora he Theory of Colours Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,1840 By closely following Goethe's explanations of the color phenomena, the reader may become so divorced from the wavelength theory—Goethe never even mentions it—that he may begin to think about color theory relatively unhampered by prejudice, ancient or modern. By the time Goethe's Theory of Paperback. $8.84 7 Used from $8.84 3 New from $18.08. The wavelength theory of light and color had been firmly established by the time the great German poet published his Theory of Colours in 1810. Nevertheless, Goethe believed that the theory derived from a fundamental error, in which an incidental result was mistaken for a elemental principle Nevertheless, what we actually perceive as red or green originates deep within our brains. Colours are not, therefore, merely «Deeds of Light», as Johann Wolfgang Goethe once claimed; colours are also a product of the self, and we decorate our own personal world with them. We see and produce an apparently endless abundance of colours. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), student of the arts, theatrical director, and author (Iphigenia at Taurus, Egmont, Faust). Lots of interesting descriptive information on the subjective nature of color, which many physicists of his day ignored, but does not propose a physical model of color. Zur Farbenlehre by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1971, Studio Vista ltd edition, in English Goethe's colour theory by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 0 Ratings Thinking is more important than knowing, but not [more important] than looking for yourself. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. As a reply to Newton's theories, Goethe developed a Theory of Colour (Zur Farbenlehre, published in 1810), which became a personal obsession in his last years, and which he considered more important than his literary works, but which was not well received by contemporary Ssjl8eJ.