Page:Elementary Color (IA gri c00033125012656167).djvu/20

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10
THE THEORY OF COLOR.

and accuracy with which the experiments have been made. Experiments are useless for formulating any exact theories unless they can be recorded in some generally accepted terms for comparison with other experiments made under similar conditions and recorded in the same terms.

So in color perceptions it is not necessary that we know anything of the theories of color in order to see colors, and if endowed by nature with a natural genius for color, education in color may not be necessary, but if there is to be education in color which can be transmitted to a second party there must be some standards of colors and some measurement of color effects which can be recorded in accepted terms.

Why Artists and Scientists Have Disagreed.

In the realm of art there is no necessity for any purely scientific analysis of sunlight, which is the origin of natural colors, because all the practical value of color is found in its aesthetic effects on the mind, and in order to enjoy these even in the highest degree it is not necessary that we understand the scientific origin of the colors, any more than it is necessary for the artist to know the chemical composition of his pigments in order to produce best effects with them on his canvas. Because of this almost self-evident fact, artists have as a rule been very impatient when any reference has been made to the science of color in connection with color education, believing that color is an exception to the general subjects of study to such a degree that it lies outside of all scientific investigations. Consequently they have not been in sympathy with the physiopsychological investigations which have been prosecuted with such promising results in other lines, when such investigations have been proposed regarding color. While it is not essential for best results in his own work that an expert artist shall know anything of the science of color, still if he is to communicate his knowledge of art to any others except his personal pupils, he must have some language in which to make known his ideas, and on the same grounds if any psychological