Book, The Practical Wilson Colour System

There are 16 other images of this object. See our image rights statement.

See more objects with the tag color system, secondary colors, color wheel, primary color.

Object Timeline

	We acquired this object.
-0001	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object.
1933	Work on this object began.
1943	Work on this object ended.
2018	We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We photographed this object. We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Book, The Practical Wilson Colour System

This is a Book. It was written by Robert Francis Wilson.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

It is dated ca. 1938. Its medium is lithograph with collage on paper.

After prolonged exposure to a single stimulus, our eyes create an optical illusion called after-image. This color wheel consists of standard hues on the outer circle with their complementary after-image colors on the inner circle. The complementary nature of the resulting colors lends support to the opponent process theory of color vision.

It is credited Smithsonian Libraries, ND1285 .W53X.

Book plate from Zur Farbenlehre, (Theory of Colors), showing three rows of diagrams and one illustration underneath. The top row shows two circles ringed inside to leave a white circle in the middle of each which are divided into red, beige, pale blue, green, yellow and light orange between which are two vertical rows of four smaller colored circles against a black and white background. The second row shows two yellow circles one ringed with an orange ring, the other ringed with a blue ring and two smaller orange rings, between which is a prismal diagram made from black diagonal lines and brown squares. The third row uses two overlapping rectangles, one blue and one orange, a flame inside a goblet, and horizontal rows of colored circles in yellow, orange, pink, brown, green and pale blue. The illustrating depicts an autumnal forest with golden and brown trees in the background with white buildings in front and two men in a boat and a horse and carriage in the foreground.

Book, Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colors), 1810
engraving on paper.
Gift of Bern Dibner, Smithsonian LIbraries, QC495 .G59 1810 .
92.2016.13

The top of the page notes the number nineteen with german script. Below a full paged black outlined and numbered segmented color wheel. The numbers range from one to twenty-four and are assigned to each colored segment with shades of yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and,green clockwise. .

Book, Die Farbenfibel (The Color Primer)
letterpress with collage on paper.
Gift of Walter C. Granville, Smithsonian Libraries, ND1493 .O85 1928.
92.2016.42

23 paper and fabric swatches of colors in the format of a color wheel. The four white squares that hold these swatches are staggered in alignment. The top left square supports four swatches of cool toned grey colors. The top right square supports four swatches of various green tones. The bottom right square exhibits the colors grey, tones of blue, black and a dark maroon. On the bottom left are eight swatches of cool and warm tone reds. The bottom right square exhibits the colors grey, tones of blue, black and a dark maroon.

Panton Color Wheel, 2015
mixed media.
Courtesy of JongeriusLab and Vitra AG.
s-e-2675

Its dimensions are

H x W (open): 23.5 × 32 cm (9 1/4 × 12 5/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2FYCJR/
Accession Number 92.2016.62
Object ID 1108749973