Which great writer propounded a "Theory of Colours"?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832) is recognised as perhaps the greatest writer in the German language, producing masterpieces such as "Faust" and "Wilhelm Meister". But like many in the Enlightenment, he embraced more than one discipline, and his interest in science and perception led to his "Theory of Colours", that was first published in 1810 in Germany and subsequently in 1840 in England.

It is possible to see this work as a riposte to the earlier work of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who treated colour in a purely analytical fashion. Goethe, influenced by his interest in the visual arts, believed that perception also plays a vital role in how we see colour. Despite the use of the word "Theory" he believed that what the eye perceives overrules pure rules of mathematics. He also, radically, questioned whether darkness was truly the complete absence of light.

This led to his creation of the so-called "Colour Wheel" showing gradations of colour throughout the spectrum. It is true that some would find his association of colour with various emotions and virtues or vices as rather fanciful, yet in more recent terms psychologists have recognised the role that colour can play in our emotions and thought processes.

Whilst, scientifically, his theories are open to debate, the world of the arts embraced them, and artists as diverse as Kandinsky and Turner have turned to Goethe's Colour Wheel.