1

Hannah Justis
Modern Art History
Scott Koterbay
23 October 2014
Exploration of Vincent van Goghs Color Theories

Vincent van Gogh, a well-known, if not iconic name in the vast history of the art
community. Though regrettably most universally remembered for his speculated mental health
and tragic end, van Gogh is now observed as the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrant. In the
start of his artistic career, van Gogh struggled for his unique artistic personality and longed for
bearing in his artworks. Searching for a stable identity, he spent the majority of his adult life in
an unremitting excursion across Europe. There, he considered the work of the French
impressionists and tried to mimic their delicate brushwork and soft color palettes. Unfortunately,
however, the results of his imitation seemed too stiff and ultimately ineffective (Bio). Later, after
having spent years sketching and painting during his pilgrimage, he developed his own bold,
eccentric style, one that seemed to affront and separate the art world elite from his paintings. Van
Gogh has now been celebrated to have framed himself in a disclosure of notable beauty, emotion,
and most importantly color in his paintings. During his artistic career, van Gogh experimented
with an exploration of a vast majority of color concepts and techniques. From his earliest years
of experimentation and research of color relations, to the more advanced progression of his
notable bolder contributions to the history of art, the underappreciated artist diverged deeply into
the now wildly regarded philosophies of color. Through his creative years, the post-impressionist
painter, Vincent van Gogh, produced his artwork in an assessment of different color theories and
practices; a growth apparent in his progressing artworks.

In the forefront of Vincent Van Goghs artistic career, the artist did a great deal of
traveling across Europe, particularly between The Hague, London and Paris. Van Gogh strongly
alleged that technique was birthed from the knowledge that to thrive in proper painting, one must
first master the creation of drawing first. He believed it essential to fully understand and master
the use of black and white before an artist could move into the exploration of working with color
(Artble). With that notion of theory, van Gogh spent several years working for a firm of art
dealers, whiles concentrating on studying the fundamentals of figure drawing and portraying
landscapes in accurate perspective. In the year 1882, according to one letter of hundreds sent to
his younger brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh finally acquired a studio of his own with help from
the realist painter, Anton Mauve, at The Hague (van Gogh 3 Jan. 1882). It was there that for a
short period of time, van Gogh began experimenting with lithographs and watercolors, a process
of which he slowly began adding colors to his usual malacology palette. In a letter to his brother
in August of 1882, van Gogh first begins his contemplations of color relations and rudimentary
color theories. Most of such theoretical observations he gathered from the French art critic,
Charles Blanc and his writing Grammaire des arts du dessin. In the letter to his brother in 1882,
van Gogh writes:
As far as I understand it, we of course agree perfectly about black in nature.
Absolute black does not really exist. But like white, it is present in almost every
colour, and forms the endless variety of greys, different in tone and strength. So in
nature one really sees nothing else but those tones and shades. (van Gogh 1 Aug.
1882)
Van Gogh then goes on to explain that there are only but three fundamental colours, the colors
of which are known today as the three primary colors; red, yellow and blue. Going on after to

make notice of the secondary or composites being orange, green and purple. Van Gogh
explains to his brother his comprehension; By adding black and some white one gets the endless
varieties of greys red grey, yellow grey, blue-grey, green-grey, orange-grey, violet-grey. To say
for instance, how many green-greys there are is impossible; there are endless varieties (1 Aug.
1882). He alleged that the whole interaction of color was no more convoluted than those few
simple rules; strongly believing in the importance of black and white and the advantages one
could create with only so many colors. He then concludes:
And to have a clear notion of this is worth more than seventy different colours of
paint, - since with those three principal colours and black and white, one can
make more than seventy tones and varieties. The colourist is he who, seeing a
colour in nature knows at once how to analyze it. And can say for instance: that
green-grey is yellow with black and blue, etc.
In other words, someone who knows how to find the greys of nature on his
palette. In order to make notes from nature, or to make little sketches, a strongly
developed feeling for outline is absolutely necessary as well as for strengthening
the composition subsequently. (1 Aug. 1882)
He then finishes his letter with an exemplified sketch, showing his experimentation with his
color theories, where he compares the sketch to a previous painting of the same whopper of a
pollard willow Van Gogh refers to the original painting as the best of his watercolors, and that
there is no true black, just a broken one. In the attached sketch, however, he claims; The black is
darkest, there in the watercolor are the strongest effects, dark green, brown, and grey (1 Aug.
1882).

In the year 1884, Vincent van Gogh began to study color theories in earnest, particularly
in two of Charles Blancs publications; les artistes de mon temps and the Grammaire des arts du
dessin (Coyle). In one letter to his brother, according to Laura Coyle in her writing, The StillLife Paintings of Vincent van Gogh and their Context, van Gogh wrote out an anecdote regarding
a French artist named Eugne Delacroix and his use of color versus tone, a theory of which was
found from Blancs Les artistes de mon temps (189). It was clear then that van Gogh had become
tremendously engrossed in Blancs color theories. According to another article written by Coyle,
Strands Interlacing: Colour Theory, education and Play in the Work of Vincent van Gogh, van
Goghs commitment to Blancs ideas remained remarkably consistent, from the first mention of
the critics ideas in his letters to the end of his career (124). In his publication Grammaire des
arts du dessin, Blanc clearly explains the basics of his color theory. As Coyle summarizes in The
Still-Life Paintings,
He wrote that mixing two primary colors, such as yellow and red, produces a
secondary color, orange. This secondary color reaches its maximum intensity
when next to its complement, blue, the primary color that was not used to make
the secondary color. Likewise, a primary color juxtaposed to its complement will
also seem more intense.(190)
In order to remember such color relations, Blanc then urges his readers in his publication,
Grammaire des arts du dessin, to create a chromatic campus to enable one to more easily
understand and apply this particular phenomenon:
Observe; if we choose in this rose three colored points, that from an equilateral
triangle, the colors situated at these three points will have all the properties of the
complementaries. Let us take, for instance, the sulphur, nasturtium, and

campanula; these three tints being placed at the angles of an equatorial triangle,
will be perfectly achromatic, that is, united in equilibrium, they will absolutely
destroy each other, while if we placed together the sulphur and the garnet which is
exactly opposite it, they will reciprocally heighten each other, because they are
complements each of the other. (145-169)
According to a translation by Kate N. Doggett on Charles Blancs Grammaire des arts du dessin,
the exemplified rose of colors is a reminder image. The rose illustrates the ruling of
complementaries. It divides the circumference into 360 degrees, making it ostensible that each of
the binary colors are equal distance to the two primaries that create them (145-169). It is then
found in one of van Goghs letters to Theo in 1884, that the artist understood, and applied, the
same color theories stated by Blanc. He goes on to explain that a darker color could appear as if
lighter, but in reality it is really a matter of tone. In regards to the real color, such as reddish-grey,
however, is not red at all but would appear as if truly red in relation to the color next to it (June
1884). Obviously Blanc had made apparent the direct relations to colors by composing such an
illustration with his chromatic rose. Likewise, van Gogh eagerly took sympathy to a more
illustrated approach to understanding and using color in his artworks, as later found by his box of
colored wools.
In the year 1886, Vincent van Gogh moved to Paris where his style changed drastically.
Subjected by the creations of the impressionist, his palette became somewhat lighter and he
started a quest of complementary color contrasts and bolder compositions. Found in a van Gogh
museum journal; Strands Interlacing: Colour Theory, Education and Play in the Work of Vincent
van Gogh, by Laura Coyle; the Van Gogh Museum holds a rather interesting object, which of a
well-worn Chinese red lacquer box. What makes this item so enquiring, however, are the sixteen

colorful balls of wool within. The box comprises a horde of different colors and even a few loose
strands of yarn, some completely one color, and others a combination of several different colors
(119).With these wools he would use them to see beforehand the effects of different color
combinations, a concept rather similar to Blancs use of the chromatic compass. Gathered from
the same museum journal, it would seem that not only did the artist reference the wools to
experiment with the effects of color, but also to define the palette for certain paintings. For
example; a ball of combined yellows compares extremely well to van Goghs painting, Still Life
with White Grapes, Apples, Pears, and Lemons. Though van Gogh had already committed
himself to the color theories of Charles Blanc, to fully comprehend why he did not study with the
aid of yarn until after 1886, is due to Chevreuls De la loi du contraste simultane des couleurs
and his law of simultaneous contrast of colours (121). According to Georges Roque in his paper
Chevreuls Colour Theory and its Consequences for Artist, Chevreul, a chemist, worked for the
Gobelins Company during the early 19th century. There, he was in charge of caring for the dyes
of wools and silk to be used by several manufactures. Among other issues, being mindful of the
dyes dealt with the complex issue of color classification. Thus, it became necessary for the
chemist to create a, chromatic circle displaying a general classification of colours to which both
weavers and dyers could refer with a shared frame of reference (2-3). Chevreul than began
exploring that a given color is always influenced by the color next to it, thus; the law of
simultaneous and successive contrast. It is evident, then, in a letter to his brother in 1888, that
van Gogh is indeed applying Chevreuls theories to his artwork. In reference to his progression
of sunflower paintings, and his disagreement on decadents in impressionism, van Gogh writes:
How does it come about that people see something decadent in Impressionism?
Its actually quite the reverse. I enclose a line for Tasset. The difference in price

should be quite considerable, and it goes without saying that I hope to use fewer
and fewer finely ground colours. I shake your hand firmly. (One of the
decorations of sunflowers on a royal blue background has a halo, thats to say,
each object is surrounded by a line of the colour complementary to the
background against which it stands out).More soon. (27. Aug. 1888)
Though added as if a forgotten thought thrown in at the last minute of his correspondence, it is
found that he is practicing such techniques explained by Chevreuls law of color. Van Gogh,
however, most likely stumbled upon Chevreul through Charles Blancs writings. Blanc wrote:
To put a color upon canvas, says Chevreul, is not merely to tint with this color
all that the pencil had touched, it is also to color with its complement the
surrounding space; thus a red circle is surrounded by a light green aureole, less
and less strongly marked according to its distance from the red; an orange circle is
surrounded by a blue aureole, a yellow by violet, and reciprocally. (27 Aug. 1888)
As Laura Coyle states in the museum article, van Gogh most likely used his colorful balls of
wool in many different theory practices. By doing so, however, the painter could see for himself
the different color relations as described by Blanc and Chevreul (127). By using these wools, the
artist could more easily see and understand how his colors would interact with one another,
before he applied paint to canvas.
Through his creative years, the post-impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, produced
his artwork in an assessment of different color theories and practices; a growth apparent in his
progressing artworks. He experimented with a wide range of concepts and techniques, mostly
relating to the theories of Charles Blancs publications and interpretations. Growth became

apparent, in relation to his painting, when he began the process of adding colors to his black and
white knowledgeable background; being an artist that strongly believed in mastering the basics
of grey scale before the convoluted practices of color relations. After exploring into the
expansion of using color, then did he take interest in the application of rudimentary color theory;
first exploring Blanc and in the process discovering Chevreul. During the entirety of his life, van
Goghs choice of colors tended to vary greatly with his mood. Reading from the artists
biography from Artble, occasionally he deliberately seemed to restrict his palette, as the case of
Sunflowers which is done nearly all in yellows, and other times it was not quite clear what
direction his color choices were headed. In the end, however, his paintings became less and less
structured, working from memory mainly, and reached a more stylized aesthetic approach
(Artble). In the last years of his life, through the use of his color learnings, saw him passionately
responding to subjects through the use of color and brushwork. He ultimately applied colors to
capture a mood, rather than using the colors in a more accurate method. As Vincent van Gogh
has said; Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use
of color to express myself more forcefully(Artble). It is unfortunate, really, that the artist
Vincent van Gogh is more widely recognized for his tortured psyche then his expressive
ingenious use of color relations and concepts. It is true that in his life time the man sold but only
one painting. Now, however, the artist is celebrated and valued for his vibrancy and emotional
qualities in his usage of color, forever changing the face of post-impressionism.

Works Cited
Blanc, Charles. "Charles Blanc, The Grammar of Painting..." Charles Blanc, The Grammar of
Painting... Trans. Kate N. Doggett. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Blanc, Charles, and Kate Doggett. "The Grammar of Painting and Engraving." (1874). Open
Library. Hurd and Houghton. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Coyle, Laura Ann. "The Still-Life Paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Their Context." 1 (
2007).Media.proquest.com. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Coyle, Laura. "Strands Interlacing: Colour Theory, Education, and Play in the Work of Vincent
Van Gogh." Van Gogh Museum (1996): 118-31. Dbnl.org. Dbnl. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Roque, George. "Chevreul's Colour Theory and Its Consequences for Artist." (2011).Colour.org.
Colour Group. Web. 1 Jan. 2014.
Van Gogh, Vincent. "Letter from Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh." Letter to Theo Van
Gogh. June. 1882. Webexhibits.org. Web Exhibits, n.d. Web. Oct. 2014.
Van Gogh, Vincent. "Letter from Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh." Letter to Theo Van
Gogh. 1 Aug. 1882. Webexhibits.org. Web Exhibits, n.d. Web. Oct. 2014.
Van Gogh, Vincent. "Letter from Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh." Letter to Theo Van
Gogh. 27. Aug. 1888. Webexhibits.org. Web Exhibits, n.d. Web. Oct. 2014.
"Vincent Van Gogh." Artble: The Home of Passionate Art Lovers. Artble, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 1
Oct. 2014.
"Vincent Willem van Gogh." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
"Vincent Van Gogh Biography." Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. Van Gogh Gallery, 1 Jan. 2002.
Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
Van Gogh, Vincent. "Vincent Van Gogh the Letters." Letter to Theo Van Gogh. 3 Jan.
1882. Vangoghletters.org. Van Gogh Museum, n.d. Web. Oct. 2014.