Impressionism

Lesson 3: Use of Light

Color Theory

Colour theory, as explained in the writings of Eugène Chevreul, made a big impact on the Impressionists and also the next generation of painters, referred to as the Post-Impressionists. One basic principle that the Impressionists took from the theories of Chevreul was that a colour is always modified by its neighbouring colour. For example, the effect produced by placing green next to blue is different from the effect produced by placing red next to blue.

A key concept related to colour theory is complementary colors. Each primary color (Red, Blue, Yellow) has a complementary color (Orange, Purple, Green). Identify which complementary color (bottom row) goes with which primary color (top row).



Here's how the colors should be matched up:



For more information about colour theory, check out http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory....

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7