Humanities Brown Bag Seminar

Abstract: What is color? More than just paint on canvas, color is an optical phenomenon, a chemical property, a social construct, and a byproduct of colonial and imperial expansion and trade. This talk focuses on Chinese paintings imported into France from the 1770s to 1830s and how their bright colors shaped scientific theories of color perception and undergirded modern art. I concentrate on the case of notable chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), who analyzed color patterns of Chinese paintings and wallpapers to devise his own well-known and highly influential theory of color juxtaposition.