CHEVREUL, Michel Eugne (1786-1889). De la loi du contraste simultan des couleurs, et de l'assortiment des objets colors . Paris: Pitois Levrault, 1839. 2 volumes: text volume, 8 o (206 x 127 mm) and atlas volume, 4 o (273 x 244 mm). Text: errata leaf, 2 folding letterpress tables. Atlas volume: letterpress title-leaf and 1-leaf explication des planches ; 40 numbered plates on 22 sheets: plates 1-4, 32-33 are engraved, plates 2 and 3 color aquatints, plate 4 with moveable flap, plate 33 hand-colored; plates 5-31 and 34-39 are stencil-colored lithographs, numbers 5-31 printed by threes with single caption on 9 large folding sheets, nos. 36, 37 and 39 folding; pl. 40 is an uncolored folding lithograph; 9 letterpress specimen leaves on variously colored papers. 13 of the 15 lithographed sheets and plate 33 signed in ink by Chevreul (plates 37 and 38 were originally signed but the borders are cropped). (Occasional foxing to text, small tear and minor creasing to first folding table, plate 4 torn and repaired, minor marginal tears or repairs to plates 33, 38,-39 and 40, borders of plates 37 and 38 cropped). Text volume bound in later 19th-century quarter morocco (extremities rubbed); atlas volume in original linen-backed printed boards, publisher's catalogue printed on lower cover (minor restorations to board edges and corners). Provenance : Brongniart: either Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), geologist, or his son the plant taxonomist Adolphe-Thodore Brongniart (1801-1876), both Chevreul's fellow members of the Acadmie des Sciences (author's presentation inscription to "M. Brongniart" on half-title [shaved]). PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Chevreul's influential treatise on colors. In this monumental study Chevreul "formulated for the first time the general principles and effects of simultaneous contrast, the modification in hue and tone that occurs when juxtaposed colors are seen simultaneously" (DSB). Chevreul was Director of Dyeing at the Manufactures Royales des Gobelins and professor of chemistry and later director of the Musum d'Histoire Naturelle, and he based his color treatise on empirical observation, intending it for the use of painters, textile designers, decorators, gardeners, etc., rather than scientists. All of his detailed observations grew out of one simple principle, the "law of contrasting colors": that colors seen side by side will appear to the eye "as dissimilar as possible, both in their optical composition and in the height of their tone" (p. 14). With his recommendation that painters decompose colors and imitate nature through the juxtaposition of pure colors, Chevreul exerted an enormous influence on the development of European painting: his precepts were followed by the impressionists and were later systematically developed by the neo-impressionist school led by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac who "found the scientific basis for the division of tones in Chevreul's principles of simultaneous contrast" and who "limited their palettes to Chevreul's circle of fundamental colors and intermediate tones and applied colors scientifically to their canvases as opposed spots" (DSB). The two Norman copies (see following lot) show that the lithographs were published in (at least) two issues, for which no priority has been established. The present copy contains issue A, differing from issue B in the background colors of plates 5-31, which are grey and black in issue A and grey and white (in a different order) in issue B. Plate 29 of issue A bears the imprint "Imp. chez Kaeppelin 15 quai Voltaire," and different stones were used to print plate 38 in the two issues. Both are RARE. En franais dans le texte 237; Norman 468.
CHEVREUL, Michel Eugne (1786-1889). De la loi du contraste simultan des couleurs, et de l'assortiment des objets colors . Paris: Pitois Levrault, 1839. 2 volumes: text volume, 8 o (206 x 127 mm) and atlas volume, 4 o (273 x 244 mm). Text: errata leaf, 2 folding letterpress tables. Atlas volume: letterpress title-leaf and 1-leaf explication des planches ; 40 numbered plates on 22 sheets: plates 1-4, 32-33 are engraved, plates 2 and 3 color aquatints, plate 4 with moveable flap, plate 33 hand-colored; plates 5-31 and 34-39 are stencil-colored lithographs, numbers 5-31 printed by threes with single caption on 9 large folding sheets, nos. 36, 37 and 39 folding; pl. 40 is an uncolored folding lithograph; 9 letterpress specimen leaves on variously colored papers. 13 of the 15 lithographed sheets and plate 33 signed in ink by Chevreul (plates 37 and 38 were originally signed but the borders are cropped). (Occasional foxing to text, small tear and minor creasing to first folding table, plate 4 torn and repaired, minor marginal tears or repairs to plates 33, 38,-39 and 40, borders of plates 37 and 38 cropped). Text volume bound in later 19th-century quarter morocco (extremities rubbed); atlas volume in original linen-backed printed boards, publisher's catalogue printed on lower cover (minor restorations to board edges and corners). Provenance : Brongniart: either Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), geologist, or his son the plant taxonomist Adolphe-Thodore Brongniart (1801-1876), both Chevreul's fellow members of the Acadmie des Sciences (author's presentation inscription to "M. Brongniart" on half-title [shaved]). PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Chevreul's influential treatise on colors. In this monumental study Chevreul "formulated for the first time the general principles and effects of simultaneous contrast, the modification in hue and tone that occurs when juxtaposed colors are seen simultaneously" (DSB). Chevreul was Director of Dyeing at the Manufactures Royales des Gobelins and professor of chemistry and later director of the Musum d'Histoire Naturelle, and he based his color treatise on empirical observation, intending it for the use of painters, textile designers, decorators, gardeners, etc., rather than scientists. All of his detailed observations grew out of one simple principle, the "law of contrasting colors": that colors seen side by side will appear to the eye "as dissimilar as possible, both in their optical composition and in the height of their tone" (p. 14). With his recommendation that painters decompose colors and imitate nature through the juxtaposition of pure colors, Chevreul exerted an enormous influence on the development of European painting: his precepts were followed by the impressionists and were later systematically developed by the neo-impressionist school led by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac who "found the scientific basis for the division of tones in Chevreul's principles of simultaneous contrast" and who "limited their palettes to Chevreul's circle of fundamental colors and intermediate tones and applied colors scientifically to their canvases as opposed spots" (DSB). The two Norman copies (see following lot) show that the lithographs were published in (at least) two issues, for which no priority has been established. The present copy contains issue A, differing from issue B in the background colors of plates 5-31, which are grey and black in issue A and grey and white (in a different order) in issue B. Plate 29 of issue A bears the imprint "Imp. chez Kaeppelin 15 quai Voltaire," and different stones were used to print plate 38 in the two issues. Both are RARE. En franais dans le texte 237; Norman 468.
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