1. Moses Harris
15 April 1730 – c. 1788
Who was he?
* He was a was an English entomologist and engraver.
* He was a naturalist, and he wished to understand the relationship of
colours and how they are coded.
* His book - Natural System of Colours (1766) explains the principles,
"materially, or by the painters art", by which all colours can be
produced from 3 basic colours - red, yellow and blue.
* It was Harris who showed the Subtractive mixing of colours, as opposed
to Newton’s Additive mixing.
* It was in his above mentioned book that he analised Newton’s
theory, and then tried to show the number of colours that can be
made from 3 basic colours.
His best known works are:
* Harris introduced the first printed colour-circle in 1766, specifying his
primary colours very exactly: red was cinnabar, which could be
made from sulphur and mercury; yellow was King’s yellow (an
artificial orpiment); and ultramarine was used for blue.
* A book named Aurilian - A natural history of English moths and
butterflies.
*A brief work on colour - Natural Systems of colour, with 8 written
pages and 3 charts.
2. Moses Harris’
Colour Theory
Basis of the Theory
Harris builds upon the discovery by the Frenchman Jacques
Christophe Le Blon (1667-1742). Le Bon is credited with the
invention of colour printing. In his book Natural Systems of colour,
he has shown a well organised and well ordered arrangement of three
premitave colours which are:
1. Red
2. Blue
3. Yellow
He has shown the relationship of how these colours form all the
various colours and their dependence on these colours which he
termed as “Prismatic” colours and these formed the “Prismatic
Colour Wheel.”
3. Prismatic Circle
Prismatic Colours Compond Colours
unmixed pigments (grand or principal intermediate colours (mediates)
colours) and not Light 1. Orange
1. Red 2. Green
2. Blue 3. Purple
3. Yellow
Mixing Prismatic Colours Give you Compound Colours
1. Red + Yellow = Orange
2. Blue + Yellow = Green
3. Blue + Red = Violet
Explaining the Theory - Subtraction and Intensity
According to Harris mixing any two of these colours together will get 18 different colours
according to the predominance of any one of the two colours. The circle would go in a
sequence of the following, each having 20 levels of intensity following the subtraction method.
Red, Red-Orange, Orange- Red, Orange, Yellow-Orange, Orange-Yellow, Yellow,
Yellow-Green, Green- Yellow, Green, Blue-Green, Green-Blue, Blue, Blue-Purple, Purple- Blue,
Purple, Red-Purple, Purple-Red and then Red again.
5. Orange, Green and Purple are the mixed colours, these are further mixed to form three Tertiary
Colours:
1.Brown
2. Olive
3. Slate
Harris further mixes the compound colours and produces 18 more colours which inturn result
in 300 new colours which altogether leads to 660 colours! But only 33 names are defined as the
rest may be termed as dirty or unmeaningfull colour.
It is also seen that opposed to Newton’s light theory, All the colours and their correct and equal
proportions give the colour Black.
7. Theory of
Subtraction
Contrary to Newton’s theory which is based on addition, Hariss’
theory is based on subtraction of colours.
Thre lights blue, Green and Red have different wavelenghts. Blue-
short wavelength, Green- Medium and Red- long.
Now if we superimpose yellow with blue we get Green according to
subtraction. Here is how:
Yellow + Blue = Green
Green + blue
Medium + Short + Short = Medium
Here it is seen that the “common” Wavelenght is “subtracted” which gives you a
medium wavelenghth and hene you obtain the colour Gree.
