VAN GOGH’S THEORY OF COLOUR
Complementary colours:
Involving opposites on the colour wheel:
Yellow – Bluish/Purple
Yellow/orange – Violet/Blue
Red – Green
Orange - Blue
He added that similar tones in an opposite colour would seem monotonous, to add white to one of the pair would enliven the contrast.
Monochromatic Harmonies:
Consists of pure colours (red, blue, or yellow for example) in association with tints and tones of the pure colours (such as red, pale pink, rosy pink, deep pink) the best combinations involving monochromatic harmonies allow one colour to dominate (for example a crimson red) white can be added sparingly to brighten a monochromatic presentation.
Analogous Colour harmonies:
One colour adjacent to each other on the colour wheel, such as green blue, and violet (a cool colour combination) or red, yellow and orange (a hot combination) white can be used to intensify a hot colour harmony and enliven a cool one, black can tone down a hot colour harmony and further temper a cool one.
Triadic colour harmonies:
Using three colours that are usually equal distance on the colour wheel such as yellow/orange and blue, Van Gogh’s most appealing triadic colour combination is red/green and silver in his painting “poppy fields” 1888. Silver coming from grey/green foliage of lavender. Silver is not evident on the colour wheel, this can only be appreciated by studying nature. The triadic grouping of red, yellow and orange produces a hot colour harmony. White can be used to intensify heat or to make cool colours colder, to sparkle.
Polychromatic colour harmonies:
Where he used a multitude of colours. The most pleasing polychromatic combination is a rainbow grouping together the entire spectrum, examples: “ Memory of the garden at Etten” 1888 or “Courtyard at Arles Hospital” 1888.
This theory of Van Gogh’s and the work that best shows it is a perfect example of this naturalist and scientific tendency which shows the genius of the man.
However he clearly had problems which I believe stem from his conflicting persistence in his earlier belief and philosophy concerning God, religion and self sacrifice. Often his paintings were independent of his obsessions and related directly to his love of the natural, light. But also increasingly his painting became affected by his obsessions, passing moods and spontaneous reactions whilst this conflict in his work took him away from the pursuit of truth in nature reality and light. His obsessions and moods took him towards a form of expressionism that was new and ground breaking, but the conflict itself could well have been the source of his failing mental health. Which ever way you look at it the search for light had come to an end.
