THE PERFECT SCHEME
Colour theory history
Towards the end of the 19th century, scientists in Britain and Germany found that the perception of colour is best understood in terms of a different set of primary colours - red, green and blue/violet (RGB) - using a light-based model. Later study by experts in trichromacy revealed that these colours are perceived in special ways by three types of colour receptors or cones in the retina.
(Information sourced from: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/colour-theory-painting.htm
Aristotle
The first theories about colour were propounded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who proposed that the two principal "colours" were white and black - light and its absence - and that all colours derived from one of the four elements: air, water, earth and fire. He also maintained that the true primary colours after white and black are yellow and blue: since we "see" the sun's pure white light as yellow, and the blackness of space as blue sky.
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Sir Isaac Newton
Newton furthered colour theory through his theory of 'the colour spectrum'. Newton proved that a prism separated white light into a range of colours (which he called a "spectrum"), and also that the recombination of these spectral hues re-created the original white light. Newton identified 7 different colour-segments (by analogy with the 7 notes of the music scale) which he named red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. he hypothesized that from these 7 colours All other colours in the spectrum would be created.
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Goethe, Chevreul & Others
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Theory of Colours (1810) and Michel Eugène Chevreul's Law of Simultaneous Colour Contrast (1839), concluded that the three primary colours were red, yellow, and blue (RYB); and that all other colours could be created through various combinations or mixtures of these primary colours, or their children; that this theory of colour-mixing applied equally to the behaviour of light colours (beams of light) added together (additive mixing), and coloured pigments added together (subtractive mixing).
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Leon Battista Alberti
Alberti stated: "Through the mixing of colours infinite other hues are born, but there are only four true colours from which more and more other kinds of colours may be thus created. Red is the colour of fire, blue of the air, green of the water, and grey of the earth... white and black are not true colours but are alterations of other colours."
Information sourced from: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/colour-theory-painting.htm
Wassily Kandinsky
Kandinsky's colour theory introduced colours as having a spiritual effect on the viewer or an effect on the viewer's eyes. He introduced colours as having a 'feel' to them:
Yellow – “warm,” “cheeky and exciting,” “disturbing for people,” attack, madness
Green – peace, stillness, passive, mix of yellow and blue. The absolute absence of movement, is good for tired people, but after the rest the feeling of calmness can become boring.
Blue – peaceful, supernatural, deep, “typical heavenly color”, The lighter it is, the more calming it is. When in the end it becomes white, it reaches absolute calmness.
Red – restless, glowing, alive, “manly maturity”
Light Red – is a warm color, expresses joy, energy and triumph.
Middle Red – evokes feeling of stability and passion
Dark Red – as any other cool color is a deep one, it can be made even deeper with light blue.
Brown – dull, hard, inhibited, mix of red and black
Orange – radiant, serious, healthy, mix of red and yellow
Violet – “morbid, extinguished […] sad”, mix of red and blue
White – “It is not a dead silence, but one pregnant with “Harmony of silence”, possibilities.” Is the harmony of silence.
Black – extinguished, immovable, “Not without possibilities […] like an eternal silence, without future and hope.” While the white expresses joy and spotless cleanliness, the black is the color of great grief.
Grey – is the balance between the white and black. It is soundless and motionless, but it differs from green, because the green is a mixture of two active colors, while the grey expresses a hopeless stillness
information gathered from: https://ekaterinasmirnova.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/basic-color-theory-by-kandinsky-44/