Color and the Human Being

Three artists, three researchers and the mystery of color: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rudolf Steiner and Liane Collot d’Herbois revisited. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832 Above the sum of all his experiences in his theory of color, Goethe proposes a revolutionary method of approaching the colored phenomenas which integrate the observer in the experience. What many scientists refuse to do in general, to consider the observer as subjective – so subject to the error – he makes a formidable tool of knowledge out of it. Rudolf Steiner, 1861 – 1925 Finding in the Goethean method the founding elements of a new theory of knowledge Rudolf Steiner will: “… seek strictly in the world of the senses the unique object of science.” Among his many fields of investigation, he gives a privileged place to the search for the sensible-supersensible nature of color and of the human being, revealing thus a large part of the mysteries linking these two entities. Alongside their work as scientists, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Rudolf Steiner have also developed a significant body of artistic work. Both have painted, drawn, written poems and theatre plays. Liane Collot d’Herbois, 1907 – 1999 As a painter, but also as a researcher, Liane Collot d’Herbois adds a new dimension to the search of these brilliant predecessors. Her intimate knowledge of the laws acting in the background of the appearance of color allows her to create a new way of painting. Her intimate knowledge of these same laws acting in the background of our constitution allows her to create a new way to heal with color. Liane Collot d’Herbois collects in a decisive way and a remarkable unity the different similarities existing between the being of color and the human being. She shows in a masterly and marvellous way how, during his whole evolution, the human being is accompanied by color. She will also extend this knowledge into the field of therapeutics. Rudolf Steiner said about Goethe’s theory of color: These truths regarding color can only be understood in the future, perhaps not before the second half of the 20th or even the first half of the 21st century.