Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours

The Scottish watercolourist Patrick Syme revised and expanded Werner’s early colour chart for wider use across the arts and sciences. Working with the mineral nomenclature as a foundation, Syme’s adaptation included additional and corresponding examples across the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Brilliantly poetic names are applied to each colour and its corresponding examples. The lyrical ‘skimmed-milk white’ is described in Syme’s volume as: ‘snow white, mixed with a little Berlin blue and ash grey’ and is attributed to the colour of human eyeballs, the back of the petals of Blue Hepatica, and the colour of the common opal. Others appear named after those on which they are found. Lavender Purple, for example, describes the colour of dried lavender flowers. At the same time, in the animal kingdom, it is identified as the ‘light parts of spots on the underwings of a Peacock Butterfly’ and porcelain jasper.

Writing in the introduction to his first edition, Syme notes that “names of colours are frequently misapplied, and often one name given indiscriminately to many colours (…) an object may be described as one such a colour by one person, and perhaps mistaken by another for quite a different tint.” Unlike the colour recipes commonly found in art techniques, Syme’s intention was to articulate the source of each colour through its compounds, making it easier to interpret the different shades and how they were created. By pairing the colour swatches with their descriptions and examples, he aimed to create a common chromatic taxonomy that was succinct across all disciplines, leaving little margin for error for those using it in the different fields. Working from the perspective of a practising artist, Syme introduced purple and orange to the original nomenclature, basing his additions on the rules of updated artistic methodologies and colour theory.

—From the Introduction