Emily Vanderpoel's Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color

A key publication from a pioneering female thinker, Emily Noyes Vanderpoel's Color Problems pairs practical colour theory with gridded studies that were decades ahead of their time.

First published in 1902, Color Problems is a landmark work by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, a New York painter, author, and colour theorist. Building on the colour science of Newton, Goethe, Chevreul, and Rood, she set out to make the subject genuinely useful to the people who work with colour every day. Her unique guide presents accessible colour science to appeal across the disciplines, creating a way of teaching colour aimed at hobbyists and everyday readers.

Vanderpoel was among the first to explore how colours behave alongside one another, breaking down images into grids of coloured squares – analytical diagrams that read startlingly like modern abstract paintings. Little noticed in her own lifetime, her work was also among the earliest colour treatises written by a woman.

This edition reproduces Vanderpoel's original text and plates in full, including the celebrated colour grids. A key text for anyone studying colour or its history, Color Problems has become a rediscovered classic for designers and artists alike.

Book Features:

• A facsimile of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel's 1902 Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color.
• 117 colour plates including the celebrated ten-by-ten gridded compositions.
• Vanderpoel's full text, building on the theories of Chevreul, Rood, Newton, and Goethe.
• Gridded colour studies that prefigure the work of Josef Albers and twentieth-century abstraction.
• A distinctive gift and coffee table book for designers, colour lovers, and lovers of vintage design.