Nature's Palette: A Color Reference System from the Natural World

by Patrick Baty, Elaine Charwat (Contributor), Peter Davidson (Contributor)

A gorgeous expanded edition of Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, a landmark reference book on color and its origins in nature



First published in 1814, Werner's Nomenclature of Colours is a taxonomically organized guide to color in the natural world. Compiled by German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner, the book was expanded and enhanced in 1821 by Patrick Syme, who added color swatches and further color descriptions, bringing the total number of classified hues to 110. The resulting resource has been invaluable not only to artists and designers but also to zoologists, botanists, mineralogists, anatomists, and explorers, including Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of the Beagle.

Nature's Palette makes this remarkable volume available to today's readers, and is now fully enhanced with new illustrations of all the animals, plants, and minerals Werner referenced alongside each color swatch. Readers can see tile red in a piece of porcelain jasper, the breast of a cock bullfinch, or a Shrubby Pimpernel. They can admire Berlin blue on a piece of sapphire, the Hepatica flower, or the wing feathers of a jay. Interspersed throughout the book are lavish feature pages displaying cases of taxidermy, eggs, shells, feathers, minerals, and butterflies, with individual specimens cross-referenced to the core catalog.

Featuring contributions by leading natural history experts along with more than 1,000 color illustrations and eight gatefolds, Nature's Palette is the ideal illustrated reference volume for visual artists, naturalists, and anyone who is captivated by color.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Nature, Design, Reference, Art Design, Coffee Table Books

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 2021

Reviews

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taking a color reference from an ancient text is refreshing. This book reminds us that saturated colors we have been using since the computer era is indeed artificial. Nature's hue is actually way more desaturated then we thought. And as "Green" has been and will always be our lifestyle of the 21st century, pastoral minimal neutral tones will be back. Or, indeed, they never are really out of our life.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book with gorgeous reprints of the colour plates from Werner's Nomenclature of Colour and Syme's Colour Standard, as well as pictures of natural history museum/collections. The book also lays out the history of how these colour systems were developed and expanded, as well as examples of how they were utilized and their impact on the various sciences (e.g. Darwin). At the end, there is a very useful chart to cross reference Syme's colours to both Windsor & Newton and Caran D'Ache artist colours.

[Sue Clancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a professional artist I loved seeing and reading about the assortment of color palettes based in various branches of science. I chose the palette based on butterfly and bug science to adopt for my own art projects. The index chart in the back of this book was very helpful as I tracked down watercolor and gouache paint tubes for my newly adopted color palette. Very enjoyable book and very useful for artists!

[Khinna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most concise and gorgeous books on the history of color.

[Christina Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a copy of a reprint of Syme’s Nomenclature of colour. And so this is an obvious follow on book. And it is beautiful. Not only the colours, but the examples of nature in which they can be found.

[Barrita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho como incluye la historia de como se fueron estableciendo las nomenclaturas de referencia para colores, además de ir poniendo ejemplos por familia de color, incluyendo la "fórmula" para crear cada color y pinturas que lo usan en animales, plantas y minerales.

[Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful and does an excellent job of showing the deeply intertwined relationship between nature, science, and art. My only criticism is that the reference colors in the book seem fairly muted compared to the true pigments.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book, with lots of inspiration.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine for what is a reference book. Honestly bought and read it more for the visuals than the text.
The text itself is a little dense and repetitive.

[GoatRobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the illustrations. Great reference book or to pick up and browse a few pages. The essays are a bit dry, but contain interesting historical info.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Stacia Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource and a pleasure to peruse.

[Anna Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prettiest book 🦋🐙🐞

[Arianna Boettger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful Book

All the collections and color schemes are amazing to look at. Great for an art student or anyone interested in color theory and possibly biology.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

For color design research :)

[Courtney]

The digital e-book is essentially unreadable due to sizing limitations, and an inability to zoom in far enough on the images and text. Seems to be a robust historical text, though.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

most gorgeous specimen I’ve ever laid my eyes on