Good old Goethe – His Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a book about the poet’s views on the nature of colours and how these are perceived by humans. Published in 1810, it contains detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction, and chromatic aberration.
The Theory of Colours stands as an absorbing account of the philosophy and artistic experience of colour, bridging the intuitive and the visceral in a way that, more than two hundred years later, continues to intrigue.
On Wikipedia is more about it, a quite interesting read
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Colours
Philipp Otto Runge was a Romantic German romantic painter and draughtsman. In 1803, on a visit to Weimar, Runge unexpectedly met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the two formed a friendship based on their common interests in color and art. Runge’s interest in color was the natural result of his work as a painter and of having an enquiring mind.
He arrived at the concept of the color sphere sometime in 1807 by expanding the hue circle into a sphere, with white and black forming the two opposing poles.