First published in 1810 in the original German as Zur Farbenlehre, this work outlines Goethe's views on the nature of colours and how they are perceived. It contains detailed descriptions of phenomena such as coloured shadows, refraction and chromatic aberration. This English translation with additional notes by the artist Charles Lock Eastlake, published in 1840, was highly praised by Schopenhauer who claimed it was "understood more easily than the original."