In his book, The Art of Painting Restored to its Simplest and Surest Principles, 1849, Hundertpfund attempted to teach students a more general but accurate understanding of color based upon his personal observations of Nature, and upon his years of experience as a painter. His descriptions of color were often more philosophical than utilitarian, speaking of color in terms of elevation, joy, and Life and Death, but perhaps this can be forgiven; his explanation of colors, the color wheel, and how colors affect each other, though commonplace now, were novel then, and the vocabulary describing color interaction had not yet been established.
He believed that the colors of the Rainbow were "Ideal Colors," and he surmised that if paint manufacturers could produce material colors which matched the three Primary ideal colors (red, yellow, and blue), artists would never need another color on their palettes. "We ought, further, to endeavor to lesson the number of pigments, so that it may be clearly and easily understood, that, in fact, we paint with three colours only. We must bring back the material colours to the ideal ones; and observe that in the Rainbow, the whole law of colours, the whole secret of Tones, the whole science of colouring – in short, the key to Mixing, is to be found."² But since there were not yet pigments available which could match the ideal, a method of painting had to be established which would make the most of the colors to be had, and which could best approximate Nature.
More on Libertat Hundertpfund and the origins of the modern palette at Underpaintings.
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