The Story of Blue

“A certain blue enters your soul.”

Henri Matisse

A Glimpse of Notre-Dame in the Late Afternoon
1902 Henri Matisse

Our ability to see blue is critical, not only for the pure aesthetic beauty of the color, but also for the ability to sense the blue light of dawn (heavily concentrated in the blue spectrum) which sets our inner clocks, our circadian rhythm.

Blue is often cited as the favorite color of respondents to color surveys. Historically, the high cost of Ultramarine Blue pigment created a concept of blue as being the most precious of colors. As with all colors, blue has many associations—the color of depression and sadness, as well as the color of royalty, trustworthiness, wisdom and serenity.

Blue encompasses the massiveness of the sky and its reflection in waters. Although it can be a significant part of what we see, there were cultures who never developed a word for it in their languages. Artists, of cour…