Charles Henry and the Formation of a Psychophysical Aesthetic

Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. [minimal wear to book, previous owner's name and date in ink (very small) at top of front endpaper; the jacket is modestly worn at edges and extremities, some surface rubbing/scuffing, slight wrinkling at upper edge of rear panel]. (color frontispiece) "This work provides the first thorough, scholarly study of the unique personality and extraordinary achievement of Charles Henry (1859-1926). Seeking a common ground for all sensory experience, Henry formulated a 'scientific aesthetic' based on the biomathematics of the sense organs. That doctrine is psychophysics, through which Henry saw beyond the dualism which had thrown science and art into separate camps. Among those influenced by Henry's ideas, especially those concerning the perception of color, were Georges Seurat and Paul Signac as well as some of the pioneer abstractionists -- Robert Delauney, Frank Kupka, and Albert Gleizes. The study also casts new light on the poet Jules Laforgue (one of Henry's closest friends) and on the symbolism of the 1880s and 1890s. [This book] represents the first historical consideration of the phenomenon of psychophysics and its place in the history of Western thought and aesthetics. The study includes a portion of Henry's central work on psychophysics, Le cercle chromatique, a revealing interview with henry by Jules Huret titled 'Inquiry Concerning the Future of Literature,' and a bibliography of the works of Charles Henry." .