The Vanderpoel Color Lab

Learning to see, with Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842–1939)

In 1902, artist Emily Noyes Vanderpoel published Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color. Her method: study a real object, then map its colors onto a grid of 100 squares — each color claiming exactly as many squares as its share of the object. Decades before abstract art or pixel graphics, she proved that anyone can train their eye to see color in proportion. Now it's your turn.

Study the object. Then paint your estimate of its color proportions onto the grid — select a color, click or drag across squares. When all 100 squares are filled, reveal Vanderpoel's analysis and see how sharp your eye is.

0 / 100 squares painted

Every object below has one true analysis — and two impostors made from the same colors in the wrong proportions. Read the grids the way Vanderpoel did: which color rules, which is the accent? Pick the grid that tells the truth. After three in a row, the impostors get sneakier.

Which grid is the true analysis?

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Vanderpoel analyzed rugs, tiles, and teacups by eye. You have a machine. Load any image — a reference photo, your own painting, a master's work — and see its palette the way she would have charted it. Before you look at the result, guess which color will dominate.

Click to choose an image, or drag one here
(stays on your device — nothing is uploaded)