Léonor Mérimée

His father was François Merimée (c. 1715-1795), a lawyer at the Parlement de Rouen and author of "Treatise on fiefs and feudal rights in Normandy according to the natural order of matters and procedure divided into 5 parts (1760).

Mérimée performed numerous experiments on the composition of paintings including those of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Titian.

In 1830, Mérimée published the results of his work, which had a major influence on the modern process of restoration: De la peinture à l’huile : ou, Des procédés matériels employés dans ce genre de peinture, depuis Hubert et Jean Van-Eyck jusqu’à nos jours (1830).

In this chapter, Mérimée referred to "three simple colours (yellow, red and blue)" and that these can through admixture, produce a large gamut of color nuances.

Mérimée illustrated these color relationships with a simple diagram located between pages 244 and 245: Chromatic Scale (Echelle Chromatique).Augustin-Jean Fresnel, the civil engineer and physicist, was his nephew.