Ogden Nicholas Rood (3 February 1831 in Danbury, Connecticut – 12 November 1902 in Manhattan) was an American physicist[1] best known for his work in color theory.

[3] In 1854–1858, he lived in Germany, dividing his time between oil painting and academic studies in Berlin and Munich, working in the laboratory of Justus von Liebig.

"[7] Rood's theory of contrasting colors was particularly influential on Georges-Pierre Seurat, the founder of Neo-Impressionism and the foremost Pointillist.

He believed that the complementary colors of his color wheel, when applied in pairs by the artist, would enhance the presence of a painting: "... paintings, made up almost entirely of tints that by themselves seem modest and far from brilliant, often strike us as being rich and gorgeous in colour, while, on the other hand, the most gaudy colours can easily be arranged so as to produce a depressing effect on the beholder.".

[8] William Innes Homer considered Seurat was influenced by passages in Ogden Rood's Students' Text-book of Color; Or, Modern Chromatics, with Applications to Art and Industry.