Michel Eugene Chevreul was a very smart man who lived a long time ago. He was born in 1786 in France, so he was around when America was still a young country. He learned lots of things about colors and how they work.
He thought that colors weren't just one thing, but different things mixed together. He studied them really closely and wrote a big book about it, called "The Laws of Contrast of Colors."
He even figured out how to artificially reproduce colors using chemicals. So, if you wanted to color a picture or dye some fabric, you could mix these chemicals together to get just the color you wanted.
People still use his ideas today when they make paint and dye fabric. So Michel Eugene Chevreul was really smart, and he helped people understand the world better.