diff --git a/IPython/html/static/widgets/js/widget.js b/IPython/html/static/widgets/js/widget.js
index 66a88d1..689bb88 100644
--- a/IPython/html/static/widgets/js/widget.js
+++ b/IPython/html/static/widgets/js/widget.js
@@ -417,10 +417,10 @@ define(["widgets/js/manager",
                 this.update_classes(old_classes, new_classes);
             }, this);
 
-            this.model.on('change:fore_color', function (model, value) { 
+            this.model.on('change:color', function (model, value) { 
                 this.update_attr('color', value); }, this);
 
-            this.model.on('change:back_color', function (model, value) { 
+            this.model.on('change:background_color', function (model, value) { 
                 this.update_attr('background', value); }, this);
 
             this.model.on('change:width', function (model, value) { 
@@ -461,8 +461,8 @@ define(["widgets/js/manager",
                 this.update_css(this.model, this.model.get("_css"));
 
                 this.update_classes([], this.model.get('_dom_classes'));
-                this.update_attr('color', this.model.get('fore_color'));
-                this.update_attr('background', this.model.get('back_color'));
+                this.update_attr('color', this.model.get('color'));
+                this.update_attr('background', this.model.get('background_color'));
                 this.update_attr('width', this.model.get('width'));
                 this.update_attr('height', this.model.get('height'));
                 this.update_attr('border-color', this.model.get('border_color'));
diff --git a/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py b/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
index 5e19d19..167ae30 100644
--- a/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
+++ b/IPython/html/widgets/widget.py
@@ -388,8 +388,8 @@ class DOMWidget(Widget):
     padding = CUnicode(sync=True)
     margin = CUnicode(sync=True)
 
-    fore_color = Unicode(sync=True)
-    back_color = Unicode(sync=True)
+    color = Unicode(sync=True)
+    background_color = Unicode(sync=True)
     border_color = Unicode(sync=True)
 
     border_width = CUnicode(sync=True)