London, United Kingdom

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                         1. First impressions                                                                                                                                          Stone Age, Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome                            Feature: The nature of colour – how artists created natural colours.     Horses, from the Chauvet cave near the Pont d’Arc Bison, from Altamira Nebamun Hunting Birds, from the tomb of Nebamun Tomb of the Diver  2. Ordering the world                                                                                                                                                        The RenaissanceFeature: A roaring trade – on the colour trade and the cost/availability of colours Lamentation, Giotto Saint Ansanus Altarpiece, Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi The Wilton Diptych Saints Jerome and John the Baptist, Masaccio Portrait of a Man with a Turban, Jan van Eyck The Magdalen Reading, Rogier Van der Weyden The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli The Rape of Europa, Titian Philip II, Sofonisba Anguissola Portrait of Bianca Degli Utili Maselli surrounded by six of her children, Lavinia Fontana  3. Cutting loose                                                                                                                                                                      Baroque to RococoFeature: The colour wheel – on Isaac Newton’s discovery of the colour spectrum, and his error – trusting maths over the sensations of the eye Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Caravaggio Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus), Diego Velázquez Rising and Setting of the Sun, François Boucher Colour, Angelica Kauffman Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun  4. Keeping it real                                                                                                                                                 RealismFeature: Risky business – on poisonous colours and artists risking their lives for their work. Still Life with Cheeses, Artichoke and Cherries, Clara Peeters A Woman Bathing in a Stream, Rembrandt van Rijn The Goldfinch, Carel Fabritius The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer Flowers in a Vase, Rachel Ruysch  5. Two sides of a coin                                                                                                                                                         Neoclassicism to RomanticismFeature: How we see colour – on Goethe’s new symmetrical colour wheel and physiological theories. Albion Rose, William Blake Portrait of a Negress, Marie-Guillemine Benoist Orphan Girl at the Cemetery, Eugène Delacroix The Burning of the Houses of Parliament , Joseph Mallord William Turner Comtesse d’Haussonville, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres  6. Let there be light                                                                                                                                                             The Impressionist RevolutionFeature: Colour chemistry – on the industrialisation of colour and the making of synthetic pigments. Two Women Chatting by the Sea, Camille Pissarro Young Woman with Peonies, Frédéric Bazille Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, Édouard Manet In the Country (After Lunch), Berthe Morisot Combing the Hair, Edgar Degas The Child’s Bath, Mary Cassatt Waterloo Bridge, Blurred Sun, Claude Monet  7. On the edge of the spectrum                                                                                                                 Post-Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites, Les Nabis, SurrealistsFeature: Colour decorum – on the relativity of colour and its use and reception in different cultural contexts. (An opportunity to touch on non-Western art.) Night and Sleep, Evelyn de Morgan The Suitor, Édouard Vuillard The Visit, Félix Vallotton Interior. Strandgade 30, Vilhelm Hammershoi Barbarian Tales, Paul Gauguin The Life, Pablo Picasso The Green Blouse, Pierre Bonnard The Two Fridas, Frida Kahlo The Old Maids, Leonora Carrington  8. Express yourself                                                                                                                                                              Expressionism and FauvismFeature: The psychology of colour – on colour communicating and sparking emotion. Two Crabs, Vincent van Gogh The Scream, Edvard Munch Self-portrait on Sixth Wedding Anniversary, Paula Modersohn-Becker Group X, No.1, Altarpiece, Hilma af Klint The Yellow Scale, František Kupka The Dessert: Harmony in Red, Henri Matisse Seated Woman with Legs Drawn Up (Adele Herms), Egon Schiele Still Life with Blackening Apples, by Helene Schjerfbeck  9. Seeing it feelingly                                                                                                                                                            Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field PaintingFeature: Properties of colour – on hue, intensity and tone, and the changing precedence of each throughout art history Electric Prisms, Sonia Delaunay Mountains and Sea, Helen Frankenthaler Bird Talk, Lee Krasner No. 11 (Untitled), Mark Rothko Ocean Park #79, Richard Diebenkorn  10. Show some restraint                                                                                                                                   Monochrome and MinimalismFeature: The Pantone palette – on attempts to create a universal colour language. Plus Pantone’s predecessors, eg Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours (1814). Homage to the Square: Apparition, Joseph Albers The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II, Frank Stella IKB 79, Yves Klein White Stone, Agnes Martin  11. By popular demand                                                                                                                                                       Pop Art to The Pictures GenerationFeature: Anything is possible – on new materials and colour experimentation outside of the medium of painting. Colour Her Gone, Pauline Boty Ice Cream, Evelyne Axell Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground), Barbara Kruger A Bigger Splash, David Hockney Ladies and Gentlemen (Iris), Andy Warhol  12. Here and Now                                                                                                                                                  Contemporary art from the 1970sFeature: The colour of art history – on artists painting black figures into the mostly white canon. Self-Portrait, Alice Neel Self-Portrait, Basquiat Untitled, Etel Adnan To Tell Them There It’s Got To, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Spinners (Moths and Spiders Webs), Kiki Smith Slaughter of the Innocents (They Might be Guilty of Something), Kara Walker Shantavia Beal II, Kehinde Wiley Boucher’s Flesh, Flora Yukhnovich The Ruling Class (Eshu), Toyin Ojih Odutola Sabine, Alison Watt Untitled, Lisa Brice  Index                                                                                                                                                                                         Further reading                                                                                                                                                                 Picture credits                                                                                                                                                  Acknowledgements