Table of Contents

Introduction: Artymology

1. Red
Red Ochre • Carmine • Rose Madder • Vermillion • Red Lead
Colourful Minds: Isaac Newton’s Opticks (1704)

2. Orange
Orpiment • Saffron • Chrome Orange • Cadmium Orange
Colourful Minds: Tobias Mayer’s The Affinity of Colour Commentary (1775)

3. Yellow
Yellow Ochre • Lead-tin Yellow • Naples Yellow • Indian Yellow • Chrome Yellow • Cadmium Yellow • Arylide Yellow
Colourful Minds: Mary Gartside’s Essay on a New Theory of Colour (1808)

4. Green
Verdigris • Malachite • Emerald Green • Veridian
Colourful Minds: Goethe’s Theory of Colours (1810)

5. Blue
Azurite • Ultramarine • Cobalt Blue • Prussian Blue • Artificial Ultramarines
Colourful Minds: Philipp Otto Runge’s Color Sphere (1810)

6. Purple
Tyrian Purple • Cobalt Violet
Colourful Minds: Michel Eugène Chevreul’s The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours (1839)

7. Black
Charcoal • Bone Black
Colourful Minds: Emily Noyes Vanderpoel’s Color Problems (1902)

8. White
Lead White • Calcite • Kaolin
Colourful Minds: Albert Henry Munsell’s Atlas of the Munsell Color System (1915)

9. Brown
Umber • Van Dyke Brown • Mummia • Excrement
Colourful Minds: Johannes Itten’s Utopia 1921

10. Precious Metals
Gold • Silver

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A unique approach to the history of art told through the story of colour and pigments

About the Author

Kelly Grovier is a columnist and feature writer for BBC Culture and his writings on art have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, the Independent, The Sunday Times, the Observer, RA Magazine and Wired. He is the author of several books including A New Way of Seeing: The History of Art in 57 Works (2018) and On the Line: Conversations with Sean Scully (2021), both published by Thames & Hudson. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.