A Closer Look. Colour

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Colour is so fundamental a part of the natural world that we tend to take it for granted. This is equally true of colour in paintings, where its function - as well as being descriptive - may be symbolic, emotional, a purely formal element in the design, or all of these. Yet when looking at paintings which appear to be representations of the 'real world', we may be quite unaware of the materials that make up colour, and how artists manipulate these to convey form and substance. 'A Closer Look: Colour' explores the ways in which artists have used colour, and describes the pigments characteristic of a particular period, the effect on colour of the painter's chosen medium, and how the development of new pigments dramatically extended the palette. Optics, and the comparative merits of colour and drawing, have preoccupied painters for centuries, and the authors outline the major theories expounded in artists' treatises. Detailed studies of paintings from across the National Gallery's Collection, from van Eyck to Seurat, provide vivid illustrations of the extraordinary variety of colour in the history of European painting