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Sekrety kolorów
Kolor pchli. Brąz egipski. Alizaryna. Czerwień wyścigowa. Heliotrop. Ultramaryna. Błękit elektryczny. Świat kolorów jest znacznie bogatszy, niż mogłoby się wydawać! Co wspólnego z barwami mają ekscentryczne królowe i ciekawscy naukowcy, samice żuka z rodziny Kermesidae, kruche minerały, nieudane naukowe eksperymenty i nieprane nocne koszule? Brytyjska dziennikarka Kassia St. Clair podąża tropem niesamowitych historii, w których nauka miesza się z modą, polityka ze sztuką, a geologia z motoryzacją, i przedstawia najciekawsze opowieści dotyczące kilkudziesięciu mniej lub bardziej znanych odcieni i kolorów. Od słynnego błękitu Picassa i bieli, która chroniła przed zarazą, przez kwaśną żółć, irlandzką zieleń, punkowy róż i krwawy szkarłat, po cesarską purpurę.
Książka Kassi St. Clair to wyjątkowe studium ludzkiej cywilizacji opowiedziane przez pryzmat barw. To żywa historia naszej kultury, którą czyta się z wypiekami na twarzy.
Książka Kassi St. Clair to wyjątkowe studium ludzkiej cywilizacji opowiedziane przez pryzmat barw. To żywa historia naszej kultury, którą czyta się z wypiekami na twarzy.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2016
About the author
Kassia St. Clair
8 books195 followersKassia St Clair received a first in History from Bristol University and went on to study English women's dress and the masquerade during the eighteenth century at Oxford, where she received a distinction.
She is a journalist and author who has written about design and culture for publications including the Economist, Elle, and the Times Literary Supplement.
She lives in London.
She is a journalist and author who has written about design and culture for publications including the Economist, Elle, and the Times Literary Supplement.
She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,426 reviews
September 8, 2022
Image from Videokarma.org
Consider life in black and white. Many creatures have dichromatic vision, (two kinds of cone receptors), which allows limited color perception. Monochromatics see only the gray scale from black to white. (Skates, rays). The cinematic and TV worlds were both certainly B&W for a long time, before color imposed itself on screens large and small. And, while B&W still holds a respected place in the visual arts, particularly in photography, film, and drawing, it is color that holds the broadest appeal, which should not be surprising. Color has played a major role in the development of homo sapiens, giving us more tools for making the best survival decisions.
If you are interested in how many colors we can see or the number of colors that exist, you’re gonna need a bigger palette. A computer displays under 17 million colors, of which we can see maybe 10 million, but a conservative estimate of how many colors there actually are puts it at 18 decillion. Yeah, you want to know. That’s an 18 with 33 zeroes after it. The top number is probably infinity, but it feels nice to have an actual number, however extreme, however arbitrary, to define the edges of what there is of anything in the universe. Thankfully, Kassia St Clair trimmed a few off the top, bottom, and middle, settling in at seventy-five. Any of us could name many more, but the odds are we would not be able to expound on each the way Ms. St Clair can.
What I have tried to do is provide something between a potted history [which would be more relevant to a compendium of plant colors] and a character sketch for the 75 shades [maybe Dante could help] that have intrigued me the most.The project began with research on something else entirely, checking out 18th Century fashion intel at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, where she came across some mysterious adjective-noun combinations for the colors of things in fashion, which sparked more research, becoming a column on color in British Elle Decoration magazine.
Kassia St Clair - From Psychology Today – photo credit – Colin Thomas
However minimal seventy-five may sound when compared to the theoretical number of available colors, St Clair has managed to put together a very broad spectrum, including basic colors Roy G. Biv never heard of, like white, black, and brown.
After an introductory section on the science and history of color and seeing, the book is divided into ten parts, white, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, blue, green, brown and black, with short offerings on between five and ten different colors within each. This makes ideal bedtime reading, as the pieces on any color are never more than two or three pages, (a natural length given that the project originated with a column on color) so you can read as much or as little as you like without any concern about missing something, or delaying your shut-eye with stress over what might happen to a beloved character.
The content of the individual chapters varies. Many report on the materials from which coloring agents are made, animal, vegetable, mineral, and weird concoctions. Some focus instead on social significance, and in one case, military impact. It is the range of perspectives that offers the greatest joy here. It is one thing, and not a bad one, to learn where this or that color actually comes from in nature, tossing in some historical or character references, and that could have been pretty much the sum total of the book. But no paint-by-numbers writing here. St Clair’s wide range of approaches keeps us from settling into a single sort of appreciation, like a hamster on a color-wheel.
A more descriptive title might have been Interesting Facts about a Wide Range of Colors. Nonetheless, The Secret Lives of Color, (which is a wonderful world) offers a cornucopia of fascinating bits of information, which makes this a very high fructose collection of brain candy. The white cases of Apple computers are actually a shade of gray. Silver was used for flatware in the belief that it could detect poisons. The derivation of orange; which came first, the color or the fruit? A long-forgotten name for New York City. A bit of science on how fluorescents work. Some words that we think of as colors began as something else. A reason why the blue light from televisions affects us in certain ways. And on and on and on, delightfully. There are words in here that were quite unfamiliar in this context. Isabelline is a color? Really? Orpiment? Minium (must be a small color), Madder (an angry one?). Woad? (slow down. Woad is a color? Well, if you say so.) Best of all is Mummy. Suffice it to say that this was the most disturbing chapter of the book, one that kept coming back into my thoughts unbidden. Ironically, the pigment was a shade of brown that did not preserve itself all that well. So, oddities, surprises, and lots of “Gee, I never knew that.”
Loooooove her - Image from Billboard -
So, next time you think you’re in the pink, you may then wonder which pink? Is it Baker-Miller pink, Mountbatten pink, puce, fuchsia, shocking, fluorescent, or maybe amaranth? Or if you are feeling blue, which shade? Ultramarine? Cobalt? Indigo, Prussian, Egyptian, woad, electric, or maybe cerulean? And when you are in a black mood, well, you get the idea. For the truly bleak there is
Vantablack, a carbon nanotube technology created in Britain in 2014, traps 99.965 percent of the spectrum, making it the blackest thing in the world. In person it is so dark it fools the eyes and brain, rendering people unable to perceive depth and texture. - NY times TV reviewers?For any who enjoy learning new things, this book is the definition of a fun read, offering fascinating information in bite-sized, tasty nuggets of multi-colored brain candy for your synaptical munching pleasure. It’s to dye for. (Sorry)
Review first posted – August 31, 2018
Publication date – October 24, 2017
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and FB pages
Items of Interest
-----List of Animals That See in Black & White
-----How many colors are there in the world?
-----Interview - Psychology Today - 11/7/17 - It’s a Colorful Life - by Gary Drevitch
-----Public Domain Review - Primary Sources - A Natural History of the Artist's Palette by Philip Ball - If you want to learn even more about the traditional sources for color, this article will fit the bill nicely
-----The Paris Review - 8/19/20 - Periwinkle, the Color of Poison, Modernism, and Dusk by Katy Kelleher
-----New York Times - 2/5/21 - It’s Not Every Day We Get a New Blue by Evan Nicole Brown
YInMn Blue is named for its chemical components: yttrium, indium and manganese - Credit - Courtesy of Mas Subramanian - Image and text from the above article in the NY Times
Music
-----The Wigmaker Sequence from the original stage production of Sweeney Todd - on diverse shades of Johanna’s blonde hair
-----The Rollingstones - She’s a Rainbow
-----Somewhere Over the Rainbow - you know who, and wherefrom
-----Colors of the Wind - the original, sung by Judy Kuhn, from Pocahontas
-----True Colors - Cyndi - original vid
-----Colors - One Republic
-----Colours - Donovan
November 21, 2020
However de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum, in my experience colours, like the weather, can make an convenient topic to spark or rekindle conversation, having saved me a few times in socially awkward situations - as wherever we are, colour is everywhere.
Years ago I read Victoria Finlay ‘s Color: A Natural History of the Palette which, notwithstanding I learnt a lot from it on the origin of colours, entailed having to wade through numerous pages of rambling self-absorbed travelogue and left me hungry for more substantial information on the world of colours. So when I glanced through The Secret Lives of Colour in the local library and read in the introduction that Kassia St Clair attempts ‘to provide something between a potted history and a character sketch for the 75 shades that have intrigued her most’, I found myself mouth-watering at some of the delightful names of the colours serving as the titles of the short chapters that structure her book (despite the somewhat silly title).
More than a history of colours, this is a compendium of stories, anecdotes and trivia on the 75 hues, tints, tones and shades that St Clair selected, ranging from lead white to pitch black, culled from excursions into history, religion, economics, sociology (the use of Baker-Miller pink to assuage aggressiveness of prisoners), history of art, religion, politics (Mountbatten pink, Dutch orange), biology, chemistry, literature (Celadon). With the same ease St Clair addresses more frivolous subjects like fashion and hair colours (shocking pink, blonde), interior design and poisonous wallpaper (beige, Scheele’s green ) as well as she touches on the meaning of colours in various cultures and centuries, their permanence and provenance or discovery. She delivers clarifications on the etymology of the names of colours and jots in interesting colour-related linguistic musings. The book grew out of the monthly columns on colour she wrote for Elle Decoration, and judging from the footnotes, her bite-size entries rely heavily on two sources, Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color by Philip Ball and Victoria Finlay’s Color: A Natural History of the Palette and on Michel Pastoureau's renowned books on colour. There is also an extensive bibliography and list for further reading, and a descriptive list of other interesting shades on which no entry was written and which also speak to the imagination, like Eau de Nil, pompadour, beryl and coquelicot (‘Bright red with a hint of orange, French for Papaver Rhoeas, the wild poppy’).
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer (1640-1650) – a tribute to ultramarine
Quite some anecdotes I thought well-chosen, fascinating, amusing or surprising, like the one on mummy or Egyptian-brown – and the moment Edward Burne-Jones found out where that fine colour came from: ’The Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones hadn’t twigged the connection between ‘mummy brown’ and real mummies until one Sunday lunch in 1881, when a friend related having just seen one ground up at a colourman’s warehouse. Burne-Jones was so horrified he rushed to his studio to find his tube of mummy brown, and ‘insisted on our giving it a decent burial there and then’.
Or this one, on heliotrope, which from one of the few colours Victorian women were allowed to wear during half-mourning, got a distinguished literary afterlife when the observance of mourning dress dictates waned: 'Badly behaved characters are often described as wearing the colour. The deliciously immoral anti-heroine of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Mrs. Cheveley, makes her entrance in heliotrope and diamonds, before swashbuckling her way through the remainder of the play and commandeering all the best lines. Allusions to heliotrope also crop up in the works of J.K. Rowling, D.H. Lawrence, P.G. Wodehouse, James Joyce and Joseph Conrad. The word is pleasure to say, filling the mouth like a rich, buttery sauce. Added to which, the colour itself is intriguing: antiquated, unusual and just a little bit brassy.' Having been reading Smoke a novella by Turgenev in which heliotrope - the flower, not the colour - announces the (r)emergence of the femme fatale reminded me of St.Clair's findings on the colour of heliotrope.
The book doesn’t contain illustrations – which means the reader has to turn to the internet when paintings are discussed - but the outer margin of each page is marked by a strip of the colour at stake in the chapter, so the reader instantly gets an impression of less common hues like isabelline, Napels yellow, verdigris, fallow, gamboge, or Payne’s grey.
Jan Van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (1434) – a dress in the costly verdigris
Vividly written, accessible, brimful of informative and fun facts (‘When two scientists discovered that the universe, taken as a whole, is a shade of beige, they immediately sought a sexier name. Suggestions included ‘big bang buff’ and ‘skyvory’, but in the end they settled on ‘cosmic latte') The secret lives of colour makes an enthralling (be it somewhat dense) read, however fragmented and in spurs repetitive on the details and cost of extracting and processing pigments for dyeing fabrics and for painting. It is not a book I could gobble up at once and which I found more enjoyable to dip into in between other books, or to read a few pages in to close the day with a moment of beauty.
(***½)
Years ago I read Victoria Finlay ‘s Color: A Natural History of the Palette which, notwithstanding I learnt a lot from it on the origin of colours, entailed having to wade through numerous pages of rambling self-absorbed travelogue and left me hungry for more substantial information on the world of colours. So when I glanced through The Secret Lives of Colour in the local library and read in the introduction that Kassia St Clair attempts ‘to provide something between a potted history and a character sketch for the 75 shades that have intrigued her most’, I found myself mouth-watering at some of the delightful names of the colours serving as the titles of the short chapters that structure her book (despite the somewhat silly title).
More than a history of colours, this is a compendium of stories, anecdotes and trivia on the 75 hues, tints, tones and shades that St Clair selected, ranging from lead white to pitch black, culled from excursions into history, religion, economics, sociology (the use of Baker-Miller pink to assuage aggressiveness of prisoners), history of art, religion, politics (Mountbatten pink, Dutch orange), biology, chemistry, literature (Celadon). With the same ease St Clair addresses more frivolous subjects like fashion and hair colours (shocking pink, blonde), interior design and poisonous wallpaper (beige, Scheele’s green ) as well as she touches on the meaning of colours in various cultures and centuries, their permanence and provenance or discovery. She delivers clarifications on the etymology of the names of colours and jots in interesting colour-related linguistic musings. The book grew out of the monthly columns on colour she wrote for Elle Decoration, and judging from the footnotes, her bite-size entries rely heavily on two sources, Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color by Philip Ball and Victoria Finlay’s Color: A Natural History of the Palette and on Michel Pastoureau's renowned books on colour. There is also an extensive bibliography and list for further reading, and a descriptive list of other interesting shades on which no entry was written and which also speak to the imagination, like Eau de Nil, pompadour, beryl and coquelicot (‘Bright red with a hint of orange, French for Papaver Rhoeas, the wild poppy’).
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer (1640-1650) – a tribute to ultramarine
Quite some anecdotes I thought well-chosen, fascinating, amusing or surprising, like the one on mummy or Egyptian-brown – and the moment Edward Burne-Jones found out where that fine colour came from: ’The Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones hadn’t twigged the connection between ‘mummy brown’ and real mummies until one Sunday lunch in 1881, when a friend related having just seen one ground up at a colourman’s warehouse. Burne-Jones was so horrified he rushed to his studio to find his tube of mummy brown, and ‘insisted on our giving it a decent burial there and then’.
Or this one, on heliotrope, which from one of the few colours Victorian women were allowed to wear during half-mourning, got a distinguished literary afterlife when the observance of mourning dress dictates waned: 'Badly behaved characters are often described as wearing the colour. The deliciously immoral anti-heroine of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Mrs. Cheveley, makes her entrance in heliotrope and diamonds, before swashbuckling her way through the remainder of the play and commandeering all the best lines. Allusions to heliotrope also crop up in the works of J.K. Rowling, D.H. Lawrence, P.G. Wodehouse, James Joyce and Joseph Conrad. The word is pleasure to say, filling the mouth like a rich, buttery sauce. Added to which, the colour itself is intriguing: antiquated, unusual and just a little bit brassy.' Having been reading Smoke a novella by Turgenev in which heliotrope - the flower, not the colour - announces the (r)emergence of the femme fatale reminded me of St.Clair's findings on the colour of heliotrope.
The book doesn’t contain illustrations – which means the reader has to turn to the internet when paintings are discussed - but the outer margin of each page is marked by a strip of the colour at stake in the chapter, so the reader instantly gets an impression of less common hues like isabelline, Napels yellow, verdigris, fallow, gamboge, or Payne’s grey.
Jan Van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (1434) – a dress in the costly verdigris
Vividly written, accessible, brimful of informative and fun facts (‘When two scientists discovered that the universe, taken as a whole, is a shade of beige, they immediately sought a sexier name. Suggestions included ‘big bang buff’ and ‘skyvory’, but in the end they settled on ‘cosmic latte') The secret lives of colour makes an enthralling (be it somewhat dense) read, however fragmented and in spurs repetitive on the details and cost of extracting and processing pigments for dyeing fabrics and for painting. It is not a book I could gobble up at once and which I found more enjoyable to dip into in between other books, or to read a few pages in to close the day with a moment of beauty.
(***½)
December 17, 2016
We take colour for granted these days; where ever you look you have garish clothing and brightly painted items competing for attention. But it was never like that, go back several hundred years ago, and lost people wore grey or brown cloth that had been dyed with the ochres and earth colours. Those that had some colour in their lives were the rich; they could afford the purples and reds that adorned their clothes and the rare blues and yellows that graced their artworks.
In this fascinating book, St Clair has uncovered the history behind 75 different colour shades and hues and tell their individual story. We find out where in the world these colours originated from, who made them popular, just how expensive a vivid blue like ultramarine was and the chemistry behind turning ground rock into artist’s paint and dyes for cloth. Modern colours are fairly robust, but it is a reminder just how lethal some colours were. The historical account of colour is enlightening too, as we find out which have come into fashion, why some prefer blondes, which colour was behind a notorious seduction and which have remained popular and those that currently don’t fit the bill.
Not only is it a nicely written and fascinating book, but it is a beautifully produced book too; each colour group is split into sections and the margins on each page are coloured to match the shade being written about. As you read though each page changes subtly in colour and tone. Just rippling through the pages you transcend from white to yellow to the reds, blues greens and end up at the black, it is a nice effect. The dots on the front are embossed making touching the cover a tactile experience. It was worth reading and would make a good companion volume to Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour by Philip Ball and Colour: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay if you already have those.
In this fascinating book, St Clair has uncovered the history behind 75 different colour shades and hues and tell their individual story. We find out where in the world these colours originated from, who made them popular, just how expensive a vivid blue like ultramarine was and the chemistry behind turning ground rock into artist’s paint and dyes for cloth. Modern colours are fairly robust, but it is a reminder just how lethal some colours were. The historical account of colour is enlightening too, as we find out which have come into fashion, why some prefer blondes, which colour was behind a notorious seduction and which have remained popular and those that currently don’t fit the bill.
Not only is it a nicely written and fascinating book, but it is a beautifully produced book too; each colour group is split into sections and the margins on each page are coloured to match the shade being written about. As you read though each page changes subtly in colour and tone. Just rippling through the pages you transcend from white to yellow to the reds, blues greens and end up at the black, it is a nice effect. The dots on the front are embossed making touching the cover a tactile experience. It was worth reading and would make a good companion volume to Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour by Philip Ball and Colour: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay if you already have those.
March 4, 2018
I really enjoyed this book! It's a series of short, and fascinating, stories of about 100 different colors. I loved the random trivia and interesting facts. I think anyone, even with an interest in color, would love this book. A great gift idea!
Read
April 15, 2021І вознесли ми хвалу всім богам книгодруку, і тривали ці жертвопринесення майже рік, і змилостивились боги над нами, зглянулися і сказали: "Та забирайте вже!". "Барвочки", #КсеняПереклала №1, приїхали з друку, завтра-післязавтра починають розсилати передзамовлення.
Цитую відгук на англоверсію:
"Це книжка про те, як барви живуть своїм особистим життям, регулярно перетинаючись з нашим світом. Про те, звідки вони беруться, як вони "працюють", чому вони саме такого кольору або чому ми прагнемо вважати, що вони саме такого кольору. Про те, що джерелом краси може бути що завгодно: камінь, каракатиця, смола дерев, коров'яча сеча, мензурка, жадоба слави тощо. Книжка про упосліджені земляні пігменти і дорогоцінні барвники з бідолашних мурексів і коккусів (молюски та комахи відповідно). Книжка про те, чому венеційські художники зловживали ультрамарином, а північно-європейські - кохалися в бюджетних тінях. Про сумптуарні закони і те, чому шарлатовий - це круто. Про те, чим відрізняються французькі кроти від усіх інших. Про те, як військова форма пройшла шлях від "вирви-око" до камуфляжних відтінків. Про те, чим небезпечні зелені муслини, і хто сміявсь над жовтавим спіднім певної принцеси. Про те, як один вісімнадцятирічний англієць підірвав всю хімічну промисловість, коли так і не зміг винайти синтетичний хінін, а натомість відкрив шлях до царства анілінових барвників. Про те, якого кольору жалоба, якої барви небо (і як це пов'язано зі словами і прадавніми текстами), чому книжкова мініатюра є саме мініатюрою, чому морква помаранчева, а День Святого Патрика - зелений, і чим відрізнялися чорнила Гутенберга від тих, якими послуговувалися в скрипторіях. Це книжка про те, як ми робимо своє життя яскравішим та кому і чому саме маємо за всі ці барви подякувати.
Це симпатичний і гарно структурований культурологічний наукпоп. Лайтовий, з жартиками і кулсторі, з наскрізним сюжетиком для кожної "вузької" барви (а їх тут сімдесят п'ять) і доволі солідним довідковим апаратом. Це не Пастуро і тим більше не "доросла" культурологія, але дуже привітний і яскраво-пофарбований передпокій до світу культурних кодів кольорів. А ще він по-британському іронічний і мати з ним справу було весело".
Цитую відгук на англоверсію:
"Це книжка про те, як барви живуть своїм особистим життям, регулярно перетинаючись з нашим світом. Про те, звідки вони беруться, як вони "працюють", чому вони саме такого кольору або чому ми прагнемо вважати, що вони саме такого кольору. Про те, що джерелом краси може бути що завгодно: камінь, каракатиця, смола дерев, коров'яча сеча, мензурка, жадоба слави тощо. Книжка про упосліджені земляні пігменти і дорогоцінні барвники з бідолашних мурексів і коккусів (молюски та комахи відповідно). Книжка про те, чому венеційські художники зловживали ультрамарином, а північно-європейські - кохалися в бюджетних тінях. Про сумптуарні закони і те, чому шарлатовий - це круто. Про те, чим відрізняються французькі кроти від усіх інших. Про те, як військова форма пройшла шлях від "вирви-око" до камуфляжних відтінків. Про те, чим небезпечні зелені муслини, і хто сміявсь над жовтавим спіднім певної принцеси. Про те, як один вісімнадцятирічний англієць підірвав всю хімічну промисловість, коли так і не зміг винайти синтетичний хінін, а натомість відкрив шлях до царства анілінових барвників. Про те, якого кольору жалоба, якої барви небо (і як це пов'язано зі словами і прадавніми текстами), чому книжкова мініатюра є саме мініатюрою, чому морква помаранчева, а День Святого Патрика - зелений, і чим відрізнялися чорнила Гутенберга від тих, якими послуговувалися в скрипторіях. Це книжка про те, як ми робимо своє життя яскравішим та кому і чому саме маємо за всі ці барви подякувати.
Це симпатичний і гарно структурований культурологічний наукпоп. Лайтовий, з жартиками і кулсторі, з наскрізним сюжетиком для кожної "вузької" барви (а їх тут сімдесят п'ять) і доволі солідним довідковим апаратом. Це не Пастуро і тим більше не "доросла" культурологія, але дуже привітний і яскраво-пофарбований передпокій до світу культурних кодів кольорів. А ще він по-британському іронічний і мати з ним справу було весело".
September 6, 2023
Let's start with the humorous pic. God, I love it, it's so true.
Haaa. Well, it's pretty obvious, we all differ not only in seeing colours but in many more abilities or senses. But the colour is probably one of the most visible (obviously) things, since the first time someone pointed at something, saying, oh look, a gold dress with brown (or whatever) stripes and his friend said, no no, it's a brown one with violet stripes... And some other person would say - gosh, who cares about colours of gowns anyway? Rather say, if you hear that song by the Beatles? I feel it's orange... with parmesan...
I have a long and complicated relationship with colours. When I was a kid I loved drawing and when picking a color of a marker I was usually so overwhelmed and confused by the hues and shades that in the end I was coloring everything in black.
Black is still my numero uno, undeniable alpha & omega of colours, like it or not. But I also have a deep fascination for other colours wherever they occur, be it art, fashion or nature.
So if you also care about the colours, you should definitely read this book! It's full of so many interesting facts from various branches of science - chemistry, biology, history, history of art, philosophy, even psychology and medicine. It took me quite a couple of months to finish it because of this overload of facts. Not to mention the colours themselves. Actually, some of them were not even what I imagined them to be! Some of them were never heard of (by me of course), like Isabelline for example (it's a shade of white), or Gamboge (it's a sort of yellow), or Mountbatten pink, which doesn't even look like pink and would definitely unnerve Barbie. Also I realized that I'm a blue lover, since I knew all the shades by their names. OK, not you, Woad. Also, all my life I was thinking that Khaki was a shade of green when in fact it was a shade of brown!!! Shocking!!! And finally I discovered that my favourite shade of grey is called Payne's grey, by the name of the painter who actually produced it for the first time, but alas, was long forgotten since.
Gosh, I did love this book, didn't I?
Anyway, read it for the knowledge and entertainment, get ready for a lot of googling and trust me, it's going to be interesting!
Haaa. Well, it's pretty obvious, we all differ not only in seeing colours but in many more abilities or senses. But the colour is probably one of the most visible (obviously) things, since the first time someone pointed at something, saying, oh look, a gold dress with brown (or whatever) stripes and his friend said, no no, it's a brown one with violet stripes... And some other person would say - gosh, who cares about colours of gowns anyway? Rather say, if you hear that song by the Beatles? I feel it's orange... with parmesan...
I have a long and complicated relationship with colours. When I was a kid I loved drawing and when picking a color of a marker I was usually so overwhelmed and confused by the hues and shades that in the end I was coloring everything in black.
Black is still my numero uno, undeniable alpha & omega of colours, like it or not. But I also have a deep fascination for other colours wherever they occur, be it art, fashion or nature.
So if you also care about the colours, you should definitely read this book! It's full of so many interesting facts from various branches of science - chemistry, biology, history, history of art, philosophy, even psychology and medicine. It took me quite a couple of months to finish it because of this overload of facts. Not to mention the colours themselves. Actually, some of them were not even what I imagined them to be! Some of them were never heard of (by me of course), like Isabelline for example (it's a shade of white), or Gamboge (it's a sort of yellow), or Mountbatten pink, which doesn't even look like pink and would definitely unnerve Barbie. Also I realized that I'm a blue lover, since I knew all the shades by their names. OK, not you, Woad. Also, all my life I was thinking that Khaki was a shade of green when in fact it was a shade of brown!!! Shocking!!! And finally I discovered that my favourite shade of grey is called Payne's grey, by the name of the painter who actually produced it for the first time, but alas, was long forgotten since.
Gosh, I did love this book, didn't I?
Anyway, read it for the knowledge and entertainment, get ready for a lot of googling and trust me, it's going to be interesting!
October 1, 2018
This is not a book about color theory but a compilation of snippets about 75 colors. Each color has a very short account that ranges from explaining the original chemical/mineral composition of the color to explaining the status the color signified throughout civilization. For instance, the color blue’s transformation from being the most undesirable color to the most popular. Or, that chochineal required 70,000 dried bugs for a pound of color.
Interesting tidbits and the short sub chapters are perfect to slip in when you have a few minutes of down time. Not overly compelling.
Interesting tidbits and the short sub chapters are perfect to slip in when you have a few minutes of down time. Not overly compelling.
February 17, 2019
This book would be an interesting podcast. One unusual color name per episode, with a random collection of facts about it — I can see how that would be a winning formula. But the problem is that this entire book is just random facts about some colors — Prussion blue, avocado, lead white. The color entries for the most part don’t even qualify as essays; there’s not any kind of arc or conclusion or lesson drawn. This book is the written equivalent of sitting at a long dinner next to somebody who knows a lot of color trivia. And the thing is, I love trivia. But it turns out I have an upper limit on my tolerance for a diet of unalleviated trivia on colors.
April 30, 2021
Редагувала цей нон-фік, тому можу сказати, що:
- тут класний переклад;
- це не жанр "додай води, а зверху ще трохи води і особистих кулсторі";
- ви дізнаєтеся всякі цікавинки про фарби, звідки бралися барвники, чому пурпуровий - королівський колір (спойлер: бо дорого), про отруйні шпалери (припали вони мені до серця, всюди згадала, де книгу хвалила) і ще купу класного;
- та з фактів цієї книги можна цілий барвистий пакет "Що? Де? Коли?" скласти (ага, я так щодекашнику і рекламувала).
- тут класний переклад;
- це не жанр "додай води, а зверху ще трохи води і особистих кулсторі";
- ви дізнаєтеся всякі цікавинки про фарби, звідки бралися барвники, чому пурпуровий - королівський колір (спойлер: бо дорого), про отруйні шпалери (припали вони мені до серця, всюди згадала, де книгу хвалила) і ще купу класного;
- та з фактів цієї книги можна цілий барвистий пакет "Що? Де? Коли?" скласти (ага, я так щодекашнику і рекламувала).
March 6, 2019
Ever wonder why Ferrari chose the color red? What about why Van Gogh's sunflowers are slowly wilting as the years pass? Are you curious why some colors are considered royal? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, you should give this book a go.
An interesting glimpse into the history and changing meaning of color over time. The exact dialog about each color varied, with some focusing heavily on the historical recipe and how that was interesting, and others narrowing in more on the social constraints, focusing on the meaning of the color to people of that time.
Overall a good read with lots of fun period specifics. Due to the nature of the content, and not being an artist and therefore more interested in the science angle, certain portions were a little dry but the work as a whole was worth the short bouts of disinterest.
This would be an excellent companion to Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, where we look at the aftermath of the color revolution here in the US. Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug would also be a great consecutive read for those interested in how the demand for synthetic dyes launched the profession of chemistry, and resulted in the pharmaceutical industry.
I would also recommend reading on a tablet capable of color, as there are examples of the colors throughout the book, which I felt added to the experience.
An interesting glimpse into the history and changing meaning of color over time. The exact dialog about each color varied, with some focusing heavily on the historical recipe and how that was interesting, and others narrowing in more on the social constraints, focusing on the meaning of the color to people of that time.
"Beetles are still being harvested today to produce the cochineal used by the cosmetics and food industries. It is found in everything from M&M’s to sausages, red velvet cupcakes to Cherry Coke (to soothe the squeamish it is usually hidden under the far more innocuous label E120). ”
Overall a good read with lots of fun period specifics. Due to the nature of the content, and not being an artist and therefore more interested in the science angle, certain portions were a little dry but the work as a whole was worth the short bouts of disinterest.
...also described orange as “red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.”
This would be an excellent companion to Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, where we look at the aftermath of the color revolution here in the US. Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug would also be a great consecutive read for those interested in how the demand for synthetic dyes launched the profession of chemistry, and resulted in the pharmaceutical industry.
I would also recommend reading on a tablet capable of color, as there are examples of the colors throughout the book, which I felt added to the experience.
January 23, 2022
You can even imagine the writing process: pick up a color with whim, google to see if there were any interesting anecdotes, then lump them up.
The end result? A book full of piecemeal information suitable for party chatting without organized idea or purpose. The amount of good reviews is a testimony of either the shallowness of our time, or the deluge of fake reviews. Hopefully it's the latter.
update: I'd recommend On Color for a deeply contemplative and culturally spectral alternative. Much less color names, much more colors.
The end result? A book full of piecemeal information suitable for party chatting without organized idea or purpose. The amount of good reviews is a testimony of either the shallowness of our time, or the deluge of fake reviews. Hopefully it's the latter.
update: I'd recommend On Color for a deeply contemplative and culturally spectral alternative. Much less color names, much more colors.
August 3, 2019
Loved this
April 22, 2018
The Secret Lives of Color takes us on a fascinating exploration of all the different colors throughout history and art. The book is divided into short stories on each color, filled with details about how they were made and used throughout history.
Before reading this book, I never gave much thought to all the colorful pigments we use in our daily lives, taking them rather for granted. This book's deeper look has made me realize that for much of history, it was difficult, expensive, and sometimes harmful to get even a little color into people's lives. This applied to all the great artists too, who had to be competent colorists in addition to artists in order to create their masterpieces.
Since this book is filled with lots of information, I found it best to read it slowly with a computer nearby. Whenever new colors or artwork is mentioned, I found it useful to look them up as I'm reading along so that I could get a more complete visual understanding.
Before reading this book, I never gave much thought to all the colorful pigments we use in our daily lives, taking them rather for granted. This book's deeper look has made me realize that for much of history, it was difficult, expensive, and sometimes harmful to get even a little color into people's lives. This applied to all the great artists too, who had to be competent colorists in addition to artists in order to create their masterpieces.
Since this book is filled with lots of information, I found it best to read it slowly with a computer nearby. Whenever new colors or artwork is mentioned, I found it useful to look them up as I'm reading along so that I could get a more complete visual understanding.
Read
December 29, 2022Interesting collection of essays talking about colours, from many different perspectives (use in history, science, techniques of painting, etc). Probably better dipped into than read through, tbh.
November 28, 2022
A well researched, very scientific based book on how certain colours came to be. Very interesting to see how rocks, minerals, sea creatures were used to create the colours and how through the many years going all the way back many centuries to the current times these colours were used to determine the various classes of wealth.
I read this because at the beginning of the year there was a TV segment on "relaxing and soothing colours". Depending on the website you look at, the number can range from 7 to 16. The one I looked at had nine; Blue, Violet, Pink, Green, Gray, Tan, White and Yellow, though it did not go into a specific shade of each colour. Now, in my place I don't have a single one of these, so guess I'll have to change that.
I read this because at the beginning of the year there was a TV segment on "relaxing and soothing colours". Depending on the website you look at, the number can range from 7 to 16. The one I looked at had nine; Blue, Violet, Pink, Green, Gray, Tan, White and Yellow, though it did not go into a specific shade of each colour. Now, in my place I don't have a single one of these, so guess I'll have to change that.
July 24, 2019
This book appearance-wise is very pretty but not much on the inside, I came expecting a book about the meaning and effect of colours but instead a boring account of some shades of each colour.
My problem was that it was boring and monotonous even though I am interested in the topic, the writing wasn't captivating either. Also, some important shades weren't talked about such as turquoise or lilac or lemon yellow or coral or many others.
One other issue I had is that the book didn't talk about the meaning of colours??? I mean for the colour green she only talked about the negatives of it although green is a positive colour, she needed to state both the positives and negatives of each colour.
The good things were that it was well-researched and the book talked about cultures relating to each colour.
My problem was that it was boring and monotonous even though I am interested in the topic, the writing wasn't captivating either. Also, some important shades weren't talked about such as turquoise or lilac or lemon yellow or coral or many others.
One other issue I had is that the book didn't talk about the meaning of colours??? I mean for the colour green she only talked about the negatives of it although green is a positive colour, she needed to state both the positives and negatives of each colour.
The good things were that it was well-researched and the book talked about cultures relating to each colour.
November 14, 2020
This was a fun glimpse into the world of color. Each vignette is short-usually a page or two-making this a great book to dip into in those spare moments that are too brief to allow for full immersion in a story world. The author sometimes goes off on tangents that seem only barely related to the color in question, and the pages were a bit uneven-some stories leapt off the page and dazzled like the brightest vermilion, while others were drier and more muted, more like the terre verte that has historically left artists indifferent and apathetic. Still, on the whole, I enjoyed the read, and the fact that I read through the glossary of "other interesting colors" wishing that St. Clair had dedicated full pages to these, too, bespeaks the fact that the book was, ultimately, successful in keeping my interest.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
February 7, 2018
We chose this book for our January Amuse-Book because it's an absolutely wonderful read about the history behind some of our favorite hue's. It's a great conversation starter! You won't believe some of these stories, we can't wait for all of our babes and beaus to read! xo E+K
Read
July 15, 2019Це книжка про те, як барви живуть своїм особистим життям, регулярно перетинаючись з нашим світом. Про те, звідки вони беруться, як вони "працюють", чому вони саме такого кольору або чому ми прагнемо вважати, що вони саме такого кольору. Про те, що джерелом краси може бути що завгодно: камінь, каракатиця, смола дерев, коров'яча сеча, мензурка, жадоба слави тощо. Книжка про упосліджені земляні пігменти і дорогоцінні барвники з бідолашних мурексів і коккусів (молюски та комахи відповідно). Книжка про те, чому венеційські художники зловживали ультрамарином, а північно-європейські - кохалися в бюджетних тінях. Про сумптуарні закони і те, чому шарлатовий - це круто. Про те, чим відрізняються французькі кроти від усіх інших. Про те, як військова форма пройшла шлях від "вирви-око" до камуфляжних відтінків. Про те, чим небезпечні зелені муслини, і хто сміявсь над жовтавим спіднім певної принцеси. Про те, як один вісімнадцятирічний англієць підірвав всю хімічну промисловість, коли так і не зміг винайти синтетичний хінін, а натомість відкрив шлях до царства анілінових барвників. Про те, якого кольору жалоба, якої барви небо (і як це пов'язано зі словами і прадавніми текстами), чому книжкова мініатюра є саме мініатюрою, чому морква помаранчева, а День Святого Патрика - зелений, і чим відрізнялися чорнила Гутенберга від тих, якими послуговувалися в скрипторіях. Це книжка про те, як ми робимо своє життя яскравішим та кому і чому саме маємо за всі ці барви подякувати.
Це симпатичний і гарно структурований культурологічний наукпоп. Лайтовий, з жартиками і кулсторі, з наскрізним сюжетиком для кожної "вузької" барви (а їх тут сімдесят п'ять) і доволі солідним довідковим апаратом. Це не Пастуро і тим більше не "доросла" культурологія, але дуже привітний і яскраво-пофарбований передпокій до світу культурних кодів кольорів. А ще він по-британському іронічний і мати з ним справу було весело.
Це симпатичний і гарно структурований культурологічний наукпоп. Лайтовий, з жартиками і кулсторі, з наскрізним сюжетиком для кожної "вузької" барви (а їх тут сімдесят п'ять) і доволі солідним довідковим апаратом. Це не Пастуро і тим більше не "доросла" культурологія, але дуже привітний і яскраво-пофарбований передпокій до світу культурних кодів кольорів. А ще він по-британському іронічний і мати з ним справу було весело.
February 24, 2020
Поскольку Кассия Сен-Клер честно предупреждает в предисловии, что книга выросла из ее многолетнего увлечения цветами (как не влюбиться в темно-гранатовый атлас или пурпурный кашемир?) и колонки в British Elle Decoration, придираться к ней слишком сильно не хочется, тем более что на серьезную монографию книжка совершенно не претендует. Собственно, если вообще давать определение этому жанру — это камерное признание в любви к предмету, который вдруг впрыгнул в твою жизнь и задержался. Изучение женской моды XVIII века привело Сен-Клер сначала в Музей Виктории и Альберта, а затем — в увлекательный мир изыс��анных, сложных цветов, которые многие из нас наверняка не смогут представить без подробного описания и ссылок на какие-нибудь растения, ткани или картины (этого, кстати, русскоязычному изданию очень не хватает). Из несомненных достоинств русскоязычного издания — оно было вычитано научным редактором, и досадные ошибочки вроде путаницы с французскими vert-de-gris и Vert de Grèce удалось выловить и поместить в примечания. Из несомненных недостатков — необходимо постоянно держать в уме, что истории в книге скорее занимательные, чем точные, и многое, особенно в том, что касается происхождения пигментов и этимологии, существенно упрощено. Так как это не Пастуро, глубины полученных из «Тайной жизни цвета» знаний хватит на то, чтобы поддержать светскую беседу и щегольнуть парой фактов в компании друзей. Так, вы узнаете:
—кто ввел моду на свадебные платья цвета слоновой кости;
—почему вошла в моду серебряная посуда;
— почему кардинал Вулси приказал разбросать по полу Хэмптон-Корта вымоченные в шафране опилки;
— как розовый стал цветом Барби, а голубой — Богоматери;
— в чем отправился на эшафот последний правитель инков;
— и, наконец, как rosso corsa стал официальным цветом итальянских гоночных команд.
—кто ввел моду на свадебные платья цвета слоновой кости;
—почему вошла в моду серебряная посуда;
— почему кардинал Вулси приказал разбросать по полу Хэмптон-Корта вымоченные в шафране опилки;
— как розовый стал цветом Барби, а голубой — Богоматери;
— в чем отправился на эшафот последний правитель инков;
— и, наконец, как rosso corsa стал официальным цветом итальянских гоночных команд.
July 2, 2019
So...the bright red of a strawberry is just the colour the strawberry is NOT! Mind-boggling; the light fails in the evening, colours fade, leaves are no longer green - but then, they never were actually green...
A fascinating book, page after page of amusing and provocative colourful slices of art, history and philosophy; and much else besides. Certainly a book to return to - and one to bore people with for a long time.
A fascinating book, page after page of amusing and provocative colourful slices of art, history and philosophy; and much else besides. Certainly a book to return to - and one to bore people with for a long time.
January 1, 2019
It's hard to describe what a delicious book this is. The author has combined her twin passions for color and fashion and mixed them together with history, art and chemistry to provide a delectable collection of morsels about where colors we might not think twice about first appeared in the human story, and how they and their making evolved over time.
I found this book on the "Staff Picks" shelf of our local independent bookstore and flipped it open to the pages on Tyrian Purple, Cleopatra's favorite color. In less than three pages, I learned about the labor intensive and incredibly stinky process used to manufacture this hue from the secretions of a Mediterranean mollusk nearly wiped out by the process, with a reported 250,000 animals required to make one garment. The process was so expensive that even a Roman emperor claimed to not be able to afford to buy his wife a Tyrian dress.
Though not all colors in the book had such famous admirers, I found the stories behind even the blandest of shades to be endlessly fascinating. Having grown up in a world where the magic of chemistry puts most all shades of color within ordinary reach, being briefly sent back to a time where that was not the case made me appreciate the rainbow around me in a way that I haven't in years.
I found this book on the "Staff Picks" shelf of our local independent bookstore and flipped it open to the pages on Tyrian Purple, Cleopatra's favorite color. In less than three pages, I learned about the labor intensive and incredibly stinky process used to manufacture this hue from the secretions of a Mediterranean mollusk nearly wiped out by the process, with a reported 250,000 animals required to make one garment. The process was so expensive that even a Roman emperor claimed to not be able to afford to buy his wife a Tyrian dress.
Though not all colors in the book had such famous admirers, I found the stories behind even the blandest of shades to be endlessly fascinating. Having grown up in a world where the magic of chemistry puts most all shades of color within ordinary reach, being briefly sent back to a time where that was not the case made me appreciate the rainbow around me in a way that I haven't in years.
May 1, 2022
This was a brilliant little foray into the world of colour.
Kassia St Clair tells us all about the history, meaning and significance and use of different colours throughout the spectrum.
The book is divided into colour sections and there are beautifully obscure colours in there like orpiment, dragon's blood, heliotrope and verdigris.
A great read, fascinating and informative.
Kassia St Clair tells us all about the history, meaning and significance and use of different colours throughout the spectrum.
The book is divided into colour sections and there are beautifully obscure colours in there like orpiment, dragon's blood, heliotrope and verdigris.
A great read, fascinating and informative.
April 1, 2017
A colourful read bound in a beautiful cover that would add colour to any coffee table. Who knew that painting in the olden days required considerations such as making sure your paints didn’t react with each other and burn a hole in the canvas?
Our brains normally collect and apply cues about the ambient light and texture. We use these cues to adjust our perception, like applying a filter over a stage light. The poor quality and lack of visual clues like skin colour in the dress image meant that our brains had to guess at the quality of the
ambient light. Some intuited that the dress was being washed out by strong light and therefore their minds darkened the colours, others believed the dress to be in shadow, so their minds adjusted what they were seeing to brighten it and remove the shadowy blue cast.
There are two different types of colour mixing: additive (light) and subtractive (paints). Because each paint pigment absorbs a different set of wavelengths of light, mix enough pigments together and they absorb every wavelength, becoming brown then black. Mixtures generally become dull and murky compared to single pigments.
Colours should be understood as subjective cultural creations: you could no more meaningfully secure a precise universal definition for all the known shades than you could plot the coordinates of a dream.
The Golden Gate Bridge had its colour chosen so as to blend in with the hills but pop against the sea and sky. The rusty shade is now called GGB International Orange.
The Dutch flag would have had orange in it, but no one could find a dye sufficiently colourfast, the orange strip either faded to yellow or deepened to red. So by the 1660s the Dutch gave up and began using red instead.
Before the late 1700s pink referred to a kind of pigment, consisting of a colourant (e.g. buckthorn berries) added to an inorganic substance like chalk to give it body.
Apparently the colour Baker-Miller pink (aka drunk-tank pink) could sap the strength of even the toughest man.
Then (Pre-revolutionary France), as in now, indulging in the latest fashion trends signaled status,
wealth and a sense of tribal belonging in the jeweled echo chamber of the French royal court.
In 1999 red appeared in 74% of the world’s flags, making it by far the most popular colour to exemplify a nation’s identity.
Prussian blue was used by John Herschel in combination with photosensitive paper to make a proto-photocopy. The resulting white marks on a blue background gave rise to the term ‘blueprint’.
Sepia photographs came about as squid ink was used to replace the silver in the silver-based prints with a more stable compound.
Our brains normally collect and apply cues about the ambient light and texture. We use these cues to adjust our perception, like applying a filter over a stage light. The poor quality and lack of visual clues like skin colour in the dress image meant that our brains had to guess at the quality of the
ambient light. Some intuited that the dress was being washed out by strong light and therefore their minds darkened the colours, others believed the dress to be in shadow, so their minds adjusted what they were seeing to brighten it and remove the shadowy blue cast.
There are two different types of colour mixing: additive (light) and subtractive (paints). Because each paint pigment absorbs a different set of wavelengths of light, mix enough pigments together and they absorb every wavelength, becoming brown then black. Mixtures generally become dull and murky compared to single pigments.
Colours should be understood as subjective cultural creations: you could no more meaningfully secure a precise universal definition for all the known shades than you could plot the coordinates of a dream.
The Golden Gate Bridge had its colour chosen so as to blend in with the hills but pop against the sea and sky. The rusty shade is now called GGB International Orange.
The Dutch flag would have had orange in it, but no one could find a dye sufficiently colourfast, the orange strip either faded to yellow or deepened to red. So by the 1660s the Dutch gave up and began using red instead.
Before the late 1700s pink referred to a kind of pigment, consisting of a colourant (e.g. buckthorn berries) added to an inorganic substance like chalk to give it body.
Apparently the colour Baker-Miller pink (aka drunk-tank pink) could sap the strength of even the toughest man.
Then (Pre-revolutionary France), as in now, indulging in the latest fashion trends signaled status,
wealth and a sense of tribal belonging in the jeweled echo chamber of the French royal court.
In 1999 red appeared in 74% of the world’s flags, making it by far the most popular colour to exemplify a nation’s identity.
Prussian blue was used by John Herschel in combination with photosensitive paper to make a proto-photocopy. The resulting white marks on a blue background gave rise to the term ‘blueprint’.
Sepia photographs came about as squid ink was used to replace the silver in the silver-based prints with a more stable compound.
July 14, 2020
Often, the books I read are One Big Idea books (e.g. The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb; Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond; The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt). Others are Many Small Idea books (especially collections of essays). This books is of an a different kind, unless you think that a color is an idea.
Whatever the name is for the profession where you make sure that the printing doesn't mess up the colors, they must have been ecstatic about getting this job. Every 2-3 pages is a different color, and in a roughly one-inch column down the outer edge of each page is a band of color, illustrating what we are talking about. Madder. Indigo. Cochineal. Khaki. Taupe. The colors are organized by what general part of the color spectrum we're on (all the reds together, all the oranges, etc.), so the edge of the book is a sort of linear rainbow.
Much of the discussion of each color is about the history of how the pigment came to be first discovered (or, in some cases, it seems more appropriate to say "invented", as the process for many of them was elaborate and laborious). There is also, of course, some discussion about how it is (or was) used. Julius Caesar and Tyrian purple; Queen Victoria and jet black; vermillion in the "Villa of Mysteries" in ancient Pompeii.
Not so much attention is paid, by most of us, nowadays, to the ability to conjure up (in pigment or on the computer screen) any color we can see. For most of human history, it was not so. The discovery of a new pigment could set off something akin to the modern high-tech frenzies around smartphones, electric scooters, or Bitcoin. Many shades passed from rare and thus expensive and thus prestigious, to more plentiful but still prestigious and thus overused, to out of fashion and somewhat gauche.
This is the sort of book which I enjoy a nibble at a time, like the jar of chocolate treats which you need to limit yourself to a modest amount of each day. Most often, I read only a single color per day (along with examining its associated column of pigment on the outer edge of the page). When it was gone, I wished there were more.
Whatever the name is for the profession where you make sure that the printing doesn't mess up the colors, they must have been ecstatic about getting this job. Every 2-3 pages is a different color, and in a roughly one-inch column down the outer edge of each page is a band of color, illustrating what we are talking about. Madder. Indigo. Cochineal. Khaki. Taupe. The colors are organized by what general part of the color spectrum we're on (all the reds together, all the oranges, etc.), so the edge of the book is a sort of linear rainbow.
Much of the discussion of each color is about the history of how the pigment came to be first discovered (or, in some cases, it seems more appropriate to say "invented", as the process for many of them was elaborate and laborious). There is also, of course, some discussion about how it is (or was) used. Julius Caesar and Tyrian purple; Queen Victoria and jet black; vermillion in the "Villa of Mysteries" in ancient Pompeii.
Not so much attention is paid, by most of us, nowadays, to the ability to conjure up (in pigment or on the computer screen) any color we can see. For most of human history, it was not so. The discovery of a new pigment could set off something akin to the modern high-tech frenzies around smartphones, electric scooters, or Bitcoin. Many shades passed from rare and thus expensive and thus prestigious, to more plentiful but still prestigious and thus overused, to out of fashion and somewhat gauche.
This is the sort of book which I enjoy a nibble at a time, like the jar of chocolate treats which you need to limit yourself to a modest amount of each day. Most often, I read only a single color per day (along with examining its associated column of pigment on the outer edge of the page). When it was gone, I wished there were more.
August 3, 2018
Thorough, comprehensive, assiduous, meticulous, conscientious, painstaking, methodical rigorous, in-depth, exhaustive, all-embracing, & anal-retentive book I have ever read: and to think when it came out I, as an artist who loves & revels in color, was so excited, that instead of waiting to read a Library copy (there was a humongous wait list) I bought one to own.
That was a mistake, but I learned (well no, I let most of it pass me over) more than I ever wanted to know, that I didn't even know was possible to know, about:
White + Seven (7) variations
Yellow + Ten (10) variations
Orange + Six (6) variations
Pink + Seven (7) variations
Red + Seven (7) variations
Purple + Six (6) variations
Blue + Eight (8) variations
Green + Eight (8) variations
Brown + Eight (8) variations
Black + Eight (8) variations
Included is a Preface & six (6) chapters prior to the investigation of the history of each color AND a Glossary, Notes, Bibliography (and suggested other reading), Acknowledgements, & Index all for 320 pages of mind-numbing, sleep inducing reading.
I am an artist; I use color, lots & lots of color; I mistakenly thought this book would further my knowledge of what I already knew: Lead white or red or orange is poisonous; Green is from arsenic & therefore also poisonous & William Morris used it heavily in his clothing & wallpaper; Sepia is squid ink; and cochineal (which we have & talk about at the Garden I docent at), used as natural food coloring, is a Bug!
It took me well over 6-8 months to read this and it hurt my brain. However, if you have a steel-trap for a brain and you want to learn about the composition & history of traditional colors used in art, clothing/fashion, make-up, and/or decor this is the book for you.
I'm thinking of gifting it to my favorite watercolor artist, it would better serve as a go-to reference source, rather than a sit-down "let's read for a bit" book!
It earned a 2nd ★ for the completeness & depth of information
That was a mistake, but I learned (well no, I let most of it pass me over) more than I ever wanted to know, that I didn't even know was possible to know, about:
White + Seven (7) variations
Yellow + Ten (10) variations
Orange + Six (6) variations
Pink + Seven (7) variations
Red + Seven (7) variations
Purple + Six (6) variations
Blue + Eight (8) variations
Green + Eight (8) variations
Brown + Eight (8) variations
Black + Eight (8) variations
Included is a Preface & six (6) chapters prior to the investigation of the history of each color AND a Glossary, Notes, Bibliography (and suggested other reading), Acknowledgements, & Index all for 320 pages of mind-numbing, sleep inducing reading.
I am an artist; I use color, lots & lots of color; I mistakenly thought this book would further my knowledge of what I already knew: Lead white or red or orange is poisonous; Green is from arsenic & therefore also poisonous & William Morris used it heavily in his clothing & wallpaper; Sepia is squid ink; and cochineal (which we have & talk about at the Garden I docent at), used as natural food coloring, is a Bug!
It took me well over 6-8 months to read this and it hurt my brain. However, if you have a steel-trap for a brain and you want to learn about the composition & history of traditional colors used in art, clothing/fashion, make-up, and/or decor this is the book for you.
I'm thinking of gifting it to my favorite watercolor artist, it would better serve as a go-to reference source, rather than a sit-down "let's read for a bit" book!
It earned a 2nd ★ for the completeness & depth of information
November 25, 2022
{3.5 stars}
The first thing that jumped out was ‘colour’ -- one of my favourite favourite things.
I liked this read for being more than how we respond to colours (red: anger, love; green: envy; etc), and it was fun reading a dog, named Robot, discovered the cave at Lascaux.
This is definitely an interesting read – it’s jam-packed with trivia (to dazzle and impress someone) – but for me it lacked depth (like the chapter on ginger and its focus on people with ginger hair) and sometimes it flitted around too much – which didn’t leave me with a strong sense of that shade – but it was still interesting.
So, I enjoyed reading this but I didn't find myself as enthralled as I thought I would be.
The first thing that jumped out was ‘colour’ -- one of my favourite favourite things.
I liked this read for being more than how we respond to colours (red: anger, love; green: envy; etc), and it was fun reading a dog, named Robot, discovered the cave at Lascaux.
This is definitely an interesting read – it’s jam-packed with trivia (to dazzle and impress someone) – but for me it lacked depth (like the chapter on ginger and its focus on people with ginger hair) and sometimes it flitted around too much – which didn’t leave me with a strong sense of that shade – but it was still interesting.
So, I enjoyed reading this but I didn't find myself as enthralled as I thought I would be.
December 4, 2022
4 stars
This was a well written book about the history of more than a hundred colors. Each color has a two page description and though interesting the history is quite random - much like my notes below.
Here are notes from some of the chapters that I found interesting.
1. Lead White - this poisonous pigment was the most widely used white pigment until 1913 when Titanium White was introduced. Lead poisoning was most common among those who created the pigment from chemical reactions around the lead ingots and those women who used it in makeup
2. Whitewash - is made from crushed limestone or lime, salt, and water
3. Isabelline - a pale yellow color said to be named after duchess Isabella from Spain and her underwear which went unwashed during a three month siege. It is now associated with several bird species and sickly penguins
4. Chalk - chalk is formed from ancient one celled alga
5. Naples Yellow - was the most popular yellow painter's pigment until the 20th century. Cezanne was a fan. It has a tendency to turn black if exposed to the elements
6. Chrome Yellow - this was Van Gogh's favorite yellow pigment and what he used for his sunflowers
7. Gold - some European painters used gold gilding in their paintings or frames but it was of course very expensive
8. Orange - orange as a color only emerged in the 16th century
9. Saffron - is one of the official colors of India's national flag. Saffron is made from the stamens of the flower and it takes approximately 40,000 flowers to make a pound of the pigment and has to be done by hand, making it very expensive
10. Mountbatten Pink - this reddish hue was used during WWII to camouflage British ships
11. Fuchsia - the flower that makes up this pigment was not found until 1702 in the Caribbean
12. Scarlet Red and Cochineal Red - both pigments came from different insects
13. Tyrian Purple - this royal hue comes from the mixture of two types of specific Mediterranean shellfish species
14. Indigo - known for centuries it was valued more than gold (on a per oz basis) and of the several plants that can create indigo most were found in the new world, so many of the Spanish ships contained indigo rather than gold
15. Khaki - this word popularized by the British uniform color worn in WW1 is an Urdu word that means dusty
16. Fallow - a tawny caramel color that is one of the oldest colors in the English language
17. Sepia - is named after a species of cuttlefish and its ink is a brown color
This was a well written book about the history of more than a hundred colors. Each color has a two page description and though interesting the history is quite random - much like my notes below.
Here are notes from some of the chapters that I found interesting.
1. Lead White - this poisonous pigment was the most widely used white pigment until 1913 when Titanium White was introduced. Lead poisoning was most common among those who created the pigment from chemical reactions around the lead ingots and those women who used it in makeup
2. Whitewash - is made from crushed limestone or lime, salt, and water
3. Isabelline - a pale yellow color said to be named after duchess Isabella from Spain and her underwear which went unwashed during a three month siege. It is now associated with several bird species and sickly penguins
4. Chalk - chalk is formed from ancient one celled alga
5. Naples Yellow - was the most popular yellow painter's pigment until the 20th century. Cezanne was a fan. It has a tendency to turn black if exposed to the elements
6. Chrome Yellow - this was Van Gogh's favorite yellow pigment and what he used for his sunflowers
7. Gold - some European painters used gold gilding in their paintings or frames but it was of course very expensive
8. Orange - orange as a color only emerged in the 16th century
9. Saffron - is one of the official colors of India's national flag. Saffron is made from the stamens of the flower and it takes approximately 40,000 flowers to make a pound of the pigment and has to be done by hand, making it very expensive
10. Mountbatten Pink - this reddish hue was used during WWII to camouflage British ships
11. Fuchsia - the flower that makes up this pigment was not found until 1702 in the Caribbean
12. Scarlet Red and Cochineal Red - both pigments came from different insects
13. Tyrian Purple - this royal hue comes from the mixture of two types of specific Mediterranean shellfish species
14. Indigo - known for centuries it was valued more than gold (on a per oz basis) and of the several plants that can create indigo most were found in the new world, so many of the Spanish ships contained indigo rather than gold
15. Khaki - this word popularized by the British uniform color worn in WW1 is an Urdu word that means dusty
16. Fallow - a tawny caramel color that is one of the oldest colors in the English language
17. Sepia - is named after a species of cuttlefish and its ink is a brown color
April 28, 2021
Легка, приємна в читанні книжка про барви. Авторка, на відміну від скрупульозного Пастуро, розглядає історію їх виникнення, розповсюдження та використання доволі поверхово, однак з гумором та всілякими цікавими фактиками. Для ознайомлення з темою рекомендую.
February 23, 2019
Sull’entusiasmo di Cromorama di Falcinelli (fantastico! Miglior libro del 2018) ho – erroneamente – pensato che questo potesse essere similare, o complementare.
Niente di tutto questo, si tratta di una serie di articoli, agili e più o meno superficiali, su una selezione di tinte, cromie, colori.
Si va dal gossip coloristico (il Rosa Mountbatten o il Giallo Wilde) ad affettate affermazioni sociali (cfr Biondo) a qualche nozione non proprio originale (attinge a piene mani da Ball e Pastoreau).
L’impianto anglo-centrico fa sì che sia ricco di aneddoti di cultura anglosassone, con qualche doverosa puntata italiana e francese.
Ma la cosa più irritante (e quel sentimentale nel titolo sembra messo lì a bella posta per giustificare un impianto che più che sentimentale sembra casuale) è che non c’è un pensiero, un filo conduttore, si va dalle cromie come strumenti per la pittura, ai colori come elementi di identificazione sociale.
E poi ci sono le imprecisioni e le mancanze, fastidiose se ti definisci Atlante: ad esempio, nel capitolo del Beige manca una citazione al greige, colore su cui Armani ha costruito un impero della moda; il Rosso Corsa il resto del mondo lo chiama Rosso Ferrari!, solo per citarne un paio, e gli errori tipografici [pag. 68 un Wide al posto di Wilde, pag. 147 una “a” di troppo, pag. 280 …. del Genesi ….] sempre irritanti.
Però la bibliografia è ottima!
Niente di tutto questo, si tratta di una serie di articoli, agili e più o meno superficiali, su una selezione di tinte, cromie, colori.
Si va dal gossip coloristico (il Rosa Mountbatten o il Giallo Wilde) ad affettate affermazioni sociali (cfr Biondo) a qualche nozione non proprio originale (attinge a piene mani da Ball e Pastoreau).
L’impianto anglo-centrico fa sì che sia ricco di aneddoti di cultura anglosassone, con qualche doverosa puntata italiana e francese.
Ma la cosa più irritante (e quel sentimentale nel titolo sembra messo lì a bella posta per giustificare un impianto che più che sentimentale sembra casuale) è che non c’è un pensiero, un filo conduttore, si va dalle cromie come strumenti per la pittura, ai colori come elementi di identificazione sociale.
E poi ci sono le imprecisioni e le mancanze, fastidiose se ti definisci Atlante: ad esempio, nel capitolo del Beige manca una citazione al greige, colore su cui Armani ha costruito un impero della moda; il Rosso Corsa il resto del mondo lo chiama Rosso Ferrari!, solo per citarne un paio, e gli errori tipografici [pag. 68 un Wide al posto di Wilde, pag. 147 una “a” di troppo, pag. 280 …. del Genesi ….] sempre irritanti.
Però la bibliografia è ottima!
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