Colour
Travels Through the Paintbox
Published on 30. December 2014
512 pages
978-1-4447-1988-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Pure pleasure'
Independent
'A rich read'
Evening Standard
'A delight'
Sunday Telegraph
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF VICTORIA FINLAY'S QUEST TO UNCOVER THE MANY SECRETS HIDDEN INSIDE THE PAINTBOX.
On her travels she visited remote Central American villages where women still wear skirts dyed with the purple tears of sea snails; learned how George Washington obsessed about his green dining room while he should have been busy with matters of state; and investigated the mystery of Indian Yellow paint, said to have been made from the urine of Indian cows force-fed with mango leaves.
From mascara to nomadic carpets and pillar boxes, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artists and artisans to reproduce the rainbow - and the impact their work has had on the world.
Independent
'A rich read'
Evening Standard
'A delight'
Sunday Telegraph
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF VICTORIA FINLAY'S QUEST TO UNCOVER THE MANY SECRETS HIDDEN INSIDE THE PAINTBOX.
On her travels she visited remote Central American villages where women still wear skirts dyed with the purple tears of sea snails; learned how George Washington obsessed about his green dining room while he should have been busy with matters of state; and investigated the mystery of Indian Yellow paint, said to have been made from the urine of Indian cows force-fed with mango leaves.
From mascara to nomadic carpets and pillar boxes, the story of colour is the story of the efforts of artists and artisans to reproduce the rainbow - and the impact their work has had on the world.
Reviews / Votes
[Victoria Finlay's] curiosity is inexhaustible, her reading wide, and her writing style a delight * Sunday Telegraph * It's pure pleasure to join this gutsy arts reporter-cum-scholar on her quest for historical pigments and dyes around the world * Independent * A highly companionable guide, adventurous and romantic * Independent on Sunday * Full of forgotten facts and beguiling anecdotes . . . it would be hard to confront a painting ever again without seeing in it a kind of coded map of the world * Daily Telegraph * You get your money's worth and change to spare . . . Both picaresque and picturesque, it's a rich read. * Evening Standard * Packed with stories, anecdotes and adventures. A full rainbow . . . as vivid as the colours themselves * Daily Express * A treasure trove of human history and obsession . . . the breadth of research and insight is dazzling. * Glasgow Herald *More details
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton General Division (Digital)
Edition type
Digital original
Illustrations
Maps and integrated illustrations
File size
21,75 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4447-1988-8 (9781444719888)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2003
Sceptre
€16.50
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
Victoria Finlay studied social anthropology at St Andrews University, specialising in Asian culture. She worked as a journalist in Hong Kong for eleven years, five of which were spent as arts editor for the South China Morning Post.
