The much loved seventeenth century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer remains something of an enigma, even today. After his death in 1675, unlike many artists, Vermeer did not leave behind any drawings or plans of his paintings, nor any diaries. Yet we have come to recognise and relish the idyllic quality that Vermeer captures in...
Continue reading“Do we dream, or does the white forked sail drift nearer, and nearer yet, diminishing the blue sea between us with the fullness of its wings?” John Ruskin on Turner In The Fighting Temeraire, it has long been presumed that Turner’s viewpoint would have been the London Embankment, watching as the famous and victorious Temeraire ship...
Continue readingOne of the most prevalent symbols to emerge from the German Romantic literature between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was that of an elusive Blue Flower, or Blaue Blume. This derived from the renowned novel of the period Heinrich von Ofterdingen, published posthumously in 1802 by author and philosopher Novalis. The story centres...
Continue readingBlue is all around us. As the renowned British presenter and naturalist Sir David Attenborough reminds us, our beautiful Earth is so abundant in oceans, it is often referred to as The Blue Planet. Yet, as surrounded by blue as we are, it has not been the easiest colour from which to create pigment. Early...
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