Completing this river cruise, from Canaletto’s view of Westminster, through a Frost Fair, to John Constable’s Headlight Castle.
Canaletto
Starting from Egyptian blue in ancient times, pigments preferred by painters for sky blue have changed repeatedly. Here’s a brief history.
Open daily from now until 25 September, it features 24 of the most wonderful paintings of Venice from the 1730s.
As a primary colour, blue is essential in painting. The quest for the right blues has spanned the world and resulted in a succession of synthetic pigments which have influenced art.
Staffage – people, animals, birds, carts and ships – make a big difference to many landscape paintings. Have you met the Wanderer too?
A tough compositional challenge: a square that isn’t even rectangular, with unequal sides and a high tower. Solutions by Canaletto and other masters.
A British trader and merchant banker, and an Italian scientist who wrote an account of Newtonian physics for women – their influence on Canaletto, Tiepolo, and others.
Canals from Sisley at the end of the 19th century, and paintings of Venice by Canaletto, Rico, and of course John Singer Sargent.
Why do Canaletto’s gondolas not have shadows? Where did Cézanne get his shadows wrong, and why, and what colour are shadows really?
For once the name is accurate: it originated in the Prussian Empire around 1704, and by 1730 had established itself as a standard if not entirely reliable pigment. Watteau, Canaletto, Hogarth, Blake, Monet, and van Gogh all used it.
The Eclectic Light Company 