A grisaille turned into a trompe l’oeil, symphonies in white, making the transition to oil paints, an exercise for pupils, and vibrant primary colours.
Cézanne
A trip round the painter’s palette, with outstanding examples of well-known colours in use. Starts with yellow, then to red and finally to blue.
Yellow ochre, orpiment, Naples yellow, lead-tin yellow, Indian yellow, chrome yellow, and cadmium yellow – most toxic or at least harmful to someone.
From Dürer and Poussin to Cézanne and Hodler, reflections have been important in many landscape paintings.
Telling a story using shadows, and the nineteenth century controversy over the colour of shadows.
With its central role in visual art, light and its source plays a critical role in composition. It’s also one of the challenges to those painting in the studio or in front of the motif.
From conventional composition in the early days of Impressionism, landscapes have been reduced, eventually ending up as areas of colour and texture.
How trees came to invade Impressionist landscape paintings, in direct contravention to established principles.
Horizon, planes of foreground, middle distance and background, repoussoir and framing, rhythm, reflections and panoramas – examples of compositional techniques.
A parrot, coral, snuffed-out candles, human skulls, worn-out boots, a bottle of poison and a syringe: all objects in still life paintings.