The Colours of the Past in Victorian England

325 Pages·2016·26.776 MB·English

by  Charlotte Ribeyrol (editor)

Cultural Interactions:
Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
C
h
The experience of colour underwent a significant change in the second half of a
r
the nineteenth century, as new coal tar-based synthetic dyes were devised for the lo
t
expanding textile industry. These new, artificial colours were often despised in te

artistic circles who favoured ancient and more authentic forms of polychromy, R
i
whether antique, medieval, Renaissance or Japanese. However faded, ancient b
e
hues were embraced as rich, chromatic alternatives to the bleakness of industrial y
r
modernity, fostering fantasized recreations of an idealized past. o
l

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The interdisciplinary essays in this collection focus on the complex reception of the .
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colours of the past in the works of major Victorian writers and artists. Drawing on

close analyses of artworks and literary texts, the contributors to this volume explore

the multiple facets of the chromatic nostalgia of the Victorians, as well as the contrast T
h
between ancient colouring practices and the new sciences and techniques of colour. e

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Charlotte Ribeyrol is Associate Professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, a s
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Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford (2016–2018) and a member of
i
n
the Institut Universitaire de France since 2015. Her main field of research is the The Colours of the Past
V
influence of Ancient Greece on Victorian painting and literature, particularly in i
c
the works of A.C. Swinburne, J.A. Symonds and Walter Pater. Thanks to her to in Victorian England
interdisciplinary collaboration with chemists from the POLYRE programme r
i
(supported by Sorbonne Universities), she is now exploring the importance of the a
n
materiality of colour in the works of major Victorian writers and artists, notably
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William Morris. n
g Charlotte Ribeyrol (ed.)
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a
n
d
ISBN 978-3-0343-1974-4
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
Cultural Interactions:
Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
C
h
The experience of colour underwent a significant change in the second half of a
r
the nineteenth century, as new coal tar-based synthetic dyes were devised for the lo
t
expanding textile industry. These new, artificial colours were often despised in te

artistic circles who favoured ancient and more authentic forms of polychromy, R
i
whether antique, medieval, Renaissance or Japanese. However faded, ancient b
e
hues were embraced as rich, chromatic alternatives to the bleakness of industrial y
r
modernity, fostering fantasized recreations of an idealized past. o
l

(
e
d
The interdisciplinary essays in this collection focus on the complex reception of the .
)

colours of the past in the works of major Victorian writers and artists. Drawing on

close analyses of artworks and literary texts, the contributors to this volume explore

the multiple facets of the chromatic nostalgia of the Victorians, as well as the contrast T
h
between ancient colouring practices and the new sciences and techniques of colour. e

C
o
l
o
u
r
s

o
f

t
h
e

P
a
Charlotte Ribeyrol is Associate Professor at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, a s
t
Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Oxford (2016–2018) and a member of
i
n
the Institut Universitaire de France since 2015. Her main field of research is the The Colours of the Past
V
influence of Ancient Greece on Victorian painting and literature, particularly in i
c
the works of A.C. Swinburne, J.A. Symonds and Walter Pater. Thanks to her to in Victorian England
interdisciplinary collaboration with chemists from the POLYRE programme r
i
(supported by Sorbonne Universities), she is now exploring the importance of the a
n
materiality of colour in the works of major Victorian writers and artists, notably
E
William Morris. n
g Charlotte Ribeyrol (ed.)
l
a
n
d
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
The Colours of the Past in Victorian England
C I
ultural nteraCtIons
Studies in the Relationship between the Arts
Edited by J.B. Bullen
Volume 38
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Charlotte Ribeyrol (ed.)
The Colours of the Past
in Victorian England
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the
Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940586
ISSN 1662-0364
ISBN 978-3-0343-1974-4 (print)
ISBN 978-3-0353-0827-3 (eBook)
Cover image: J.A.M. Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold, St Mark’s,
Venice, 1880, oil on canvas © National Museum of Wales.
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2016
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the
permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and
storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements xiii
Charlotte Ribeyrol
Introduction 1
part i ‘Faded by exposure’: The Temporality of Colour 17
Charlotte Ribeyrol and Philippe Walter
1 ‘A magic web with colours gay’: W.H. Hunt’s Chromatic
Nostalgia 19
Caroline Arscott
2 Whistler and Whiteness 47
Stefano Evangelista
3 Symphonies in Haze and Blue: Lafcadio Hearn
and the Colours of Japan 71
part ii ‘Chromatic deviations’: ‘Foreignizing’ Colour 95
Isabelle Gadoin
4 Th e Orient in Chromolithography: Owen Jones
and the Colours of Islamic Art 97
vi
Michael Seymour
5 C olour and its Reconstruction in the
Nineteenth-Century Rediscovery of Assyrian Art 125
part iii ‘The violet shades, the hard cobalt’: Material
and Abstract Colours 161
Lene Østermark-Johansen
6 ‘ Like fragments of the milky sky itself’: The Late
Nineteenth-Century Revival of Luca della Robbia’s
Coloured Terracottas 163
Marc Porée
7 ‘Popularity’ in Blue 183
Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière
8 Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater’s ‘Key to the
Meanings of Colours’ in Thought-Forms (1901) 205
Claire Masurel-Murray
9 ‘ White Alb and Scarlet Camail’: The Colours
of Catholicism in Fin-de-Siècle Literature 235
Note on Contributors 257
Index 263
Figures
Charlotte Ribeyrol and Philippe Walter – ‘A magic web with colours
gay’: W.H. Hunt’s Chromatic Nostalgia
Figure 1.1 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, c.1890–
1905, oil on canvas, The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary
Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1961.470, Wadsworth
Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Photography
credits: Allen Phillips/Wadsworth Atheneum.
Figure 1.2 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, XRF
pigment analyses. Photography credits: Philippe Walter.
Figure 1.3 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, detail
of the Lady’s iridescent bodice. Photography credits:
Philippe Walter.
Figure 1.4 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, detail
of the tapestry. Photography credits: Philippe Walter.
Figure 1.5 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, detail
of the ultramarine blue ball of thread. Photography credits:
Philippe Walter.
Figure 1.6 William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, detail of the
emerald green ball of thread. Photography credits:
Philippe Walter.
Caroline Arscott – Whistler and Whiteness
Figure 2.1 J.A.M. Whistler, Symphony in White No. 3, 1865–1867, oil on
canvas, Barber Institute, University of Birmingham ©
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham.
viii Figures
Figure 2.2 J.E. Millais, Waking, 1867, oil on canvas, Perth City
Art Gallery. Image courtesy of Perth Museum
& Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council.
Figure 2.3 J.A.M. Whistler, Venus, 1859, etching and drypoint, Freer
Gallery of Art, Washington Freer Gallery of Art
© Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC:
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.295.
Figure 2.4 J.A.M. Whistler, Symphony in White No. 1: The White
Girl, 1862, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Harris Whittemore Collection, 1943.6.2.
Image Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Figure 2.5 J.A.M. Whistler, Symphony in White No. 2: The Little White
Girl, 1864, oil on canvas, Tate © Tate, London 2016.
Figure 2.6 Bed cover, 1855, UK, hand-knitted cotton © Victoria
and Albert Museum, London.
Stefano Evangelista – Symphonies in Haze and Blue: Lafcadio Hearn
and the Colours of Japan
Figure 3.1 J.A.M. Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea
Bridge, 1872/73, oil on canvas © Tate, London 2016.
Figure 3.2 J.A.M. Whistler, Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden
Screen, 1864, oil on wood panel © Freer Gallery of Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC:
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.75a.
Figure 3.3 Utagawa Hiroshige, Kyobashi Takegashi, from the series,
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, Edo period,
early to mid nineteenth century. Woodblock print;
ink and color on paper © Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Bequest
of Charles H.W. Verbeck, S2010.18.160.