Author | Kassia St. Clair |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Subject | Art history |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Published | 2016 (John Murray, UK) 2017 (Penguin Random House, USA) |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 320 |
ISBN | 9781473630819 |
The Secret Lives of Colour is a 2016 non-fiction book by British writer Kassia St. Clair which explores the cultural and social history of colours. The book, which is based on a column St. Clair writes for British magazine Elle Decoration , is organized in a series of chapters by color, arranged from white to black. [1] Each chapter is composed of short, two to four page, essays on different shades of its respective color, discussing an interesting aspect of science, history, art, or culture relating to the shade. [1] [2] There are a total of 75 essays in the book. [3] Each page is bordered by a stripe of the color it discusses for easy visual identification, even when the book is closed. [4] [5]
The book was generally well-received by critics. NPR listed it on its Best Books of 2017 list. [6] Lily Le Brun of The Economist found the book's design visually appealing and helpful for referencing. [4] Cathy Dillon of The Irish Times called it "perfect gift for a colour enthusiast". [3] Laura J. Snyder of The Wall Street Journal wrote that it brought the history of both science and art "into vivid relief." [7]
Critics responded particularly well to the breadth of subjects discussed. Claire Voon of Hyperallergic found it "diligently researched," and remarked on the topical diversity of the various essays. [2] Ross Stewart of Chemistry World described the vignette structure as an "effective...conceit" allowing St. Clair to "dance effortlessly through an astonishing range of subjects." [5] Lucy Watson's review in the Financial Times was more critical, describing the book as "somewhat fragmented," and expressing disappointment that the book focused on anecdotes without discussing the classification of color as a broad topic. [8]
Magenta is a color that is variously defined as purplish-red, reddish-purple or mauvish-crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and blue. It is one of the four colors of ink used in color printing by an inkjet printer, along with yellow, black, and cyan, to make all other colors. The tone of magenta used in printing is called "printer's magenta". It is also a shade of purple.
The color khaki is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge.
Umber is a natural brown earth pigment that contains iron oxide and manganese oxide. In its natural form, it is called raw umber. When calcined, the color becomes warmer and it becomes known as burnt umber.
Mauve is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower. The first use of the word mauve as a color was in 1796–98 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but its use seems to have been rare before 1859. Another name for the color is mallow, with the first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English in 1611.
Beige is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither bleached nor dyed, hence also the color of natural wool. It has come to be used to describe a variety of light tints chosen for their neutral or pale warm appearance.
Puce is a dark red or purple brown color, a brownish purple or a "dark reddish brown."
Sepia is a reddish-brown color, named after the rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish Sepia. The word sepia is the Latinized form of the Greek σηπία, sēpía, cuttlefish.
Naples yellow, also called antimony yellow, is an inorganic pigment used in paintings during the period 1700–1850. Colors range from a muted, or earthy, reddish yellow pigment to a bright light yellow. It is the chemical compound lead antimonate (Pb2Sb2O7). Also known as jaune d'antimoine, it is one of the oldest synthetic pigments. The Ancient Egyptians were known to create it.
Gamboge is a partially transparent deep saffron to mustard yellow pigment. It is the traditional colour used to dye Buddhist monks' robes, and Theravada Buddhist monks in particular. Physicist Jean Perrin used this pigment to prove Brownian motion in 1908.
Wesley Clair Mitchell was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades.
Payne's grey is a dark blue-grey colour used in painting. It can be used as a mixer in place of black. Since it is less intense than black, it is easier to get the right shade when using it as a mixer. Originally a mixture of iron blue, yellow ochre and crimson lake, Payne's grey now is often a mixture of blue and black or of ultramarine and burnt sienna.
Taupe is a dark gray-brown color. The word derives from the French noun taupe meaning "mole". The name originally referred only to the average color of the French mole, but beginning in the 1940s, its usage expanded to encompass a wider range of shades.
Russet is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge. As a tertiary color, russet is an equal mix of orange and purple pigments. The first recorded use of russet as a color name in English was in 1562.
Rosso corsa is the red international motor racing colour of cars entered by teams from Italy.
Fallow is a pale brown color that is the color of withered foliage or sandy soil in fallow fields.
Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.
Roccella tinctoria is a lichenised species of fungus in the genus Roccella, homotypic synonym of Lecanora tinctoria (DC.) Czerwiak., 1849. It was first described by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1805. It has the following varieties:
Isabelline is a pale grey-yellow, pale fawn, pale cream-brown or parchment colour. It is primarily found in animal coat colouring, particularly plumage colour in birds and, in Europe, in horses. It also has historically been applied to fashion. The first known record of the word was in 1600 as "isabella colour"; this use later became interchangeable in literature with "isabelline" after the latter was introduced into print in 1859. The origin of the word is unclear; the uncertainty prompted by this has generated several attempts to provide an etymology and led to one prominent legend.
The Rose and the Amaranth is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 369 in the Perry Index. It stands in contrast to those plant fables like The Oak and the Reed and The Trees and the Bramble in which the protagonists arrogantly debate with each other. But in this story, the lowly amaranth praises the rose for its beauty and reputation and is answered, equally humbly, that a rose's life is brief while the amaranth is everlasting.
Green earth, also known as terre verte and Verona green, is an inorganic pigment derived from the minerals celadonite and glauconite. Its chemical formula is K[(Al,Fe3+),(Fe2+,Mg] O102.