Decoding paintings through colour

Have you ever wondered whether pink really is for girls and blue for boys? In our final episode of series two, Beks is joined by Dr Vien Cheung, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds, and National Gallery Educator Ed Dickenson to explore the surprising, gendered history of pink and blue. We trace the rise of fashion's 'shocking pink', the cultural impact of the Barbie movie, and the enduring image of one of art history's most frequently depicted women dressed in blue. Listen to uncover how colour influences fashion, film, psychology, and even athletic performance – challenging assumptions about what pink and blue really mean. ------- Vien is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds, with a research interest in colour from all angles - from science and technology to psychology and philosophy, to art and design. Ed started his teaching career in Japan before working as a primary school teacher in London. He has worked on the learning teams of several museums and galleries including the Horniman, Historic Royal Palaces, and Ben Uri Gallery. He has been a Gallery Educator at the National Gallery since 2017. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA2RzHwsoyY You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Paintings mentioned: Andrea Solario, ‘A Man with a Pink’, About 1495 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/andrea-solario-a-man-with-a-pink Raphael, ‘The Madonna of the Pinks ('La Madonna dei Garofani')’, About 1506-7 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-the-madonna-of-the-pinks-la-madonna-dei-garofani Paolo Veronese, ‘The Family of Darius before Alexander’, 1565-7 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-veronese-the-family-of-darius-before-alexander William Hogarth, ‘The Graham Children’, 1742 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/william-hogarth-the-graham-children ------- Further reading: 'Legally Blonde', 2022 [Film] Kassia St Clair, ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’, 2016 [Book] Jo B. Paoletti, ‘Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America’, 2012 [Book] Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department Trade Publication, June 1918 [Article] Find out more about Alexander Schauss’s research on Baker-Miller pink: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236843504_The_Physiological_Effect_of_Color_on_the_Suppression_of_Human_Aggression_Research_on_Baker-Miller_Pink Find out more about research on the ‘red advantage’ in sports: https://redadvantage.webspace.durham.ac.uk/research/ https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/news/olympic-red-advantage/ Find out more about Elsa Schiaparelli here: https://www.schiaparelli.com/en/21-place-vendome/the-story-of-the-house/ Find out more about Andy Warhol’s prints: https://warholfoundation.org/warhol/catalogue-raisonne/catalogues-raisonnes-print/ Find out more about Pantone’s 2016 colours of the year – Rose quartz and Serenity: https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/articles/color-of-the-year/color-of-the-year-2016?srsltid=AfmBOorv2IjZznAonfFTmp2fnJPDc_04sI9CprjGL3wZS8EcjY9S_5lU ------- Episode credits: Guests: Dr Vien Cheung and Ed Dickenson Host and executive producer: Beks Leary Producer: Harry Rosehill Researcher: Hannah Rogers Technicians: Tom Gulliver and Timothy Carpenter Video Producers: Jeanne Kenyon and Alessandro Sorenti Editor: Oli Mason Theme music: Theo Elwell

Today we're on a hunt with artists through time, searching for the blackest black. We’re after the deepest blacks, the most accurate blacks and the most atmospheric blacks. Beks is joined by artist Stuart Semple to help answer questions such as: is black really a colour and how do we see the colour black? Step back in time to the Palaeolithic era to discover ancient cave paintings at the Lascaux caves. Then jump forward in time to hear about the scientific breakthrough Vantablack and the debates it has caused. ------- Stuart Semple is a multidisciplinary British artist whose work spans painting, performance, internet art, and installation. His work is known for its vibrant use of colour and techniques that challenge societal norms and question the role of the artist. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q67HKmopxSI You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Paintings mentioned: Frans Hals, ‘The Laughing Cavalier’, 1624 © The Wallace Collection, London https://www.wallacecollection.org/explore/collection/search-the-collection/laughing-cavalier/ John Singer Sargent, ‘Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau)’, 1883-84 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12127 John Singer Sargent, ‘Lord Ribblesdale’, 1902 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/john-singer-sargent-lord-ribblesdale ------- Further reading: Find out more about the history of the Lascaux caves: https://lascaux.fr/en/history-of-lascaux/ If you want to find out more about how we see colour, check out our first ever episode of 'Stories in Colour': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTWp_iLRh4&list=PLvb2y26xK6Y5oKGCTKesXyO-LR3f2XcZF&index=19 Isaac Newton, ‘Opticks: A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light’, 1704 [Book] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/d445akky/items Find out more about Vantablack: https://www.vantablack.co.uk/ Take a look at Asif Khan's Hyundai Pavillion: https://www.asif-khan.com/project/hyundai-pavilion/ Find out more about Sir Anish Kapoor’s work with Vantablack: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/03/11/anish-kapoor-to-unveil-worlds-blackest-sculptures-during-2021-venice-biennale https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/anish-kapoor/#venue Find out more about Stuart Semple's work: https://stuartsemple.com/ Find out more about MIT's "blackest black" coating and 'The Redemption of Vanity': https://news.mit.edu/2019/blackest-black-material-cnt-0913 Robert Fludd, ‘Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia ... [Tractatus secundus de naturae simia seu technica macrocosmi historia]’, 1624 [Book] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tymqmuxa/items?canvas=42 ------- Episode credits: Guest: Stuart Semple Host and executive producer: Beks Leary Producer: Harry Rosehill Researcher: Hannah Rogers Technicians: Ian Warren, Tom Gulliver and Timothy Carpenter Video Producers: Jeanne Kenyon and Alessandro Sorenti Editor: Oli Mason Theme music: Theo Elwell

You might have heard of men like Isaac Newton or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but who were the pioneering women writing on colour theory? To answer that question, we’re joined by cultural historian Alexandra Loske and The Colour Club founder Zeynep Sagir. Together, they uncover the lives of figures like Martha Gartside, Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Carry van Biema. From intricate colour grids to radical visual experiments, we study the work, stories and lasting legacies of these women – revealing how their influence is being recognised today. ------- Alexandra is a colour expert, art historian and museum curator. Her exhibition 'Colour: A Chromatic Promenade through the Royal Pavilion' was on display at The Royal Pavilion in Brighton in 2025. She is also author of 'The Artist's Palette' and 'Colour: A Visual History'. Zeynep is an artist, colour consultant, and founder of The Colour Club. Through The Colour Club, Zeynep runs workshops, hosts events, and offers consultancy, as well as publishing articles and interviews. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YK3CVlqDe4 You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Additional note: Since this episode was recorded, Alexandra has undertaken some additional research into Mary Gartside and has found that her name was Martha Gartside. Find out more about Martha Gartside and Alexandra’s research here: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/69706 https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/centre-for-life-history-and-life-writing-research/research/projects/lives-in-colour ------- Paintings mentioned: Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Fighting Temeraire’, 1839 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fighting-temeraire Angelica Kauffman RA, 'Colouring', 1778-80. Oil on canvas. 1260 mm x 1485 mm x 25 mm. © Royal Academy of Arts, London; photographer: John Hammond. (RA ref. 03/1130) https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/colour ------- Further reading: Alexandra Loske, ‘The Artist's Palette: The Palettes Behind the Paintings of 50 Great Artists’, 2024 [Book] Alexandra Loske, ‘Colour: A Visual History’, 2019 [Book] Find out more about ‘The Colour Club’: https://www.thecolourclub.co.uk/ Isaac Newton, ‘Opticks: A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light’, 1704 [Book] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/d445akky/items Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Zur Farbenlehre', 1810 [Book] George Sharf, ‘Allen's shop in St Martin's Lane [...]’, 1829. Watercolour © The British Museum, London https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1862-0614-119 Roy Osborne, ‘Books on Colour 1495-2015: History and Bibliography’, 2020 [Book] Cennino Cennini, ‘Il Libro dell’arte’, produced around late 14th century [Book] Alexandra Loske, ‘Mary Gartside: A female colour theorist in Georgian England’, St Andrews Journal of Art History and Museum Studies, Vol.14, 2010 [Journal article] https://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/nsr/article/download/234/261 Mary Gartside, ‘Essay on Light and Shade’, 1805 [Book] https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1756677/an-essay-on-light-and-book-gartside-mary/ Mary Gartside, ‘An Essay on a New Theory of Colours and on Composition in General’, 1808 [Book] https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1756676/an-essay-on-a-new-book-mary-gartside/ Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, ‘Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color’, 1902 [Book] https://archive.org/details/colorproblemspra00vand/page/n1/mode/2up Caroline van Biema, ‘Farben und Formen als lebendige Kräfte’, 1930 [Book] https://www.staatsgalerie.de/de/sammlung-digital/farben-und-formen-lebendige-kraefte Bonnie E. Snow and Hugo B. Froehlich, ‘The theory and practice of color’, 1928 [Book] ------- Episode credits: Guests: Dr Alexandra Loske and Zeynep Sagir Host and executive produ

A teenage chemist’s accidental discovery didn’t just revolutionise colour history – it sparked a viral Victorian colour craze! Cultural historian Kassia St Clair joins Beks to uncover the story of mauveine – the world’s first synthetic aniline dye. Practically overnight, this striking purple became a mass-market sensation. Mauve reshaped Victorian fashion and left a legacy that stretches all the way from a laboratory in Victorian London’s East End to portraits of icons like Oprah Winfrey. ------- Kassia is the author of books including 'The Secret Lives of Colour', 'The Golden Thread' and 'Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour'. She specialises in telling stories about the overlooked and everyday. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddv3yLM6VeQ You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Paintings mentioned: Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope, ‘Sir William Henry Perkin’, 1906. © National Portrait Gallery, London https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw04955/Sir-William-Henry-Perkin?_gl=1*n8r8uw*_up*MQ..*_ga*NDE2MjgwNzAxLjE3NzgwNzkyNDc.*_ga_3D53N72CHJ*czE3NzgwNzkyNDYkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzgwNzkyNDYkajYwJGwwJGgw John Phillip, ‘The Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal, 25 January 1858’, Signed and dated 1860 © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2026 | Royal Collection Trust https://www.rct.uk/collection/406819/the-marriage-of-victoria-princess-royal-25-january-1858 Claude Monet, ‘Irises’, About 1914-17 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-irises Shawn Michael Warren, ‘Oprah Winfrey’, 2023 © National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Courtesy of the artist https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2023.37?destination=edan-search/default_search%3Fedan_local%3D1%26edan_q%3Doprah ------- Further reading: Kassia St Clair, ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’, 2016 [Book] Kassia St Clair, ‘The Secret Lives of Colour: Expanded Edition’, 2025 [Book] Simon Garfield, ‘Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World’, 2000 [Book] Find out more about William Henry Perkin here: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp37617/william-henry-perkin Perkin, W. H. ‘On Mauve or Aniline-Purple'. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 13 (1863-1864): 170-176. [Journal article] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspl.1863.0042 Science Museum, ‘The secret origins of purple dye’, 2019 [YouTube video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7JCMxq7DU8 Find out more about ‘The Mauve Measles’ in Punch Magazine, 20 Aug 1859: https://magazine.punch.co.uk/image/I0000tqpCmhDDsLU Oscar Wilde, ‘The Decay of Lying’, 1891 [Book] Oscar Wilde, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, 1890 [Book] Explore 'Monet's Palette in the Twentieth Century: 'Water-Lilies' and 'Irises'’ in the National Gallery's Technical Bulletin, 2007: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/roy2007 Find out more about artist Shawn Michael Warren: https://www.shawnmichaelwarren.com/ Find out more about Oprah Winfrey and the colour purple: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/oprah-winfrey-national-portrait-gallery-shawn-michael-warren-commission-180983424/ Watch or listen to our episode of ‘Stories of Colour’ on Tyrian purple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcPMFsafav8 ------- Episode credits: Guest: Kassia St Clair Host and executive producer: Beks Leary Producer: Harry Rosehill Researcher: Hannah Rogers Technicians: Ian Warren and Timothy Carpenter Video Producers: Jeanne Kenyon and Alessandro Sorenti Editor: Paul Frankl Theme music: Theo Elwell

What makes two volcano-born pigments so dangerous? Hint: they weren’t scorching hot when artists used them. Orpiment and realgar both contain arsenic, a foe we’ve previously faced on ‘Stories in Colour’. From volcanoes to ancient alchemical practices, art historian Evie Hatch joins Beks to uncover the origins and histories of these orange and yellow pigments. Together, they discuss how orpiment and realgar have been used, where their names come from and the risks artists faced painting with them. ------- Evie Hatch is an art historian specialising in the history and characteristics of artist pigments. She is the writer and presenter of Jackson's Art Pigment Stories series and author of the 2025 book ‘Pigment Stories: The History of Artists' Colour’. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdv6XZoJBE You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Paintings mentioned: Titian, ‘The Holy Family with a Shepherd’, About 1510 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-the-holy-family-with-a-shepherd Titian, ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, 1520-3 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-bacchus-and-ariadne Jacopo Tintoretto, ‘Christ washing the Feet of the Disciples’, About 1575-80 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jacopo-tintoretto-christ-washing-the-feet-of-the-disciples Jacopo Tintoretto, ‘The Origin of the Milky Way', About 1575 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jacopo-tintoretto-the-origin-of-the-milky-way Rachel Ruysch, ‘Flowers in a Vase’, About 1685 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/rachel-ruysch-flowers-in-a-vase Margarito d’Arezzo, ‘The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Scenes of the Nativity and the Lives of the Saints’, Probably about 1263-4 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/margarito-d-arezzo-the-virgin-and-child-enthroned-with-narrative-scenes Abraham Mignon, ‘Still Life with Flowers and a Watch’, About 1660-79 © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Still-Life-with-Flowers-and-a-Watch--7404dc80eb5bfc4161ed6ccf454e293f?tab=data ------- Further reading: Pliny the Elder, ‘Natural History’ [Book] Find out more about Plutarch’s version of the tale of King Midas in "On Superstition" from ‘Moralia’, produced about 100 AD [Essay] Cennino Cennini, ‘Il Libro dell’arte’, produced in late 14th-century [Book] Find out more about ‘Titian’s Painting Technique before 1540’ in the National Gallery’s Technical Bulletin, 2013: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/media/16259/vol-34-essay-1-2013.pdf Find out more about the use of orpiment in Margarito d’Arezzo’s ‘The Virgin and Child Enthroned’: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/bAVhk85cvIns0Q Find out more about research on degrading colours in yellow flowers in 17th-century still life paintings here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9176749/ Listen to our episode from series one of ‘Stories in Colour’ on deadly green pigments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PIn-7FesV8 ------- Additional note: Please note that mentions of the emperor Caius during this episode are in reference to the Roman emperor Gaius Caesar (Caligula). https://www.britannica.com/biography/Caligula-Roman-emperor ------- Episode credits: Guest: Evie Hatch Host and executive producer: Beks Leary Producer: Harry Rosehill Researcher: Hannah Rogers Technicians: Ian Warren and Tom Gulliver Video Producer: Alessandro Sorenti Editor: Paul Frankl Theme music: Theo Elwell