Product Details  

The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair

Hardcover: 320 pages
Product Dimensions: 14.6 x 3.2 x 22.4 cm

To accompany the re-launch of the 17th Century Paintbox Print collection, we’ve added a new book to the gallery. The Secret Lives of Colours by Kassia St Clair tells unusual stories of 75 of the most fascinating shades, dyes and hues, including a section about the 17th century manuscript, making it a perfect partner for the prints.

From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book Kassia St Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colours and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilisation. Across fashion and politics, art and war, The Secret Lives of Colour tell the vivid story of our culture.