Published: 24/11/2023
The current exhibition at the Ashmolean in Oxford is Colour Revolution, Victorian Art, Fashion & Design.
As you enter the exhibition galleries, you see one of Queen Victoria’s black mourning dresses. The point is made that our image of the Victorian era is dominated by thinking of the Queen in black. From then on, the exhibition is full of a range of paintings, clothes, ceramics, jewellery and other objects showing how colourful the era really was.
From Ruskin’s interest in depicting the colours of nature to paintings by Millais, Turner, Rossetti, Whistler and Moore, you see how artists pushed the boundaries of the use of colour. The final gallery, for example, shows an interest by artists at the end of the century in the symbolic use of colour and colour for colour’s sake.
The exhibition also shows how the discovery of chemical dyes transformed fashion and brought with it new options in colour. For women, this led to brighter and more vibrant clothes in public while for men colourful clothes tended to be more for the home with black often preferred outside it.
A highlight for me was the gallery with objects from the 1852 International Exhibition. At the centre is a large Minton majolica fountain and across from it is a huge Minton majolica peacock. These are vibrant and spectacular but also serve as a reminder that the dyes and glazes used by the Victorians were often toxic.
Alongside these objects are books showing the contemporary interest in describing colour. For example, Werner’s book identifying shades was used by Darwin on his scientific journeys.
Well worth a visit, the exhibition runs until 18 February 2024.Click here for further details.
