The Secret Lives of Color

by Kassia St. Clair

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  Acknowledgments

  I am hugely grateful to the many people who took the time to help me with individual color stories and to point me in the direction of relevant research. Particular thanks go to Cédric Edon, director of communication at Schiaparelli; Martin Boswell, curator of uniforms, and Richard Slocombe, senior curator of art, at the Imperial War Museum. To Professors Raman Siva Kumar and B. N. Goswamy, and to Dr. Mark Nesbitt, curator at Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, and the staff at Museum Victoria for helping me delve into the mystery of Indian yellow. And to Henning Rader at the Munich Museum and Sabrina Hamann at Stabilo.

  Thank you also to Mrs. Herries and to Jenny and Piers Litherland, for the loan of their wonderful home where I spent a very happy six weeks writing, and to Carla Bennedetti for looking after me while I was there. Thank you to my British editors at John Murray, Georgina Laycock and Kate Miles; to the talented James Edgar, who looked after this book’s design; and to Imogen Pelham, for all her work getting me from roposal to publication. My respect and gratitude also go to the team at Penguin Books in America, particularly Meg Leder and Shannon Kelly, and to the copyeditor, who patiently and painstakingly weeded out every “u” from every “color,” all while making the text clearer, tighter, better. Thank you. Special thanks also to Michelle Ogundehin and Amy Bradford at Elle Decoration for taking the pitch for the original column. Thank you also to all the friends who have offered
support, advice, research suggestions, and glasses of wine when they were required. Special mention must also go to Tim Cross and to my brother Kieren for reading through various drafts; to my dad, for always coming to my rescue; and to Fiammetta Rocco for her unfailing kindness and advice.

  Thank you, finally, to Olivier, not only for bringing me coffee each morning, but also for the read-throughs, suggestions, patience when I was sure I was going insane, cheerleading, thoughtful criticism, and boundless encouragement.

  Index

  The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.

  Page numbers of main color entries are indicated in bold.

  A

  absinthe 217–9

  acid yellow 74–5

  Adams, John 242–3

  Aesop 130, 278

  alchemy 66, 68, 145, 211

  Alexander the Great 100

  Altamira 228, 250–1, 262, 274

  amaranth 130–1

  amber 101–3

  Ando, Tadao 41

  aniline dyes 161, 167

  Apple 41–2

  archil 161, 165–6

  Argentina 50

  Armani, Giorio 192

  Armenia 107

  Arnolfini Portrait 210, 214

  arsenic 82, 168, 212–3, 224–6

  artists 21–4, 30

  black 262–3

  brown 237, 238–9

  chalk 56–7

  green 211–2

  lead white 44

  mummy 254–5

  Prussian blue 194

  Scheele’s green 224

  terre verte 227–9

  ultramarine 184–5

  umber 251

  verdigris 214, 215–6

  yellow 64

  see also cave art; illuminated

  manuscripts; impressionists;

  Pre-Raphaelites

  Avicenna 124

  avocado 27, 230–1