Art and Colour - Day 3 of 5 (in-venue in Winchester) Innovations in Colour: European Painting and Sculpture, 1800-1900

Please select this event if you would like to book Day 3 of the 2026 Jean Bolton Memorial Study course presented by The Arts Society Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area in-venue in Winchester.

Friday 13th November 2026

Dr Kathy McLauchlan - Innovations in Colour: European Painting and Sculpture, 1800-1900

Session 1. Colour versus Line

Art academies traditionally saw art in hierarchical terms – according to subject-matter, function, materials and method. In theory at least, colour was deemed to be ‘inferior’ to line – its sensuality and materiality set against the intellectual rigour of line. In French academic teaching of the 19^th century, drawing still took priority over painting. It was, as Ingres put, “the probity of art… the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling.” Line gave a composition its structural clarity and moral truth. Colour came a poor second, and at its worst might be a distraction. Ingres, together with other leading academicians, saw their traditional values as under threat from an alternative approach to art, one that emphasised spontaneity, expression and experience over abstract ideals. Delacroix in particular rejected precision in contours and finish, but used vibrant, contrasting colours and a richly textured surface to communicate effects and feelings, and create “a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator.” The line/colour debate associated with Ingres and Delacroix grew into one of the recurring themes of 19^th-century French art.

Session 2. The Colour of Sculpture

Archaeologists and historians of the 18^th century were increasingly aware that classical sculptors made use of colour. Their claims cut against an ideal of pure, harmonious form traditionally associated with the white marbles of antiquity. But the evidence was clear, and growing numbers of modern sculptors responded by carrying out their own experiments with colour. Canova sought to impart a more lifelike appearance to his work by applying wax finishes and touches of pink and gold. Later artists were less subtle, determined to regenerate their art and free themselves from traditional associations between sculpture and whiteness – “white poems of marble…the despair of modern art.” (Gautier, 1855) Late 19^th century sculptures might combine a wide range of material: semi-precious stones, applied pigments, enamels, ivory, bronze and marbles. Degas’s Little Dancer of 1881can be linked with this movement. Other sculptors were less interested in naturalism than in symbolic meaning. Some of their work - notably that of German artist Max Klinger – has an extraordinary and disturbing power.

Session 3. Symphonies in Colour

In the late nineteenth century, many western artists turned away from using colour to represent the appearances of objects and motifs in nature. Instead, they saw colour as means towards visual harmony in art. Aesthetic values took precedence over realism, with critics and artists alike drawing analogies between colour relationships on a painted surface and musical composition, rhythm and melody. This idea dominated the work of artists associated with Aestheticism, above all the American painter James McNeill Whistler who gave musical titles to many of his works: notably Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl and Nocturne in Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. Such works called on their viewers to concentrate on the subtle arrangement and gradation of colour over all other considerations. For Whistler, the subject as such was extraneous to a painting’s true purpose – its value as a beautiful object, and its potential to express the subtlest nuances of atmosphere and mood.

Fees

Tickets are £35 per day and include 3 superb lectures plus morning coffee/tea and a light lunch with wine/soft drinks. 

This year we are offering a reduced total fee of £165 (a saving of £10 overall) when you select all 5 days as a bundle. If you are interested in this option please return to the Ticket Tailor box office and select the first option.

The day will run from 10.30am - 3.30pm.

The course is open to anyone - you do not have to be a member of The Arts Society to attend. Feel free to pass the details of any of our events on to others you think may be interested.

All proceeds from this event go to support art in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area,

For more details of our events please go to https://theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.uk/Special/Special.aspx

Once you have purchased your ticket you will receive confirmation by return. The organiser will send a reminder with further relevant information on the Monday before each event.