COPAST · The Colours of the Past in Victorian England

The Colours of the Past in Victorian England

The project entitled ‘The Colours of the Past in Victorian England’ (COPAST) analysed the reception of the chromatic material culture of Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the works of writers and artists from William Morris’s close circle, including the chromophile architect William Burges. The Victorian age (1837-1901) was indeed a chromatic turning point following the scientific discovery of new chemical colours, such as coal-tar based synthetic dyes, against which many artists strongly reacted. Charlotte Ribeyrol specifically investigated ideological approaches to ancient polychromy in the context of the Greek and Gothic Revivals which affected industrialized England in the second half of the 19th century. Working on rare archival resources in London and Oxford in close collaboration with the teams at the Ashmolean Museum, she contrasted these ancient hues with the new chemical aniline dyes which were mainly devised for the expanding textile industry. During the course of this two-year Fellowship, Dr. Ribeyrol pursued three innovative and interrelated objectives: - to explain how colour became a central cultural concern in 19th century England due to major scientific innovations relating to both the fabrication and perception of colour. - to highlight the importance of chromatic materiality in Victorian literature, by confronting writers' and artists’s actual practice of colour with the list of pigments and dyes as well as the ancient recipes which they referred to in their lectures, correspondence or poetry. - to analyse the complex relationship the Victorians entertained with the past – in particular two key colourful periods: Antiquity and the Middle-Ages.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union