“Looking at Atkins’ book today, what is most striking is not the outlines of the algae, however beautifully and delicately they crawl across the pages; it is the glorious depth of the Prussian blue backdrop to the images.’ Photography has always been on the cusp between science and art. Someone like Anna Atkins has...
Continue readingWe spend time travelling around Oxfordshire and nearby counties taking our pop up shop to events. Yesterday, the Blue & White Company joined the annual Heritage Day at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey. On this day each year, the academy opens its gates to the public and military families to enjoy air and...
Continue readingWe are delighted to share that the Blue & White Company was recently shortlisted in Blenheim Palace’s new business start up competition. This exciting initiative, organised by the Palace in collaboration with the FAB Accelerator team in Oxfordshire, was a new venture for 2018 and forms part of Blenheim Palace’s commitment to work with and...
Continue readingThe Japanese have always considered Mount Fuji to be the greatest symbol of Japan. This print which is at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, shows one from a series of Hirsohige’s 36 views of Mount Fuji, a homage to his country but also to his contemporary Hokusai and his series with the same title (c.1833)....
Continue readingJohn Singer Sargent was born in Florence in 1856 and spent much of his childhood travelling around Europe with his family, to Italy, France, Spain, Germany and England, soaking up different cultures. John’s mother, Mary Newbold Singer, was a watercolourist and recognizing her son’s enthusiasm for observational drawing, encouraged him to pursue art. It soon...
Continue readingFaded, monumental figures loom out of a haze of muted blue and white tones. Classical in representation and with an air of piety, this drawing looks as though it could be a fresco by an Italian master, fading away on the wall of a stone chapel. In fact, Trio (Tendon Transplant) is from a series...
Continue readingStill life has been a key genre in the canon of Western art since the Renaissance, with its ‘golden age’ flourishing in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. In this genre, a selection of objects such as crockery, flowers, food and game are arranged most commonly on a table or platform. This style was once...
Continue readingInextricably linked to Harris Tweed is a strong sense of heritage and tradition, or as it is known in Gaelic, dualchas, and a passion for making by hand. This knowledge and expertise has been inherited through generations of crofters, with many people over the centuries contributing to a unique process that remains so intertwined with...
Continue readingIllumination and the focus on light has taken on many forms within art. Before the printing press was invented around 1450, all that existed were handwritten books and some of the most meticulous and beautiful of these were called illuminated manuscripts. The world comes from the Latin ‘illuminare’, meaning to light up and the term was...
Continue readingIt may be hard to imagine now but stained glass was at one time considered and respected as a form of painting. It was not only a way to decorate church interiors, but also used to tell stories and to emotionally engage with people. The way stained glass has historically been made has not changed...
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