camera obscura, Cezanne, French Salon, Golden Ratio, Gustave Courbet, Leonardo da Vinci, modern art, Mont Sainte-Victoire and Chateau Noir, Rilke, Salon d'Automne, The Bathers, Theory of Colours

Cézanne’s Sixteen Shades of Blue

13th March

In 1907, the poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke travelled to France and visited the Salon d’Automne, an annual art exhibition in Paris, where he saw the work of Cézanne, a year after the death of the artist. Rilke wrote a series of letters to his wife, the sculptor Clara Westhoff, reflecting on the paintings of...

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Canvas, Cirrus, Clouds, Cumulus, JMW Turner, John Constable, John Ruskin, Luke Howard, Royal Academy, Stratus, Tacita Dean, Tate, Thomas Gainsborough

Clouds, a Canvas in the Sky

19th January

  Clouds are mysterious and ephemeral aerosols, each one a visible mass of condensed watery vapour. It was the amateur British meteorologist, Luke Howard, who created the name clouds that became universally adopted, so becoming known as the father of meteorology.  His curiosity was born from daily musings on the different shapes of clouds he...

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Christmas Message…

22nd December

We wish you a Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years! ? From everyone on the Blue & White Company Team ? We will be back on Wednesday 3rd January 2019  

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The Sumptuous Marriage of Blue and Gold

5th December

For centuries blue and gold have been married together in art. It is difficult to ascertain why artists choose certain colours for their compositions, we can only infer their reasons. Examples of these two colours being used together can be traced back to the Byzantine period, which spanned several centuries between c.330-1453. Artworks in this...

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Delftware Characters

15th November

In the mid sixteenth century the Eighty Years War took place, which had a big impact on art making and buying. When the citizens of the Netherlands revolted against Spanish rule under King Philip of Spain, taking back their independence, the result was the dissolution of the powerful Royal court. Protestantism became the dominant religion,...

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botanical art, botanical artists, butterfly, David Attenborough, insects, Maria Sibylla Merian, printmaking, vellum, watercolour

A Love of Bugs: Maria Sibylla Merian, Botanical Artist and Pioneering Scientist

14th October

Maria Sibylla Merian was born in 1647 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her father Matthäus Merian (the Elder) was a well known engraver and publisher, who ran a flourishing publishing shop in Frankfurt. He died when Maria was three, but the shop continued to be run by other family members. There was a great deal of work going...

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Bacchus, Mercury and the Graces, Palazzo Ducale, Renaissance, Save Venice, The Origin of the Milky Way, Tintoretto, ultramarine, Venice, Venus and Ariadne

500 Years of Tintoretto

28th September

This year marks the 500th anniversary of Jacopo Tintoretto’s birth, an artist who is one of Venice’s most prolific painters. Save Venice has funded the restoration of many paintings by the cherished Tintoretto, who has more than seven hundred paintings all over the city. This is an American and Venetian non-profit organisation, which over the decades been...

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A Young Woman seated at a Virginal, A Young Woman standing at a Virginal, Guitar, Jotter pad, Lute, Music in art, musicians, Vermeer

Vermeer & Music in Art: A Portable Pharmacy for the Soul…

29th August

Music permeated life in seventeenth century Delft, as well as in other European countries. It was common practice for music to be performed, by women especially, but also by men, as a way of entertaining guests and others in the room. Music could be heard inside homes, outside by street performers and at special events...

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Creative Conversations…

20th August

Since before the launch of the Blue & White Company, back in November 2017, we were keen to find a way to support emerging artists and creative conversations in a local capacity. As a small group of artists and makers ourselves, we appreciate how positive it can be to keep doors open to learning and...

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Blue jeans, Denim, Denim blue, Dye, Indigo, Levi, Levi Strauss

Denim : The Story of Blue Jeans

31st July

Denim is one of the most widely used fabrics in the world and denim jeans are the most popular indigo-dyed garment produced today – they have been for decades. Indigo dye is the dyestuff in denim that creates its distinctive deep blue colour. The word indigo originally comes from the Greek word ‘indikón’, later ‘indicum’...

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