Cover not available
Part of
Colour Studies: A broad spectrum
Edited by Wendy Anderson, Carole P. Biggam, Carole Hough and Christian Kay
[Not in series 191] 2014
► pp. 380–396

“Miss Gartside’s immediate eye”

An examination of Mary Gartside’s publications on colour between 1805 and 1808 in the context of illustrated colour literature and paint manuals of the early nineteenth century

This chapter examines three publications by the English colour theorist Mary Gartside (active 1781–1809) with regard to their role as illustrated publications on the subject of colour. Gartside’s works are exemplary of a category of experimental illustrated books published shortly before the rise of lithography. In the early nineteenth century, authors and publishers were faced with the challenge of adequately representing concepts of colour in colour and relied largely on the work-intensive method of hand-colouring. These books are now rare and reflect a particular phase in print culture and in the material history of colour studies. The chapter closely examines Gartside’s books and sets them into the context of earlier, contemporary and later illustrated publications on colour.
Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.191.25los
References (33)
Ackerman, Rudolph. 1809–1828. The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. London: Rudolph Ackermann.Google Scholar
Barnard, George. 1858. The Theory and Practice of Landscape Painting in Water-Colours. Illustrated by a Series of Thirty Drawings and Diagrams in Colours, and Numerous Woodcuts. New and Enlarged Edition. Leighton Brothers’ Chromatic Process. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.Google Scholar
Bermingham, Ann. 2000. Learning to Draw: Studies in the Cultural History of a Polite and Useful Art. New Haven & London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art / Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Boutet, Claude (attr.). 1708. Traité de la peinture en miniature pour apprendre aisément à peindre sans maître. The Hague: van Dole.Google Scholar
Cozens, Alexander. 1785. A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape. London: The author.Google Scholar
Cramer, Charles A. 1997. “Alexander Cozen’s ‘New Method’: The Blot and General Nature.” The Art Bulletin 79 (1): 112–129. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eastlake, Charles Lock. 1840. Goethe’s Theory of Colours; tr. from the German: with Notes by Charles Lock Eastlake. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar
Field, George. 1817. Chromatics, or, An Essay on the Analogy and Harmony of Colours. London: Printed for the author by A. J. Valpy.Google Scholar
. 1835. Chromatography, or, A Treatise on Colours and Pigments, And of their Powers in Painting, &c. London: Charles Tilt.Google Scholar
. 1841. Chromatography, or, A Treatise on Colours and Pigments, And of their Powers in Painting, &c. New Edition, Improved. London: Tilt & Bogue.Google Scholar
. 1850 / 1858. Rudiments of the Painter’s Art; or, A Grammar of Colouring, Applicable to Operative Painting, Decorative Architecture, and the Arts. London: J. Weale.Google Scholar
Gage, John. 2001. “A Romantic Colourman: George Field and British Art.” Walpole Society 63: 1–73.Google Scholar
Gartside, Mary. 1805. An Essay on Light and Shade, on Colours, and on Composition in General. London: Printed for the author by T. Davison, and sold by T. Gardiner.Google Scholar
. 1808a. An Essay on a New Theory of Colours, and on Composition in General, illustrated by Coloured Blots Shewing the Application of the Theory to Composition of Flowers, Landscapes, Figures, &c., 2nd ed. London: T. Gardiner, W. Miller and I. and A. Arch.Google Scholar
. 1808b. Ornamental Groups, Descriptive of Flowers, Birds, Shells, Fruit, Insects, &c., and Illustrative of a New Theory of Colouring. London: W. Miller.Google Scholar
(sender). 1808–1809. Letters to the Associated Artists in Water-Colours, 1808 Mar. 7 – 1809 June 23 / 11 items. Mss. National Art Library, V&A, London, pressmark 86.AA.18.Google Scholar
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. 1810–1812. Zur Farbenlehre. Tübingen: J. G.Cotta.Google Scholar
Harris, Moses. c.1769–1776 / 1811. The Natural System of Colours, Wherein is Displayed the Regular and Beautiful Order and Arrangement, Arising From the Three Primitives, Red, Blue, and Yellow […]. London: Laidler, c.1769–1776. New ed. with additions by Thomas Martyn. London: Harrison and Leigh, 1811. Google Scholar
Hogarth, William. 1753. The Analysis of Beauty. London: Printed by John Reeves for the author.Google Scholar
Howard, Frank. 1838. Colour as a Means of Art; Being an Adaptation of the Experience of Professors to the Practice of Amateurs. London: Joseph Thomas.Google Scholar
Kuehni, Rolf G., and Andreas Schwarz. 2008. Color Ordered: a Survey of Color Order Systems from Antiquity to the Present. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loske, Alexandra. 2010. “Mary Gartside: A Female Colour Theorist in Georgian England.” St Andrews Journal of Art History and Museum Studies 14: 17–30.Google Scholar
The Morning Post. 1804–1809. Issues 11,297–12,419. London.Google Scholar
Newton, Isaac, Sir. 1704. Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. London: Printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Raphael, and Max Hollein (eds). 2007. Turner – Hugo – Moreau. Entdeckung der Abstraktion. Munich: Hirmer Verlag.Google Scholar
Runge, Friedlieb Ferdinand. 1850. Farbenchemie: Musterbilder für Freunde des Schönen und zum Gebrauch für Zeichner, Maler, Verzierer und Zeugdrucker, dargestellt durch chemische Wechselwirkung. Berlin: The author.Google Scholar
Runge, Philipp Otto. 1810. Die Farben-Kugel, oder Konstruktion des Verhältnisses aller Mischungen der Farben zu Einander. Hamburg: Friedrich Perthes.Google Scholar
Schmid, F. 1948. “The Color Circles by Moses Harris.” The Art Bulletin 30 (3): 227–230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Senefelder, Alois. 1819. A Complete Course of Lithography: Containing Clear and Explicit Instructions in All the Different Branches and Manners of that Art: Accompanied by Illustrative Specimens of Drawings. To Which is Prefixed a History of Lithography, From its Origin to the Present Time. Translated from the Original German, by A. S. London: R. Ackerman.Google Scholar
Sowerby, James. 1809. A New Elucidation of Colours, Original, Prismatic and Material; Showing their Concordance in Three Primitives, Yellow, Red, and Blue; and the Means of Producing Measuring and Mixing them: With Some Observations on the Accuracy of Sir Isaac Newton. London: Richard Taylor & Co.Google Scholar
Spillmann, Werner (ed.). 2009. Farb-Systeme 1611–2007. Farbdokumente in der Sammlung Werner Spillmann. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.Google Scholar
Syme, Patrick (ed.). 1814 / 1821. Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, with Additions. Edinburgh:Printed for William Blackwood, & London: T. Cadell.Google Scholar
Varley, John. 1818. J. Varley’s List of Colours. London: J. Varley.Google Scholar