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A painting of a woman reclining on a sofa with a book in her hand. The image has eight panels of colour overlaid on top of it. A painting of a woman reclining on a sofa with a book in her hand. The image has eight panels of colour overlaid on top of it.

Image Credit: Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Ramon Casas (1866–1932), A Decadent young woman, After the dance,1899. Museu do Montserrat, Barcelona

Image Credit: Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Ramon Casas (1866–1932), A Decadent young woman, After the dance,1899. Museu do Montserrat, Barcelona

Live Stream - Talk: Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design by Matthew Winterbottom

Tue 2 September 2025 , 6pm-7pm

Millennium Gallery

Hear curator Matthew Winterbottom talk about the recent Ashmolean Museum exhibition Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design. 

 

Please note this event is a live stream of the talk happening in person at the Millennium Gallery. This event is available to stream online and watch from home thanks to funding from the Chromotope project. If you would like to book a ticket to attend the talk in person at the gallery instead, please click here. 

Last year the Ashmolean Museum sought to challenge widely held perceptions that the Victorian age was dark and gloomy and instead explored how the era embraced an explosion of colour through developments in art, science and technology. As well as reviving the rich colours of the ancient and medieval past, of the Middle East, India, China and Japan and the natural world, artists and architects embraced the new vivid hues which technological and scientific advances made possible. 

The exhibition showcased a spectacular and flamboyant array of artworks, costume and design that sprung from this ‘colour revolution’.  In this special evening talk Matthew will talk through this fascinating history, highlighting some of the objects from international collections ranging from Ruskin’s studies, Turner and Whistler’s experiments with colour harmony, and Morris & Co.’s elaborate designs. 

Matthew Winterbottom is the Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

This talk is supported by Chromotope, an ERC funded Research Project. 

European Research Council and Chromotape logos

 

This event is part of the programme of events complementing The Ruskin Collection: Capturing Colour and Colour exhibitions at Millennium Gallery. 

 

Suggested donation £5 – Please donate if you're able and help keep your museums open and available for everyone to enjoy.

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