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A full extract from the National Gallery's scholarly catalogue.

In theory, complementary colours, when mixed, will complete the visible spectrum: thus, two light rays of complementary colour will produce white, and two paints or inks of complementary colour will produce black or grey. In practice, complementa...

The abstract qualities in art are those which are independent of a work's resemblance to external reality. The arrangement of lines, forms, tone and colour, even in a painting depicting an aspect of the known world, can be viewed as a series of no...

Nabis, which in Hebrew means prophet, was the name adopted in about 1889 by a group of French painters, including Maurice Denis, Paul Serusier, Bonnard and Vuillard. The use of brilliant colours arranged in satisfying abstract designs is essential...

The Tate Gallery opened in 1897 with a benefaction from Sir Henry Tate. It was initially established as the National Gallery of British Art under the National Gallery Trustees, but the National Gallery and Tate Gallery Act of 1954 established it a...

A full extract from the National Gallery's scholarly catalogue.

Plein Air is the French for open air. The term is used to describe the practice of artists painting before a landscape or other chosen subject out of doors, rather than in a studio or workshop. Before the end of the 18th century outdoor work was u...

A full extract from the National Gallery's scholarly catalogue.

A full extract from the National Gallery's scholarly catalogue.

A full extract from the National Gallery's scholarly catalogue.