Charlotte Ribeyrol (Associate Professor in 19th century British Literature, Sorbonne Université, Principal Investigator of the Consolidator ERC Project CHROMOTOPE) has been invited by Serge Picaud to hold a talk on Friday 20 May, 3 p.m. , in the conference room of the UCL , 13 Rue Moreau.

This talk will be on "How did the Victorians see colour?"

The ERC project CHROMOTOPE explores what happened to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the ‘chromatic turn’ of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. What happened to colour in the 19th century ? In the frame of CHROMOTOPE, Charlotte Ribeyrol explores the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the ‘chromatic turn’ of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain’s industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception.