The paint-loaded palettes of 50 world renowned artists, whether photographed or visible in self-portraits, are displayed alongside the paintings they created using those hues, and the colours and brushstrokes employed are analysed to uncover surprising new stories about each artist and their work. The artists range from those working in the 17th century to the present day and include Artemisia Gentileschi, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O’Keeffe and Bridget Riley. 

Georges Seurat, for example, meticulously arranged the paints on his palette in prismatic order, isolating the colours and pairing each with a blot of white paint. His pointillist technique was as apparent on his palette as on his canvas. Kerry James Marshall uses blots of zinc white and smears of pale pink on the surfaces of symbolically oversized white palettes held by black artists in his portraits, raising provocative questions about the role of colour in the story of black history and white western art.