John Sutcliffe — The man, the myth and the paint-naming legend behind Dead Salmon and Elephant's Breath

Dead Salmon, Mouse’s Back, Elephant’s Breath.

When artist and interior designer the late John Sutcliffe helped Tom Helme and James Finlay develop Farrow & Ball’s colour range, they outdid one another coming up with hilarious monikers (today, the much tamer Sutcliffe Green is named in his honour).

Sutcliffe had a sense of humour and wasn’t afraid of injecting it into his work — whether that was naming and mixing paints or confounding people with extraordinary trompe l’oeils —and much of what he did was groundbreaking. According to his Times' obituary he once asked a client — 'for whom English was not a first language — what he would like and was surprised to hear the answer: “Newts, I want newts everywhere!” It transpired that classical nudes were required, and Sutcliffe expertly delivered these, painting a tiny newt on one of their ankles.'

The bohemian maverick was also the author of multiple books including Decorating Magic (1992), Traditional Decorating (2002) andThe Colours of Rome (2013) — which came with samples of colours.

‘His books are all cornerstones of interior design and were well ahead of their time,’ says Tom Edwards of art dealers Abbott and Holder. ‘He [also] did huge amounts for the National Trust — designing, painting, wall decorating, interiors. His last work (which he never saw completed) was on Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, London W5.’

Edwards is now staging a selling exhibition (April 24–May 10) that combines some of Sutcliffe’s National Trust material with book covers and intriguing trompe l’oeils. A particular favourite is an amusing ‘empty’ canvas, in which a tag hanging off a lone hook suggests the ‘missing’ work is in restauro — undergoing restoration.

Earlier this year, Farrow & Ball introduced 12 new shades — the first change to their very carefully curated palette (technically, nine new colours and three resurrected from the archive) since 2022. The same year as Sutcliffe's death from cancer.

They added ‘Dibber’, a down-to-earth green taken from garden tools, ‘Marmelo’, a terracotta nod to marmalade, and ‘Duster’, an aged ochre inspired by, yes, you guessed it, dusting cloths, among others.

The decision to add new colours to the 132-strong palette was not made lightly — for every new colour, one must be retired (though it lives on comfortably in the archive, awaiting possible resurrection). The new cohort of deeply rich, grounded shades are familiar yet unexpected; a reminder to indulge in the treasures right under our noses.