Timeline

About us

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To read more about Winsor & Newton over the last 175 years, please select one of the four periods highlighted below.

1832 Winsor & Newton is founded at 38 Rathbone Place, London

1835 The World's first moist water colours launched

1841 Royal Warrant issued by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

1842 The collapsible screw cap tube introduced

1851 Great Exhibition takes place at Crystal Palace

1882 Winsor & Newton Limited Company is formed

1937 Colour Works open at present day Harrow Site

1937 Launch of Designers' Gouache

1946 Brush-making facility in Lowestoft opens

1976 The world's first artists' alkyd range is launched

1996 Artists' Water Colour relaunch

2007 175th Anniversary year and the development of Smalt

In 1832, William Winsor, a chemist, and Henry Newton, an artist, entered into partnership as artists' colourmen. With a business founded on the marriage of art and science, the pair set out to respond to the needs of artists and offer them the widest choice of colours with the greatest permanence.

This combination of scientific rigour and a new spirit of enquiry into the craft of the artists' colourmen enabled Winsor and Newton to set new standards for colour permanence and clarity and within a few short years, Winsor & Newton had become the largest artists' materials supplier in the world.