Winsor & Newton produces fine art products, including acrylics, oils, watercolour, gouache, brushes, canvases, papers, inks, graphite and coloured pencils, markers, and charcoals.
The company was founded in 1832 by William Winsor and Henry Newton. The firm was originally located at 38 Rathbone Place, London.[2][3]
Many artists and producers of art materials were based in this area, including eminent painters, like Constable.[4] In 1841, Winsor & Newton were granted a Royal Warrant.[5]
The standards of quality for Winsor & Newton's kolinsky sable brush, the Series 7, began after Queen Victoria requested in 1866, that it should be "the very finest watercolour brush".[5][6]
Winsor & Newton was incorporated as a limited company in 1881, when Henry Newton sold the business, with the Winsor and Newton families remaining shareholders.[5]
The company moved to Wealdstone in northwest London in 1937. After World War II, they opened a brush-making factory in Lowestoft, which was still making brushes as of 2024.[7]
In 1970, the company introduced its first range of acrylic paints, and the first artists' alkyd oil colour came six years later.[5]
The company was formerly owned by conglomerate Reckitt & Colman until it was sold in the early 1990s to ColArt, a certified B corporation owned by family business Lindéngruppen.[8][9]
In 2010, ColArt announced that the Winsor & Newton factory in Wealdstone would close, with the manufacturing moved to France.[10]
Winsor & Newton partnered with the Paul Smith Foundation in 2024, to launch an art prize, in keeping with their history of engaging with artists.[11][12]
Winsor & Newton have a long history of product innovation. They developed watercolour containing glycerine in 1835. These gained popularity. They patented the first screw cap mechanism for metal tubes, which were used for oils initially, with them later offering moist watercolour in tubes. In 1937, they launched Designers' Gouache.[13] Winsor & Newton introduced Artisan Water-Mixable oil paints, oil medium, linseed oil, stand oil, fast-drying medium, and impasto medium in 1997.[14]
Their historic archives have been analysed to identify the organic colourants possibly contained in shades.[15][16] These archives have also been discussed in terms of pigment history, canvas supports, oils and varnishes by authors Harley and Carlyle.[17]
Art products made by Winsor & Newton, distinguished by size, series, material and function (e.g. effects or process).[18]
