Interiors

Crimson tide: Set your interiors alight with the most daring colour

In art and design, the colour red need only be used in small doses to pack a powerful punch

Timothy Spall in the film Mr Turner, demonstrating the difference a touch of red makes

In 1832, when JMW Turner found his painting Helvoetsluys exhibited side by side at the Royal Academy with John Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, he was not prepared to be upstaged.

To redress the balance between his watery-toned seascape and Constable’s richly coloured work, he strode into the gallery, added a red buoy to the centre of his painting, and walked out. An outraged Constable was said to have remarked that Turner “has been ...