New Science, New Pigments
The New Chemical Science
Crocoite, a natural chrome mineral.
Photo by Roger Weller,
Cochise College, Arizona
France in the 18th century was at the forefront of the Age of Enlightenment, a time when superstition was being replaced by the application of reason. At the same time the machine age was sweeping Europe, what we now call the Industrial Revolution. Rational thinking and industrial application gave rise to possibly the most important event in the history of science: the birth of modern chemistry. There were major leaps in the understanding of chemical interaction and the identification of basic elements. Before the year 1700, only 15 elements were known. Between 1700 and 1850, a startling 40 new elements were discovered!
The new chemical scientists were hired by industrial businesses such as textile manufacturers to find new and better ways to add color to their products. Brightly colored commodities sold better and for higher prices in the burgeoning market of cheap industrially manufactured goods. New substances were quickly investigated for their potential as pigments.
Between 1800 and 1870 more than 20 intense yellow, green, blue, red, and orange pigments were invented, many based on newly discovered elements such as chrome, cadmium, and cobalt. Each new pigment was quickly picked up by artists’ colormen, turned into paint, and sold to artists. New materials often give an artist an opportunity for innovation, but this expansion in the number and variety of pigments was unprecedented in the history of art. An equally dramatic shift in the history of painting was bound to happen.
Simulated Impressionist's Palette
2006 recreation of Monet's palette of the 1870s
Exhibited in Revolution in Paint
Pigment with date of invention or earliest known use as artists’ paint
- Lead white, ancient Greece
- Chrome yellow*, 1820
- Vermilion, medieval
- Red ochre, prehistoric
- Alizarin crimson (synthetic rose madder), 1868
- French ultramarine, 1826
- Cobalt blue, 1802
- Viridian, 1838
- Emerald green*, 1814
- Ivory black, prehistoric
*Sample is a modern approximation of the original pigment.
As a rule the new pigments were more opaque or had greater tinting strength than traditional pigments. While some new pigments were only marginally better than similar traditional hues, others represented dramatic improvements or were completely without precedent. For 600 years traditional natural ultramarine blue had been unrivaled in terms of beauty and chemical stability, but was also enormously expensive, which limited its use. The new chemically identical “French” ultramarine was dramatically cheaper, a tenth the cost, and could be afforded by even the poorest painter. Chrome yellow was the first rich opaque yellow that wasn’t rare, highly toxic, or quick to fade in light. There had never been a strong chemically stable green. Now there were three: chrome oxide green, emerald green, and viridian.
“Since the appearance of impressionism, the official salons [exhibitions], which used to be brown, have become blue, green, and red.” —Claude Monet, c. 1915
