The History of Pigments
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To the founders, William Winsor and Henry Newton the pioneers in the marriage of art and science.
The History of Pigments
A royal warrant generally is granted for an initial period of five years, after which the appointment is reviewed to ensure that the warrant holders have an enviable reputation for high quality, service, excellence.
By appointment to His Royal Highness, The Price of Wales
OUR ROYAL WARRANT
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ur royal warrant allows us to be styled “By Appointment to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales” and to display The Prince of Wales badge of three feathers on premises, as well as on the paraphenalia of the company. In addition to the usual qualifying criteria, The Prince of Wales also asks that companies meet a code of good environmental practice if
they are to qualify for his warrant. At Winsor & Newton, we are fully dedicated to making sure that our materials, our manufacturing processes and the way we communicate with artists are adapted to minimise our impact. From the granting of our first Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria in 1841, we at Winsor & Newton have been proud to receive the endorsement of successive Royal Households,
a distinction that provides our employees with a clear sense that the products we produce are worthy of the claim as “The World’s Finest Artists’ Materials”. The granting of tradesmen’s warrants by the Royal Family has a history dating back centuries. The Royal Warrant took its form during the reign of Queen Victoria.
THE FIRST COLOURMEN In 1893, where Winsor and Newton were awarded the medallion for the development of permanent artists’ colours at the Chicago World Exhibition.
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illiam Winsor and Henry Newton founded their colour company in 1832. Within a few short years, they set new standards for colour permanence and clarity. They introduced new colours and new opportunities for artists, and established a proud tradition marked by constant improvement and continuous response to changing needs. During the late eighteenth century, a multitude of firms specialising in the whole range of artists’ materials were established. Water colours were in the form of oblong cakes that had to be rubbed down with water on a surface such as ground glass before the colour could be used. Oil colours were supplied in pigs’ bladders
tightly bound at the top; artists used a tack to puncture the skin bag in order to squeeze out the colour. Soft hair brushes were made up with the hair set in a quill into which a stick handle could be inserted, while hog brushes were made of bristle tightly bound to a wooden handle. Canvas was primed and sold on fixed frames instead of the interchangeable stretcher pieces of modern type. Today, the tradition of quality and innovation continues as we actively embrace new ideas, materials and technologies. Above all, we work with and respond to the needs of artists, providing them with new opportunities to explore their creativity through our outreach program.
This was Henry’s home, which was part of an artists’ quarter in which a number of eminent painters, including Constable, had studios and where other colourmen were already established.
PALETTE
The Beginning of Pigments
The Industrial Revolution
Earth (Ochre)
p. 3
Cobalt
p. 21
Egyptian Blue
p. 5
Chrome
p. 23
Opaque White
p. 6
Zinc
p. 24
Vermilion
p. 7
Cadmium
p. 25
Tyrian Purple
p. 9 Impressionism and the 20th Century
The Renaissance
Hansa Yellow
p. 29
Umber
p. 13
Pthalocynine
p. 31
Lapis Lazuli
p. 15
Quinacridone
p. 32
Naples Yellow
p. 17
Titanium
p. 33
Although many early pigments have been replaced by more reliable ones, many have not, and the incurable romantics amongst us find it pleasing to know that the first pigments remain some of the very finest available to the artist.
The Beginning
EARTH (OCHRE) YELLOW OCHRE & RED OCHRE FRANCE & SPAIN
Discovered: 15000 b.c. Found with: White Chalk Lamp Black
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chre is the term for both a goldenyellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as “red ochre”. The more rarely used terms “purple ochre” and “brown ochre” also exist for variant hues. Because of these other hues, the color ochre is sometimes referred to as “yellow ochre” or “gold ochre”. Cavemen began to use colour to decorate cave walls. Ochres are among the earliest pigments used by mankind, derived from naturally tinted clay containing mineral oxides. Modern artists’ pigments continue to use the terms “yellow ochre” and “red ochre” for specific hues.
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Evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation. They are also often located in areas of caves that are not easily accessible. Some theories hold that cave paintings may have been a way of communicating with others, while other theories ascribe a religious or ceremonial purpose to them.`
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EGYPTIAN BLUE SMALT EGYPT
Discovered: 4000 b.c. Found with: Malachite Azurite Cinnabar (Red)
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he earth’s colours had been cleaned by washing, increasing their strength and purity and new pigments appear from the use of minerals. Perhaps the most famous is Egyptian Blue. Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate, is a pigment used by Egyptians for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment. The ancient Egyptians held the color blue in very high regard and were eager to present it on many media and in a variety of forms. They also desired to imitate the semi-precious stones turquoise and lapis lazuli.
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OPAQUE WHITE FLAKE WHITE, CREMNITZ WHITE GREECE
Discovered: 1000 b.c. Found with: Red Lead
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reeks also added to the artists’ palette, namely by manufacturing white lead, the first fully opaque white. his took several months, by stacking lead strips in a confined space amongst vinegar and animal dung. This method (with a few refinements!) was used until the 1960’s and produced arguably the finest pigment of all for the artists’ palette. The physical structure and reaction with oil give a superbly flexible and permanent paint film. Its opaque quality and the satiny smooth mixture it made with driable oils it made a good pigment. Lead white has the warmest masstone of all the whites. Lead White has a very subtle reddish-yellow undertone.
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VERMILION CINNABAR, CHINA RED CHINA
Discovered: 4000 b.c. Found with: Black ink sticks
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lthough the technology of the Chinese civilisation ran in parallel with other ancient socieities like the Egyptians, the Chinese were the first to invent many things like clocks and paper well in advance of the rest of the world. Pigments were no exception and Vermilion was developed in China around 2,000 years before it was utilised by the Romans. Vermilion was made by heating mercury and sulphur, producing an extremely opaque, strong red pigment. The first recorded use of vermilion as a color name in English was in 1289. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly called ‘China red’.
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Evidence suggests that they were not merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found do not have signs of ongoing habitation. They are also often located in areas of caves that are not easily accessible.
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TYRIAN PURPLE IMPERIAL PURPLE ROME Discovered: 79 a.d. Found with: Vermilion
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ompeii is one of the main historical sources, dating to AD79. the most important colours was Tyrian Purple, also being one of the most costly. The colour is prepared from a small colour producing cyst within a whelk. Huge quantities of whelks were required and spoil heaps of the shells can still be seen on the sites of ancient dye works around the Mediterranean. In 1908, P. Friedlander collected just 1.4 grams of pure dye from 12,000 mollusks. Due to its price, 4th-century-BCE historian Theopompus reported, “Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon� in Asia Minor. The true colour Tyrian purple cannot be accurately displayed on a computer display, nor are ancient reports entirely consistent.
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Although many early pigments have been replaced by more reliable ones, many have not, and the incurable romantics amongst us find it pleasing to know that the first pigments remain some of the very finest available to the artist.
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The Renaissance
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ROASTED EARTH BURNT UMBER & BURNT SIENNA ITALY
Discovered: 1300 a.d. Found with: Terre Verte (Green Earth)
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talians further developed the range of earth pigments by roasting siennas and umbers to make the deep rich red of Burnt Sienna and the rich brown of Burnt Umber. Earth colours featured heavily in their painting technique, Terre Verte. Umber is a natural brown clay pigment that contains iron and manganese oxides. The color becomes more intense when calcined (heated), and the resulting pigment is called burnt umber. Its name derives from the Latin word umbra (shadow) and was originally extracted in Umbria, a mountainous region of central Italy, but it is found in many parts of the world. Some of the finest umber comes from Cyprus.
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The Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) by Johannes Vermeer is painted with the exorbitantly expensive pigment lapis lazuli.
LAPIS LAZULI ULTRAMARINE
MESOPOTAMIA
Discovered: 3000 b.c. Found with: Earth Chrimson Flake White
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apis lazuli s a relatively rare semiprecious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense blue color. Lapis lazuli was being mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan as early as the 3rd millennium BC,Natural pigment suitable for icon painting (egg tempera), oil painting and watercolor painting without additional grinding. Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, and vases. It was also ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for tempera paint and, more rarely, oil paint.
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NAPLES YELLOW ANTIMONY YELLOW ITALY Discovered: 1600 a.d. Found with: Ultramarine Lapis Lizuli
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aples yellow,
also called antimony yellow, can range from a somewhat muted, or earthy, reddish yellow pigment to a bright light yellow, and is the chemical compound lead(II) antimonate. Naples yellow was used extensively by the Old Masters and well into the 20th century. The genuine pigment is toxic, and its use today is becoming increasingly rare. There are various shades of Naples Yellow ranging from a greenish yellow to a pinkish/orange yellow. It is a dense pigment whose opaqueness and permanence whose various shades make it an important addition to any artist’s palette. It has been essential to the landscape tradition because it has the quality of appearing to receed into the picture’s distant plane.
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Up until the watercolour period its importance is undocumented.
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By the 18th century the world was not only enjoying greater trade between continents and therefore more industry than previous centuries but also beginning to see the benefits of modern scientific chemistry.
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Industrial Revolution
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COBALT COBALT, CERULEAN FRANCE & ENGLAND Discovered: 1802 a.d. Found with: Cobalt Green Aureolin (Yellow) Cobalt Violet
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obalt Blue was discovered in 1802 by Thenard, by producing a wonderful transparent, granulating blue of great permanence. It is used widely in ceramics and loved by artists for its moderate tinting strength, fast drying and water colour characteristics. Cobalt Green though first made in 1780 did not enter common usage until after Cobalt Blue. Cobalt Violet first appears in 1860 with Cobalt Yellow (Aureolin) becoming available in 1862. Cerulean Blue is also a type of cobalt and was available as early as 1805. The cobalt pigments have always been expensive and the search remained for a lower cost dark blue pigment for the artists’ palette.
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Antique English pottery hand painted in cobalt blue chcolate pot and cover. The pot is decorated with a chinoserie scene a style much in vogue at the end of the 18th century in England.
CHROME CHROME YELLOW UNITED STATES
Discovered: 1820 a.d. Found with: Zinc Cobalt
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he isolation of new elements in the late 18th century also played a part in providing new colours. Deposits of chrome in the USA in 1820 facilitated the easy manufacture of Chrome Yellow, a highly opaque low cost colour available in a variety of hues. Although Chromes had a tendency to darken they remained popular until the 1990’s due to their good covering power and economical price. Chemically the colours are lead chromes and as such they fell foul of the legislation against lead pigments at that time. Because the pigment tends to oxidize and darken on exposure to air over time, and it contains lead, a toxic, heavy metal, it has been largely replaced by Cadmium Yellow
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ZINC OXIDE CHINESE WHITE ENGLAND
Discovered: 1721 a.d. Found with: Emerald Green
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isolation of Zinc in 1721 eventually gave rise to Zinc Oxide by the end of the 18th century. This was utilised as an artists’ white in preference to lead white as it was less hazardous and more permanent particularly in water colour. However it lacked opacity until 1834 when Winsor & Newton developed a method of heating the oxide to increase its opacity. This new type of Zinc Oxide was called Chinese White. The mineral zincite usually contains manganese and other impurities that confer a yellow to red color. Zinc oxide has also been recovered from zinc mines at Zawar in India, dating from the second half of the first millennium BC. he
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In some countries, such as Australia, consumer activists such as Michael Vernon were successful in banning the use of cadmium pigments in plastics that could be used for toy manufacture, owing to the toxicity of cadmium.
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CADMIUM YELLOW, RED GERMANY
Discovered: 1817 a.d. Found with: Cadmium Red Cadmium Yellow Cadmium Orange Cadmium Gtreen
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admium pigments are a class of pigments that have cadmium as one of the chemical components. Brilliantly colored, with good permanence and tinting power, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Orange, and Cadmium Red are familiar artist colors, as well as being frequently employed as architectural paints, since they can add life and vibrancy to renderings.Immediately popular for their great permanence, range of hues, moderate tinting strength and high opacity, Cadmium Yellows remain the mainstay for artists in this area of the spectrum. Cadmium Red was not available until after 1910.
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The explosion of new pigments during the 19th century, the invention of the metal tube and the arrival of the railways all combined to facilitate this movement in painting. Bright new colours in portable, stable tubes and a method of easy travelling around the country provided us with paintings from one of the most famous periods ever.
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Impressionism and the
20th Century
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HANSA YELLOW AZO YELLOW MEDIUM, LEMON GERMANY
Discovered: 1901 a.d. Found with: White Chalk Lamp Black
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uring the first decade the Hoechst company brought out the first ‘Hansa’ yellows. Here was a synthetic organic pigment of good permanence, clear bright hue and high transparency. We know it as Lemon Yellow but the group quickly gave rise to darker yellows and this pigment type is still important today. The chemistry of this and other synthetic organic pigments is immensely complex. In words, they are made by coupling diazotised amines containing nitroso and/or halide groups with acetoacetanilide or one of its derivatives! No longer can they be called a basic name relating to their origin, like cadmium or cobalt.
PTHALOCYANINE MONSTRAL BLUE, WONSOR BLUE EGYPT
Discovered: 1936 a.d. Found with: Phthalocyanine Green
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onstral Blue was introduced by ICI. Known to us as Phthalocyanine or Winsor Blue, this offered a deep transparent blue of enormous tinting strength yet moderate cost. Prized for its mixing abilities it has also become the basis of many student range blues as it can be reduced and still offer a strong colour. It is highly valued for its superior properties such as light fastness, tinting strength, covering power and resistance to the effects of alkalies and acids. The pigment is insoluble and has no tendency to migrate in the material. Phthalo blue is a cool blue with a bias towards green. Difficulty was experienced in forming stable dispersions with the first alpha forms, especially in mixtures with rutile Titanium.
QUINACRIDONES MAGENTA GERMANY
Discovered: 1950 a.d. Found with: Cadmium Red Cadmium Yellow Cadmium Orange Cadmium Gtreen
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first quinacridones were introduced to the artist’s palette as Permanent Rose and Permanent Magenta. The pink and mauve colour area up till then had suffered from poor lightfastness, now crystal clear hues were available without fading! Over the next 50 years many more colours became available from deep crimson to gold. This is achieved by juggling the chemicals involved. It is a quinacridone which is used as Permanent Alizarin Crimson. Quinacridone pigments produce seven types of bright and intense colors. These colors range from deep yellow to even vibrant violet. he
TITANIUM TITANIUM WHITE BAVARIA
Discovered: 1795 a.d. Found with: Quinacridone
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he most important pigment in volume
terms of the century was Titanium White. Although the element had been identified in 1795 it was not until 1920 that an economical method of purifying the metal oxide was established. The non hazardous, strongest, most opaque white; Titanium quickly became the most popular white amongst artists. Titanium dioxide is the most widely used white pigment because of its brightness and very high refractive index, in which it is surpassed only by a few other materials. Approximately 4.6 million tons of pigmentary Titanium Oxide are consumed annually worldwide, and this number is expected to increase as consumption continues to rise.
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The World’s Finest Artists’ Materials
THE HIGHEST STANDARDS
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e try to make sense of them and gain trust by setting universal standards. There are a number of systems which help artists to identify and build knowledge in key areas of concern. Most importantly we are interested in the characteristics of pigments, we as artists want to use them to our own creative ends. Secondly we want permanence information. The characteristics of a
colour are to be found in both reference books and manufacturers’ colour charts, granulation, staining, bleeding, transparency/opacity, colour bias, drying rate etc. Permanence ratings are also provided by manufacturers. Per se, there are no set standards at this level, after all it is the diversity and individuality of each material which painters want to exploit. We are lucky in having a very high class of product from
the whole industry and for most of us the information supplied is sufficient for our needs. However, you may want to know more and to do this pigments need to be identified. Since the development of modern organic pigments, pigment names are no longer sufficient to identify the actual pigment being used, there are dozens of Naphthol reds with varying characteristics and different levels of lightfastness. The Colour Index International identifies each pigment
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