ARTICLE IN PRESS

Optics & Laser Technology 38 (2006) 445–453

www.elsevier.com/locate/optlastec

Colour and art: A brief history of pigments

J.R. Barnetta,, Sarah Millerb, Emma Pearceb
a
School of Plant Sciences, The University of Reading, PO Box 221, Reading RG6 6AS, UK
b
Winsor & Newton, Whitefriars Avenue, Harrow Middlesex HA3 5RH, UK
Available online 21 July 2005

Abstract

Human beings have had an inherent urge to leave their mark in the form of works of art since prehistoric times. This has driven
the quest for new and better pigments with which to make paints. This paper describes the origins and composition of earliest earth
pigments used by primitive man to decorate the walls of caves through to the synthetic pigments developed in more recent times.
Despite modern technology, the artist’s palette remains a mixture of the pigments used by cave artists, natural pigments used in the
middle ages, and modern organic compounds.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pigments; Art history; Artists’ colours; Painting

1. Introduction under an overhanging ledge at the foot of a rock face

From prehistoric times humans have left their mark
on their environment in the form of painted images,
whether in the form of simple handprints, works of fine
art or spray-can graffiti. It seems that people have an
underlying conscious or subconscious urge to mark their
passing. It may be that primitive man made marks by
scratching trees or rocks with stones as a way of
marking a track, indicating a source of food or water or
even marking territory. At some stage, however it was
discovered that some materials worked more effectively
when mixed with a medium such as water or saliva, and
painting was born.
The prehistoric paintings that have survived tend to
be located in caves, under overhanging rock ledges, or in
places where the climate was such that they were not
washed or weathered away. Archaeologists and histor-
ians like to offer mystical interpretations of the meaning
and functions of these paintings, but it is likely that
many were made simply to pass the time. It is easy to
imagine people sheltering from heavy rain or hot sun
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: j.r.barnett@reading.ac.uk (J.R. Barnett).
and making the pictures as a way of occupying
themselves while they waited for conditions to improve.
Once it had been discovered that pigments could be
used to colour a surface, the practice of body painting
began and persists to this day. Painting the body could
be used to indicate status or to lend a sense of mystery to
a superstitious practice. The Europeans who first
encountered the native peoples of North America called
them Red Indians because of their practice of painting
their bodies with red ochre. This has been described ‘‘as
a shield against evilya protection against the cold in
winter and insects in summer’’ [1]. There can also be
little doubt it made warriors appear more fearsome. It
would almost certainly boost the confidence of the
warrior in his own abilities in the same way as a military
uniform in modern times. The same purpose was served
by woad, the pigment applied by ancient British races.
In this case it may well have been felt that applying this
pigment to the body gave the warrior magical powers,
since woad is an antiseptic and was known to have the
power of preventing wounds received in battle from
becoming septic. Interestingly, the woad plant Isatis
tinctoria is currently under investigation for its anti-
inflammatory properties [2].

0030-3992/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optlastec.2005.06.005
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446 J.R. Barnett et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 38 (2006) 445–453
2. The first paints
As might be expected, prehistoric painters used the
pigments available in the vicinity of their homes. These
were the so-called earth pigments, soot from burning
animal fat and charcoal from the fire. The colours were
yellow ochre, red ochre, and black. Water was the
binding agent and enabled the pigment to be sprayed
from the mouth or painted onto the surface using the
fingers as brushes. Fig. 1 shows bison painted on a cave
wall in Altamira, Spain and Fig. 2 the stencil of a hand
from Avignon in France; an early example of ‘‘Kilroy
was here’’. These paintings are more than 30,000 years
old while geometrical designs in the Blombos Cave in
South Africa were painted about 70,000 years ago [3].
The word ‘‘ochre’’ comes from the Greek word
Ochros, meaning yellow, so the name yellow ochre is
tautologous. The chemical responsible for the colour is
ferric oxide monohydrate Fe2O3
H2O, familiar to
everyone as rust, and it is found mixed with silica and
clay. Grinding and washing produces the pigment,
which is essentially yellow clay. Red ochre is produced
by heating the yellow ochre to drive off the water and
produce anhydrous ferric oxide. By controlling the
Fig. 1. Paintings of bison in the Altamira Caves, Spain.
Fig. 2. Hand stencil from the cave at Avignon, France.
heating it is possible to produce a range of warm yellows
to bright red. Red ochre occurs naturally in volcanic
regions where thermal activity has caused the dehydra-
tion [4]. The colour has excellent permanence and the
abundance of raw material means that ochres remain
among the cheapest artists’ colours available.
The palette of these early people was limited to those
materials readily to hand and requiring only the most
basic technology for their preparation. Large parts of
the spectrum of colours, notably blues and greens, were
not available to them, yet they produced strikingly vivid
images through skilful use of what they had.
3. The Egyptians
The Egyptians began serious colour manufacture
from about 4000 BC. They introduced washing of
pigments to increase their strength and purity. They also
introduced new materials, the most famous of which
was Egyptian blue—first produced around 3000 BC.
This is a very stable pigment and still appears as if fresh
on wall paintings produced at that time. The pigment is
calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi4O10) made by mixing a
calcium salt (carbonate, sulphate or hydroxide), a
copper compound (oxide or malachite) and sand (silica).
This was heated to produce a coloured glass or frit and
ground to a powder for use. Paints were made by using
the ground pigment with gums or animal glue, which
made them workable and fixed them to the surface being
decorated.
The Egyptians also used malachite (Fig. 3), probably
the oldest known green pigment, and azurite, a greenish-
blue pigment. They are chemically similar, comprising
basic copper carbonate (2CuCO3
Cu(OH)2), and occur
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J.R. Barnett et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 38 (2006) 445–453
Fig. 3. Malachite stone.
as natural minerals which the Egyptians converted to
pigment by crushing and washing. Both appear in
Egyptian tomb paintings from the fourth dynasty and in
European paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Egyptian women also used malachite to paint their
eyelids.
Orpiment, yellow sulphide of arsenic was used for
bright yellow or gold, and realgar or red sulphide
of arsenic for bright reds [5]. These pigments were
used as long ago as the 16th century BC and con-
tinued in use until the 19th century. Arsenic sulphide
(As2S3) is found in volcanic and geothermal regions,
although it is also found with limestone and dolo-
mite. The colours are not permanent and fade on
exposure to light. Jarosite, potassium ferric sulphate
hydroxide KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6, was used to produce a
pale yellow. Jarosite is named after the Jaroso Ravine in
Sierra Almagrera, Spain, where it is found, and it is
formed as a result of weathering of volcanic rocks. Its
presence on the planet Mars has recently been invoked
as evidence for water limited chemical weathering of the
surface [6].
Vegetable dyes were also developed and the Egyptians
were the first to ‘‘fix’’ dyes onto a transparent white
powder base to produce pigments. This is the process
known as lake making. Solutions of organic dyes
extracted from parts of plants were mixed with hydrated
clay or tannin to form an insoluble pigment. The old
masters used chalk or alum for this purpose [4].
447
4. The Chinese, Greeks and Romans
Chinese science and technology was highly developed
long before western civilisations appeared. The Chinese
developed vermilion around 2000 years before the
Romans used it. Vermilion, a red pigment, is made by
crushing, washing and heating the mineral cinnabar, or
mercuric sulphide (Fig. 4) to give a strong red pigment.
Alternatively it was made by mixing mercury with
molten sulphur and heating the mixture to produce the
compound.
The Greeks’ contribution to painting was the
manufacture of white lead pigment which remained
the most used white pigment available to artists until the
19th century. It is still regarded as the whitest of the
white pigments, consists of basic lead carbonate
(2Pb(CO3)2
Pb(OH)2) and is, of course, toxic. Like
cinnabar, it was used as a cosmetic by Greco-Roman
ladies, who used it as face powder with predictable
effects on their health and that of the men who kissed
them. It continued in use as a cosmetic into the middle
ages and beyond in Europe. White lead was made by
stacking lead strips in porous jars with vinegar and
burying the jars in animal manure, which generated the
heat necessary to speed up the reaction (Fig. 5). With a
few refinements, this process continued to be used until
the 1960s. The physical structure of white lead and its
reaction with the oil give a very flexible, quick drying
and permanent paint film, particularly important in oil
painting.
The Greeks also developed the use of red lead, which
was used for priming metal in construction until it was
banned in the 1990s. Red lead is a form of lead oxide
(Pb3O4) and is found as the mineral minium after the
River Minius in northwest Spain. It is also manufac-
tured by heating litharge (PbO) in air (Fig. 6).
The Romans made use of the pigments developed by
the Egyptians and Greeks. One of the most important
Fig. 4. Cinnabar.
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448 J.R. Barnett et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 38 (2006) 445–453
Fig. 5. Stacking White Lead (from Dodd, G. British Manufactures,
1884).
Fig. 6. Red Lead manufacture in the 19th century.
colours introduced by the Romans was Tyrian purple. It
is mentioned in texts from 1600 BC and was obtained
from the hypobranchial gland of the molluscs Murex
trunculus and Purpura haemastoma which were found in
the Mediterranean Sea near Tyre. Pliny described the
ingenious process by which they were collected. A
basket containing bivalves was lowered into the sea,
which stimulated the bivalves to open. The molluscs
would then be attracted to this source of food, but on
attempting to eat the bivalves, the latter would close
their shells trapping the molluscs which could then be
harvested. Since about 12,000 molluscs produced only
about 1.4 g of the pigment, it was very expensive and
affordable only by the very rich. Having purple
garments became a symbol of wealth and power in the
Roman world, the amount of purple worn being a
measure of an individual’s importance. Throughout
history the colour has been associated with royalty.
Cinnabar was mined at Almaden in Spain to provide
the Romans with the pigment. It was extensively used in
wall decorations in the houses of the wealthy in Pompeii;
gladiators and statues were painted with it and it was
used by Roman women as lipstick. Its strength of colour
meant that it was still being used in the 19th century,
and is present in Turner’s paint boxes which remain and
are held in various museum and gallery collections [1].
5. Developments in the mediaeval and renaissance periods
The mediaeval palette and paintings were charac-
terised by the use of clear, well-defined, bright colours.
Browns seem to have held little interest for painters at
this time and were regarded as dull. If required they
were made by mixing black with red and yellow. The
umbers first appeared in the late 15th century when
Vasari described them as being new [7]. Umber
comprises hydrated iron and manganese oxides. In its
natural state it is known as raw umber and when heated
it becomes a richer brown, known as burnt umber. Its
original source was Umbria in Italy, although it is also
mined in Devon and Cornwall. The Italians also used
raw sienna, an ochre containing silicic acid, and raw
umber, an ochre containing manganese oxide and iron
hydroxide, both found in Tuscany, but especially in the
Harz mountains of Germany. Raw sienna could also be
calcined to produce the richer burnt sienna.
An alternative to white lead used in the middle ages
was bone white, made by burning bones and grinding
the ash. Although it was not regarded as a good paint, it
was used where the toxicity of white lead made its use
undesirable [7]. Chalk, eggshells and calcined oyster
shells were also occasionally used.
For bright red, orange lead was a paler version of red
lead prepared by heating white lead until it first turned
yellow and then to the orange lead tetroxide. It was
cheaper and more readily available than cinnabar.
Confusingly the name minium was used for both orange
lead and cinnabar. An artist working with minium was
known as a miniator, who made miniature, so the term
miniatures was originally used for the red capitals used
in illuminated manuscripts. The term was eventually
applied to any small feature and came to mean anything
reduced in size.
Other reds were made from insects (called ‘‘kermes’’
by the Arabs, a term which eventually mutated into
‘‘crimson’’), cochineal being an example, or from a type
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of wood called ‘‘brazil’’. The country was named after
the wood as it was a rich source of dyewoods capable of
producing the pigment. ‘‘Brazil’’ derives from the same
root as ‘‘brazier’’ and is a reference to the red glow of
the coals in the fire. The wood was powdered and
steeped in lye (a solution of potassium carbonate), when
the colour turns an orange red. Adding alum to the lye
caused the pigment to precipitate.
Madder, derived from the root of Rubea tinctorum,
which contains alizarine, was also developed in the
middle ages. At the time, however, the brazil reds were
regarded as superior and were more widely used [7].
In addition to azurite, which had been used as a blue
since the time of the ancient Egyptians, by far the most
important blue in the middle ages was ultramarine. The
name may reflect the strong blueness of the pigment,
meaning that its colour was bluer than that of the sea,
although it has been interpreted as meaning coming
‘‘across the seas’’ or imported [7]. It was made by
grinding the semi-precious mineral lapis lazuli, a rock
containing the mineral lazulite, and was used in
Afghanistan in the sixth century AD (Fig. 7). Lazulite
is a complex sulphur-containing aluminium silicate
(Na8–10Al6Si6O24S2–4). During the renaissance, the
colour blue was associated with purity and ultramarine
was used to striking effect in paintings of the Virgin
Mary, when she was almost invariably depicted wearing
ultramarine blue garments. The high price of the
pigment also meant that its use was appropriate in the
case of a noble subject such as the mother of Christ. This
colour therefore best characterises the paintings of that
time. The lapis lazuli stone was ground, then mixed with
wax and kneaded in a lye bath to separate the impurities
Fig. 7. Lapis rock and Lapis pigment (from the Winsor & Newton
Archive).
449
from the lazulite crystals. The pigment produced from
these pure crystals was light-fast. The combination of
the price of the semi-precious stones and the cost of the
process meant that ultramarine was more expensive than
gold.
Malachite and verdigris were used as greens, although
others were added, including sap green, which was made
from the berries of Rhamnus (buckthorn). This was
used, mixed with alum, to improve the colour of
verdigris. There are also old recipes for making greens
from a variety of other plants and it is likely that
chlorophyll was the main pigmenting agent [7].
Orpiment and ochres continued to be used for yellow,
although other exotic sources were used, including bile
from the gall bladders of fish and other animals.
Gallstones were also a source of yellow.
Naples yellow was developed during the renaissance,
although it has been claimed that it was present on tiles
in Babylon from 16th century BC [4]. This is an opaque
pigment comprised of lead antimonate (Pb(SbO3)2
or PbSbO4), the natural mineral bindheimite. It was
manufactured during the renaissance by heating a
lead compound such as the oxide or nitrate with an
antimony compound (oxide or sulphide), or potassium
antimonate.
Gold substitutes were also used to reduce the cost of
gilding in paintings. Tin sulphide was one such
substitute which was known as mosaic gold and came
into use in the early 15th century when it was called
color purpurinus. Other substitutes included a mixture of
egg yolk and mercury, to which was added saffron, bile
or an extract from the greater celandine, Cheladonium
majus.
6. Development of modern pigments
The first chemically synthesised pigment was made in
Germany in 1704 by Diesbach who was manufacturing
red lake pigments by using potash and alkali as
substrate. When using a batch contaminated with
animal oil, he accidentally made a purple and then a
blue pigment instead of the red he was trying to make.
The blue became known as Prussian blue (Fig. 8). It has
the unusual property of fading in daylight, then
regaining its colour in the darkness.
Ultramarine remained the most important blue
pigment. However, the cost of ultramarine was so high
that in 1824 the Societé d’Encouragement offered a prize
of 6000 francs for the production of synthetic ultra-
marine whose price was to be less than 300 francs a
kilogram, about a tenth of the current price for the
cheapest Lapis Lazuli. Four years later the prize was
awarded to Jean Baptiste Guimet even though his
product cost 400 francs per kilogram. This pigment is
the so-called French ultramarine, is chemically identical
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Flemish white (white lead) was superior. Fear of his

influence on the market led Winsor & Newton to publish
a response to Backhoffer, which was successful in
persuading artists that Chinese white was the superior
pigment.
Cadmium metal was discovered by Stromeyer in 1817,
and cadmium yellows were in use in Germany in 1829,
France in 1831, North America in 1842, and the United
Kingdom in 1846. Cadmium sulphide was mixed with
an acidified solution of cadmium chloride or sulphate
and heated with hydrogen sulphide gas. Hues ranging
from a lemon yellow to a deep orange were made in this
way. They were popular for their increased permanence,
range of hues, moderate tinting strength and high
opacity, which gave good covering power in painting.
Cadmium red was available in Germany in 1907,
England in 1912 and the USA in 1919.
Indian yellow is an organic magnesium pigment,
magnesium euxanthate (C19H16O11Mg
5H2O), which
was used in India from the 15th century and discovered
by western artists in the 19th century. It was made from
Fig. 8. Prussian blue. the urine of cows fed exclusively on mango leaves. This
diet led to the cows being weak and unhealthy and the
practice was banned early in the 20th century, under
to Lapis and remains an important and popular colour pressure from Hindus, who considered the practice cruel
for artists. to cows, which they consider to be sacred animals. The
Cobalt features heavily in the development of some of pigment is prepared as yellowish brown puree balls (Fig.
the early synthetic pigments, with the combination of 9), which according to Doerner [4], betray their origin
cobalt oxide with aluminium, phosphorus, tin, zinc and by their odour! The coal tar pigment, naphthol yellow,
other metals giving a variety of colours. Smalt, a blue was given the name Indian yellow by the trade when the
pigment comprising ground glass containing cobalt, was original material fell from use.
discovered before the 16th century and was made by
heating quartz, potassium carbonate and cobalt chlor-
ide. It was replaced in the 19th century by cobalt blue,
developed in 1802 by Thenard, partly as a result of
studying the production of Sevres porcelain. Cobalt
green was developed by Rinmann, a Swedish chemist in
1780 by combining cobalt and zinc oxides with an
alkaline carbonate and heating the mixture. It was not
favoured by artists, however, who found the pigment
too weak. Cobalt violet (either cobalt phosphate or
cobalt arsenate) appeared in 1859 and cobalt yellow
(cobalt aluminium nitrite) was discovered by Fischer in
Breslau in 1830 and first introduced as a pigment for
artists’ use by Saint-Evre, Paris in 1852. Cerulean blue, a
compound of cobalt oxide and tin oxide became
available in 1805 and was marketed by Rowney in 1870.
Zinc had been used in the manufacture of brass since
that alloy was invented. However it was not until the
15th century that zinc metal was isolated and the end of
the 18th century before the idea of using zinc oxide as a
pigment arose. In 1834 Winsor & Newton of London,
working with Michael Faraday, invented Chinese white
after heating the oxide to increase its opacity. This gave
water colourists the first semi-opaque water-colour
white. However, George Backhoffer claimed that Fig. 9. Indian yellow, puree balls.
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Genuine emerald green was discovered by a Swede,
Scheele, in 1788 and probably first commercially
produced in Austria in 1914. It was very toxic, being
composed of copper aceto-arsenite which gave a bright
clean emerald colour, and was used until the 1960s. One
theory holds that Napoleon’s death was caused by
arsenic fumes from the wallpaper in his prison home on
St Helena, which was coloured with this pigment.
The rapid development of the science of chemistry
during the 19th century was partly driven by the textile
dying industry, and led to the development of many new
pigments. In 1856, William Perkin, an eighteen-year-old
student at the Royal College of Chemistry, was
attempting to produce a synthetic alternative to quinine
from coal tar. Following oxidation using potassium
bichromate he produced a compound which when
dissolved gave a purple solution [8]. Actually he had
carried out an oxidation of aniline. The purple dye he
obtained he called Tyrean purple, changing the name to
mauvine, which later became mauve. This rapidly
became the fashionable colour for ladies garments and
Perkin as rapidly became a rich manufacturer of the dye.
He had synthesised the first organic dyestuff and his
success stimulated others to follow, leading to the
production of other aniline/coal tar-based pigments
and foundation of many of today’s leading chemical and
pharmaceutical companies.
Among the coal tar-based pigments made by one
of these, the Hoechst company, is Hansa yellow, which
has been said to be more permanent than cadmium
yellow [4].
Alizarin crimson (1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone) was
synthesised by Graebe and Liebermann in 1868 in
Germany (Fig. 10). This compound is identical with the
coloured dye which had been extracted from the roots of
the madder plant and the pigment is also known as
alizarin madder. It has high tinting strength and high
transparency. It is a popular pigment with artists despite
its relatively poor permanence rating. This may be
because of its traditional associations and because the
Fig. 10. Alizarin crimson pigment (Winsor & Newton).
451
Fig. 11. Mars pigments in bottles, ca 1850 (Winsor & Newton).
artists do not live long enough to witness its fading!
Winsor & Newton still make Rose Madder Genuine
from the root of the madder plant.
Mars colours, which are synthetic iron oxides, were
also developed in the 19th century (Fig. 11). They are
available in a wide range of hues, from reds, browns,
yellows and black which are produced by heating the
oxide under controlled conditions. The final colour
depends upon the amount of moisture and heat used in
the process. These are particularly important as natural
earth sources have been depleted.
Lead white has been mainly replaced by titanium
white (titanium dioxide). Titanium was identified in
1795, though it was not until 1920 that an economical
method of purification was found. A non-hazardous,
strong opaque white, it is very popular with artists.
Monastral blue was first synthesised by A.G. Dan-
dridge in 1928 and produced commercially by ICI in
1936. Dandridge observed a blue crystalline substance
which formed during the production of phthalimide
from ammonia and phthalic anhydride. The compound
was phthalocyanine and was a result of a reaction
between the iron vessel in which the reaction was taking
place and the reactants. By using a copper container he
produced a more intense blue now known as monastral
blue or phthalo blue and marketed to artists as Winsor
blue. In addition to being used by artists, it forms the
colorant in inks, paints and lacquers [9]
The 1950s saw the introduction of another very
important group of pigments in terms of permanence—
quinacridones. Derivatives of quinacridone produce red
and violet pigments including permanent rose and
permanent magenta.
As the 1990s progressed more synthetic organic
pigment types appeared. Perylenes, pyrrols and arylides
appeared replacing light-fast pigments with even more
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light-fast pigments. New hues have expanded the palette
for water colourists and painters in oils and acrylics in
terms of increased transparency, mixing or glazing. Like
the textile industry in the 19th century, the car industry
in the late 20th century became a major force for
improvement of pigments. The painted surface of cars is
exposed to extreme weather conditions and the pigments
used in the colours need to be light-fast. A large variety
of pigments are also demanded by manufacturers. This
has led to spin-off benefits for artists.
7. Manufacture of pigments
The earth pigments used by primitive humans were
found as clays which could have been kneaded and
shaped into ‘‘crayons’’ for use in painting and drawing.
Such artefacts have been collected, for example, from
Valle Caminica in Italy [1] and in the Lascaux caves [3].
It is clear, however, that there were early improvements
to the simple mixture of coloured clay and water, to
produce paints with improved properties. Analysis of
the pigments from the caves at Niaux in the Pyranees
showed that two distinct recipes were used for making
up the paint, which included biotite, potassium feldspar
or talcum. These would have acted as what are now
called ‘‘extenders’’ or binders’’, making the pigment go
further and improving its adhesive properties [9].
For much of recorded history, artists or their
apprentices prepared their own pigments from the raw
materials, which were mainly the minerals described
above. The raw material was ground to a powder and, if
necessary, the pigment was extracted in processes which
are essentially unchanged to this day. Well into the 19th
century, the paint boxes of artists, like those of Turner,
which have been preserved in various museums contain
jars of powdered pigment which would be mixed with a
medium to make a workable paint that would bind to a
substrate.
Winsor & Newton still make Rose Madder in the
traditional way, processing the roots to extract the dye.
It is made into a ‘‘lake’’ by precipitating the dye onto a
particulate material such as alumina. The material is
filtered and dried to produce a fine powder pigment. All
equipment used is made of wood or stoneware to avoid
unwanted reactions with the dye, which might affect the
pigment quality. Pigment and binder are then combined
in a mortar and the mixture milled, sometimes for
several days to ensure even pigment dispersion and that
the pigment granules are as small as possible. This
intensifies the colour as perceived in the painting.
The artists of ancient Egypt and Rome mixed their
pigments with media such as wax, egg or tree resin. By
the 13th century, egg tempera painting, in which the
pigment was mixed with water and egg before applica-
tion, was well established. The dried protein left after the
water evaporated bound the pigment to the substrate.
The tendency of a thick layer of such paint to crack
meant that it was essential to apply the paint in thin
layers or glazes, and is the reason for the highly finished
appearance of mediaeval paintings. In the 15th century
egg began to be replaced by walnut or linseed oil as
media. These dried more slowly than tempera and meant
that the paint was more versatile.
From the early 18th century colourmen appeared on
the scene to provide artists with ready-made paints.
Water colour painting also became a fashionable
pastime among the well off. In 1766 William Reeves
set up in business supplying water colour cakes. Reeves’
water colours were a significant improvement on those
of his competitors as his discovery that the addition of
honey to the colours prevented the cakes from cracking
in storage. In 1783 the wigmakers Thomas and Richard
Rowney abandoned the declining wig trade and began
preparing and selling artist’s colours. Constable and
Turner were among the famous artists they supplied
with materials. A notable contribution by this company
was the development of the first acrylic paints in the UK
in 1963.
The company of Winsor & Newton was founded in
1832 by William Winsor, a colour chemist and
accomplished artist, and Henry Newton, a professional
artist. This combination of talents meant they were able
to bring a scientific approach to the development of
pigments while being aware of the needs of the artist.
Their development of Chinese white, the first opaque
white water colour in 1834, has already been mentioned.
In 1835 they also produced the first moist water colours
(as opposed to dry block colours) by adding glycerine,
then developing first glass syringes (1840) and then
collapsible metal tubes with screw caps (1842) in which
to sell them. In 1862 they introduced Aureolin yellow
into the UK followed by Winsor yellow in 1899.
Designers’ gouache paints were produced in 1937.
New colours continue to be added to those available
to artists. As recently as 1996, Winsor & Newton
produced 35 new watercolours followed in 2005 by a
further 15.
8. Pigments used today
Although the focus of this paper has tended to be
UK-oriented, reflecting the input of material by Winsor
& Newton, the development of pigments has been, as we
have tried to indicate, an international activity. One of
the most prolific areas of publishing in colour is aimed
at artists and those who appreciate art, a market which
is truly international. A typical selection of recent
publications [10–13] includes three published in North
America. For example, Ames’s ‘‘Color Theory Made
Easy’’[10], in an American context, involves descriptions
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J.R. Barnett et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 38 (2006) 445–453
of commercial products from what is necessarily a
limited number of manufacturers, in which Winsor &
Newton, a British manufacturer, is prominent.
Artists today use a mixture of those modern synthetic
organic pigments which have high permanence and
intensity, and natural organic pigments and inorganic
pigments which have stood the test of time. The
pigments may be divided into earth, traditional and
modern colours [14]. In the first group are the ochres,
siennas, umbers and mars pigments; in the second are
the metal based pigments, the cadmiums, cobalts,
titanium and ultramarines, while in the third are the
synthetic organic pigments such as the phthalocyanines,
quinacridones, perylenes and pyrroles. Thus the relative
cheapness and reliability of ochres used by prehistoric
man mean that they are to be found on the palette
alongside the natural organic pigment Rose Madder,
developed by George Field 200 years ago, and the
modern synthetic quinacridone pigments. Permanence is
a sine qua non for an artist’s pigment and this is to be
found in those pigments that have continued to be used
throughout history, in many of the metal-based pig-
ments and in the modern organics. The desire to leave
a mark on the world for future generations is a strong
part of human egotism which has driven the quest for
pigments with permanence and intensity of colour. It
will ensure a continuing market for, and drive research
to provide, new and better pigments.
Acknowledgements
This paper is an expanded version of the presentation
at the Colour and Design Conference by Sarah Miller of
Winsor & Newton entitled ‘‘Colour and Art: a history of
453
pigments’’. The authors thank Winsor & Newton for
supplying historical information and Simon Jennings for
kind permission to use material from ‘‘Collins Artists
Colour Manual’’ [15].
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