For a long time, artists had disposed of only three blue pigments: cobalt blue, prussian blue and ultramarine. Now a new blue is about to be marketable-cheaper, less toxic and causing less impact on the environment than the blue pigments used before.
This article is dedicated to Holly van Roll.
Picasso had his blue phase, Chagall too. Before them, Monet, Renoir and van Gogh were crazy about using this colour in their paintings. But to paint blue, the artists disposed of only three pigments for long: cobalt blue, prussian blue and ultramarine.
Cobalt- or Thenards´ blue, cobalt aluminate, was already used for chinaware. In europe, french chemist Thenard was the first to find out how to produce the intensive blue pigment, and he started the commercial production of it in 1807.
Prussian blue, also called Berlin blue, French blue, Parisian blue, Milori blue or ferrocyanide blue -ferric hexacyanoferrate-was synthesized for the first time as early as about 1708-namely by a Berlin colour producer.
Since 1828, there is additionally synthetic ultramarine blue, a complex sulfur-containing sodium silicate. Because the pigment was in great demand in art at that time, in 1824 a french committee had submitted a price for the synthesis -the artificial production- of the pigment. The earlier available precursor had been the “Frau Angelico blue“, extracted from the stone lapis lazuli in an elaborate procedure. To wit, from lapis lazuli the mineral lasurite and thereof the pure blue pigment is won in about fifty production steps. Accordingly, the ultramarine won in this way is very expensive, and moreover, there is only one high quality place of finding lapis lazuli -in the north of Afghanistan. Since the synthesis has been commercialised, the pigment is hardly isolated from lapis lazuli anymore, and ist doesn´t have to be carried “over the (mediterranean) ocean“-which is what its name means- to Europe.
Van Gogh almost exclusively used Cobalt blue. The cobalt aluminate has a colour depth that can neither be depicted by screens nor typographically. Just google one of the paintings mentioned below-already with the approximate online reproductions you will notice big differences in the shades of blue..
If you want to see the real Cobalt blue, you actually have to position yourself in front of the painting. “Starry Night under the Rhone“ and “Wheatfield under Thunderclouds“ are captivating examples for the use of this Blue by van Gogh.
These two online versions of the painting “Wheatfield under Thunderclouds“ are already quite distinct in their shades of blue, which is why you need to see the painting for real. It´s located in Amsterdam. And remember that van Gogh-like other poor artists- would sometimes not eat in order to paint blue.
Monet liked Ultramarine blue, as from 1870 it had become much cheaper. Renoir started his oevre ”The Umbrellas” with Cobalt blue and finished it later with Ultramarine. Both artists preferentially used the pigments in pure form, without mixing in any other colourants.
Picasso exclusively used Parisian blue. Chagall jauntily used all three available pigments.
1934 british company Imperial Chemical Industries ICI-once THE british company- discovered the first organic blue pigment, by serendipity. Chemically a Copper Phthalocyanine complex-correspondingly called Phthalocyanine blue. Since its invention it has replaced the other three pigments in almost all applications, as it simply provides a blue much more intense in much smaller amounts.
Then, in 2009, another blue pigment was invented: chemists at Orgeon State University discovered a bright blue yttrium indium manganese oxide when they were actually searching for a material with particular electronic properties. Although the elements contained, yttrium and indium, are somehow more exotic and expensive, the new blue is to be superior in all aspects, such as lightfastness, non-toxicity and friendlyness towards the environment. Together with the inventor, the Shepherd Color Company tries since 2016 to commercialize the YInMn blue.
