Issue 5, 2012

Chrome yellow in nineteenth century art: historic reconstructions of an artists' pigment

Abstract

To understand the reported degradation of chrome yellows, popular with artists since their introduction in the 19th century, it is necessary to understand the pigment formulation as produced at that time. Chromium-based pigments such as lead chromate (PbCrO4, chrome yellow) or zinc chromate (K2O·4ZnCrO4·3H2O, zinc yellow), as used by Van Gogh and Seurat, currently exhibit substantial darkening in paintings such as “Sunflowers” or “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884”. Winsor & Newton (W&N), one of the leading artists' colourmen of the time, has made its recipe archive available. Access to their extensive chrome yellow pigment formulations prompted our research on the stability of these pigments by reconstructing their processes of manufacture. The colorants obtained were compared with contemporary tube paints from W&N as well as with samples from paintings by Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887–1918) an influential modernist Portuguese painter. Good correlation between all three sources was found.

Graphical abstract: Chrome yellow in nineteenth century art: historic reconstructions of an artists' pigment

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Aug 2011
Accepted
26 Oct 2011
First published
22 Dec 2011

RSC Adv., 2012,2, 1798-1805

Chrome yellow in nineteenth century art: historic reconstructions of an artists' pigment

V. Otero, L. Carlyle, M. Vilarigues and M. J. Melo, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 1798 DOI: 10.1039/C1RA00614B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements