The Color Yellow - A Toxic History

The color yellow is one of the more difficult colors to render accurately.

My current project is a soft pastel painting of yellow and white roses from a photograph that I took in our neighborhood. Although I like the results, the yellows aren’t as bright as the real roses.

The color yellow has a long history. Early humans, some 300,000 years ago, used yellow ochre to decorate their bodies. Around 17,000 years ago, humans used it on the walls of the Lascaux Caves in France. The animals and hunters come to life in beautifully stylized paintings. Made from components in clay, yellow ochre is still used today and is the safest and most durable pigment ever made.

Unfortunately, the human desire for ever-brighter and richer hues of yellow has followed a toxic path throughout history. In ancient Egypt, a synthetic pigment called orpiment was made using arsenic sulfide, which produced a rich golden color. It was highly poisonous and not chemically compatible with many other pigments.

Photograph by Tom Podmore, Cairo Egypt

Egyptians of the upper class, males and females, applied orpiment as eye shadow, and it was used in medicine to treat syphilis and malaria. Workers who extracted and ground the chemical and artisans who frequently used orpiment were the most vulnerable to the poison.

The love of making art overrides caution. Rembrandt used orpiment, see Jewish Bride, even though he most likely knew it was toxic and chemically incompatible with various other pigments.

Lead-Tin Yellow takes center stage. During the 13th century, lead-tin yellow became popular and eventually replaced orpiment. Made from tin and, you guessed it, lead, it was a glowing yellow and slightly less toxic choice.

Some of the most exquisite paintings of the Renaissance were painted using lead-tin yellow from the 13th to 17th centuries. What is sometimes called the “Yellow of the Old Masters” was available in two varieties, both containing lead. Painters including Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Vermeer used it in their paintings. Below is Vermeer’s The Milk Maid.

Vermeer’s The Milk Maid

After an incredible run, lead-tin yellow was replaced by newer pigments in the 19th century, most notably Vincent van Gogh’s favorite, chrome yellow.

It was a vivid color and inexpensive, but it combined two toxic ingredients: lead and chromium compounds. I read somewhere that some think van Gogh would lick his brushes. Not a good habit if true. Chrome yellow eventually darkens over time, changing the appearance of many paintings. Some of his paintings have deteriorated (faded) and need restoring. Van Gogh Museum read: Conservation Treatement of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers .

The Toxic History of Yellow will continue in the next blog.

Thanks for reading!

Nadine