06/10/2022
French Ultramarine is a great example of the length artists, and the chemists who work with them, will go to for a colour they are passionate about. Ultramarine, derived from lapis lazuli (the ‘blue stone’, in Latin) was incredibly precious, partly because it was time consuming to make and the yield was very small relative to the effort; this made it more expensive than gold. It was so highly prized as a status symbol that wealthy patrons commissioning work would agree a separate budget with the artist for this pigment only, to ensure Ultramarine was used in the painting.
The pressure was on to make a more affordable version of this pigment and success was finally achieved in 1826 by a French Chemist, Jean-Baptiste Guimet, and therefore the name French Ultramarine was used to distinguish the new synthetic pigment from the genuine. His pigment was made from a mix of clay, soda, charcoal, quartz and sulphur, heated to produce a green ultramarine substance which was then ground, washed and re-heated to convert it to a blue pigment. This synthetic version was a fraction of the price, opening up access to this lovely blue for more artists.
This bottle is dated May 30, 1879, when the new technology leading to French Ultramarine had been around for about 43 years. While JMW Turner was reported to be the first artist to use the new colour, artists such as Van Gogh, Renoir and Manet all favoured using this new pigment because it allowed them a freedom in their work that would not have been possible before. For example, in an analysis of Renoir’s ‘The Umbrellas’, from about 1881-86, he used Cobalt Blue (also a very expensive pigment) in the first stage of his painting, but in later stages French Ultramarine was used.
Interestingly, it was artists like Turner who pushed the chemists they worked with to experiment with the creation of new materials, but Turner didn’t care about longevity. He just wanted the colours he wanted, when he wanted them. While he pushed for innovation for his own reasons, the result was often a colour that was an advancement which benefitted all artists as far as access and price, but it also had archival qualities: synthetic pigments were often resistant to fading (lightfast) or changing colour over time. This is one example where the up-and-comer blue out shined the original, becoming the workhorse blue of artists’ palettes to this day.
