Charcoal Black

Natural organic pigment

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Composition and Properties of Charcoal Black

Charcoal black is finely ground material obtained by carbonizing (charring) wood. It is very stable as are all carbon blacks and is absolutely lightfast and compatible with all other pigments.

Pigment

Painted swatch

Names

Alternative names

Carbon black

Color Index

PBk 8, CI 77268

Word origin

The first element is either Old French charbon “charcoal,” or, on the current theory, obsolete charren “to turn” (from Old English cerran) + cole “coal,” thus, “to turn to coal.”
From Online Etymology Dictionary

Holzkohlenschwarz

German

Charbon de bois

French

Carbone di legna

Italian

Carbón de haya, grueso

Spanish

Preparation

Charcoal black can be prepared by charring wood.

Video: 'Making Oil Paint out of Charcoal' by Nada Makes

History of Use

The pigment has been in use since prehistoric times.

Examples of use

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait at the Age of 34, 1640

2 Dark cloak at lower right and dark brown areas on both shoulders: bone black, charcoal black, and red lake pigment.

Rembrandt-Self-Portrait-at-the-Age-of-34-pigments-2

Anthony van Dyck, ‘Portrait of a Woman and Child’, ca 1620-21

6 Black dress: charcoal black mixed with greys and a small amount of deep red lake.

Van-Dyck-Portrait-of-woman-and-child-pigments-6-7-8

Identification

IR Spectrum

IR spectrum in linseed oil

IR Spectrum of charcoal black in linseed oil by S. Vahur, Database of ATR-IR spectra of materials related to paints and coatings, University of Tartu, Estonia

Raman Spectrum

(1) Eugenia P. Tomasini, Emilia B. Halac, María Reinoso, Emiliano J. Di Liscia and Marta S. Maier, Micro-Raman spectroscopy of carbon-based black pigments, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, Special Issue: Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology, Volume 43, Issue 11, pp. 1671–1675, November 2012.

(2) Alessia Coccato, Jan Jehlicka, Luc Moens and Peter Vandenabeele, Raman spectroscopy for the investigation of carbon-based black pigments, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, Special Issue: 11th International GeoRaman Conference, Volume 46, Issue 10, pages 1003–1015, October 2015. DOI: 10.1002/jrs.4715. Available as pdf.