Orange ochre
Orange ochre is a prehistoric pigment used frequently in paintings, one well known example being Rembrandt’s ‘The Rape of Ganymede’.
Brown ochre
An extensive collection of information on the properties, preparation, identification, and use in painting of the ancient natural pigment brown ochre.
Realgar
Realgar is an orange pigment rarely used in European oil painting. It is arsenic sulfide and as such it is extremely toxic.
Gamboge
Gamboge is a gum resin produced from various trees growing in south Asia. It was not frequently used in oil painting.
Charcoal black
Charcoal black is one of the oldest pigments in history. It has a warm tone and can be prepared by charring wood.
Indigo
Indigo as a natural and synthetic pigment has been in use since antiquity but its use in oil painting ceased in the early eighteenth century.
Bone black
Bone black had been in use since ancient history by many artists such as Rembrandt and Velázquez but also by modern painters such as Cézanne and Picasso.
Ivory black
Ivory black is one of the carbon black pigments with a rather warm black tone and excellent tinting strength.
Cobalt violet
Cobalt violet is one of the few violet pigments in use since the second half of the 19th century until today.
Naples yellow
Naples yellow and egyptian blue are the oldest artificially produced pigments. It has great hiding power and was used until the 19th century.
Cadmium yellow
Cadmium yellow is a stable, lightfast and beautiful yellow pigment used by Monet, Cézanne and Matisse among other painters in the 19th Century.
Prussian Blue
An extensive collection of information on properties, preparation, identification, and use of Prussian blue – the first modern artificial pigment.
Verdigris
Verdigris was the most intense green pigment of renaissance painters, while its use ceased with the arrival of the modern pigments such as emerald green.
Green earth
Green earth is a natural inorganic pigment used since antiquity mostly in mixture with other pigments.
Lead white
Extensive collection of information on artistic, historical, and technical aspects of Lead white, the most important white pigment since antiquity.
Malachite
Malachite is basic copper carbonate which can be found in nature as a mineral. It has been used in oil painting since antiquity.
Viridian
An extensive collection of information on the properties, preparation, identification and use of viridian. It was frequently employed by the Impressionists.
Smalt
Smalt is finely ground glass containing cobalt. Its colour is not very brilliant In oil paintings and it has often been mixed with other pigments.
Red lead
Red lead has been in use since antiquity but it is not very common in European paintings. Degas and Van Gogh are known to have been painting with read lead.
Red ochre
Red ochre has been used since prehistoric times under different names, such as red earth, Venetian red, mars red and English red.
Yellow ochre
Yellow ochre is one of the oldest pigments in use since prehistoric times until present day.
Emerald green
Emerald green offers lucidly presented artistic and scientific information on this brilliant but extremely toxic pigment.
Azurite
Azurite is a natural blue pigment which has been in use since antiquity. It was much cheaper than natural ultramarine.
Orpiment
Orpiment is a rather rare yellow pigment which has been in use since antiquity. It is arsenic sulfide and as such it is very poisonous.
Cobalt blue
An extensive collection of information on properties, preparation, identification, and use of cobalt blue – a popular pigment with the Impressionists.
Chrome yellow
Chrome yellow is not very stable but popular pigment with the impressionists and painters such as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauigin and Paul Cézanne.
Vermilion
Vermilion (cinnabar) was one of the most important red pigments in use from antique times until about the nineteeth century.
Madder lake
An extensive collection of information on the properties, preparation, and identification of madder lake. Special emphasis is put on its use in oil painting.
Lead-tin yellow
Lead-tin yellow is an artificial yellow pigment first employed in paintings in the early renaissance. Titian, Vermeer, and Rembrandt had used it often.
Ultramarine artificial
Ultramarine artificial is the synthetic variant of the expensive natural pigment prepared from the mineral lapis lazuli.
Ultramarine natural
An extensive collection of information on properties, preparation, identification, and use of ultramarine natural – the intense and expensive blue pigment.