French Ultramarine

French Ultramarine is one of our favourite and most useful colours.

It’s name is from the Latin, ‘ultra’ meaning beyond, and ‘mare’ meaning sea. Before the 18th century the Lapis lazuli (Latin, ‘the blue stone’) came from a single source, the Sar-e-Sang mines in the mountains of Afghanistan. Since it was a colour revered by artist for it’s intensity and beauty the mines were famous, and worthy of difficult journeys via donkey and camels along the Silk Road which lay ‘beyond the sea’ for Western artists. Today there are other sources, including China and Chile.

Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone which is composed of a number of minerals. Turning it into a usable pigment is a difficult operation. It is difficult to grind and due to it having so many impurities, the result can be a disappointing grey colour. Remind Siân to demonstrate!

The combination ofthe long journey and the difficulty in producing a deep blue pigment affected its price, and hence an artists decision to use it. When writing contracts for commissioned pieces artists included clauses requiring extra fees for the use of ultramarine, including travel costs to Venice to collect the pigment as it could be procured so much more cheaply there.

In 1824 the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie National in France offered a generous prize to anyone who could create an affordable synthetic ultramarine. The prize was awarded to a French chemist, Jean-Baptist Guimet , and the new formula became known as French Ultramarine. A synthetic alternative will never be as good as the original it emulates, but while artists complained that it lacked the reflective qualities of the genuine article, I think we can all be very grateful to M. Guimet!

THE SECRET LIVES OF COLOUR

This book is an excellent read for anyone interested the history of the colours. The book covers so much more than the technical aspects of where pigments come from, although Kassia St Clair writes about technical matters in a way that makes them very interesting. There are stories about about how colours were perceived and used not just in the art world, but in their significance throughout history.

What does Tyrian purple have to do with Caesar, sea snails and geographical features along the eastern coast of the meditterean?

Don’t worry if that’s not quite enough to whet your appetite enough to purchase copy, we will be sharing a few snippets of information each week in “Colour of the Week’. If on the other hand you are intrigued, click on the image for a link to Amazon.