Pigments through the Ages - Overview

A painted swatch of Chrome yellow:

Brief description of Chrome yellow:

Relatively inexpensive yellow pigment with high covering power but with only fair lightfastness and chemical stability. The preparation of chromates of lead, specifically chrome yellow was published by Vauquelin in the Annales de Chimie IXX in 1809. The chrome colors were in use by 1816 but on a limited basis. Because the pigment tends to oxidize and darken on exposure to air over time, and it contains lead, a toxic, heavy metal, it has been largely replaced by another pigment, cadmium yellow.Their excellent hiding power and low cost made them a welcomed alternative to Turner's Patent yellow and orpiment. Chrome yellow cost one shilling per watercolor cake in 1835. Chrome pigments were fast drying in oil and more permanent in oil than in watercolor.

Names for Chrome yellow:

Pronounciation:

krome yel • low

Word origin:

The name "Chrome yellow" comes from The name of the chemical element from which comes the names chrome yellow and chrome orange, is derived from the Greek word "chrōma" (χρωμα), meaning color, because many of its compounds are intensely colored. It was discovered by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin in the mineral crocoite (lead chromate) in 1797. Crocoite was used as a pigment, and after the discovery that the mineral chromite also contains chromium this latter mineral was used to produce pigments as well. .

Non-English names:

German	French	Italian
Chromgelb	jaune de chrôme	giallo de cromo

Color Index (C.I.)

PY 34

Chemical name:

lead(II)-chromate

Source of Chrome yellow:

Chrome yellow is artificially prepared, but is identical to the rare mineral:

crocoite

identical with the rare mineral crocoite (at Mineralogy Database)

Example of use by artists:

Sir Thomas Lawrence, pioneer of chrome yellow

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portrait of a Gentleman (1810), Marguerite Singer Smith, Connecticut, USA

By 1809, when Vanquelin piblished his full investigation of the color chemistry of chromium in the now-prestigious Annales de chimie, chrome yellow was already on the artists' palette. It appears, for example, in Thomas Lawrence's Portrait of a Gentleman, painted in 1810.