Lump of Blue Paste (Egyptian blue)

The Painter's Colors

A Short History of Paint

From colored earth and furnaces to the chemist's lab

For thousands of years painters worked from a short list of colors, most dug from the ground and a few made with fire. Some were priced like treasure. Then chemistry widened the palette.

  • The first palettes, and the first synthetic pigment
  • Ultramarine and the apothecary's shop
  • The chemists' colors and the paint tube

Works in this part

Image: The Met Open Access (via Wikimedia Commons) · CC0

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