19th Century Colour Palettes

The 19th century was a century of new pigments. They were derived from recently recognised metals –cadmium, chrome, zinc and others – as well as from the discovery of the chemical colouring substances of plants. From indigo the aniline dyes were manufactured, and from madder came the alizarin red pigments – there were hundreds of these coal tar pigments. The English chemist, George Field, published his Chromatography in 1835, a comprehensive collection which included many of the new pigments and, as the century wore on so new pigments were added to up-dated editions of his book in 1869 and 1885. They were published by the English colour-makers, Winsor & Newton, so become a chronicle of a world of new pigments for painters not only in England but also in France and Germany especially. 19th Century Colour Palettes traces these developments, presenting the pigments in dictionary form in extracts taken from the editions of Field''s Chromatography.