Grumbacher Academy Oil Color - Naples Yellow Hue, 37 ml tube

Pigment Information

This color contains the following pigments:

PY43-Brown Ochre

PW6-Titanium White

PY42-Yellow Iron Oxide

PW5-Lithopone

Pigment Name

PY43-Brown Ochre

Chemical Name

iron(III)-oxide, partly hydrated

Chemical Formula

Fe2O3(• H2O)

Properties

Brown Ochre provides artists with earthtones from cream to brown and is a dull, dark variety of Yellow Ochre. Its transparency varies widely from opaque shades to more transparent ones, which are valued for their use as glazes. It has good hiding power, produces a quick drying paint, and can be safely mixed with other pigments. The highest quality Brown Ochre comes from Cyprus, where it is yellow in its raw form and is roasted to get the deeper brown-red varieties that result when water is removed. (See Yellow Ochre, PY42/43.)

Permanence

Brown Ochre has excellent permanence.

Toxicity

Brown Ochre is non-toxic.

History

Ochre comes from the Greek word ochros, meaning pale yellow. It has been used since prehistoric times, and evidence of its use has been found in some of the earliest known cave paintings in Lascaux, France. It has also been called Goethite, after the German philosopher and mineralogist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

Pigment Name

PW6-Titanium White

Pigment Type

inorganic

Chemical Name

titanium dioxide

Chemical Formula

TiO2

Properties

Titanium White is the most brilliant of the white pigments. It is considered an all purpose oil color useful in all techniques and the best all around white. Its masstone is neither warm nor cool, placing it somewhere between Lead White and Zinc White. It is less prone to cracking and yellowing than Lead White, but it still yellows easily. Titanium White dries slowly in oil form, more slowly than Lead White but more quickly than Zinc White. It is opaque in oil and acrylic forms and semi-opaque in watercolor form. This pigment has good chemical stability, and its tinting strength is superior to both Lead White and Zinc White.

Permanence

Titanium White has excellent permanence and lightfastness.

Toxicity

Titanium dioxide is highly stable and is regarded as non-toxic.

History

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, however mineral deposits that are economical to mine are less common. Titanium dioxide was first discovered in 1821, although it could not be mass produced until 1919. Widespread use of the pigment began in the 1940s. Since that time, it has become the most commonly used white pigment. The name comes from the Latin word Titan, the name for the elder brother of Kronos and ancestor of the Titans, and from the Greek word tito, meaning day or sun.

Pigment Name

PY42-Yellow Iron Oxide

Chemical Name

iron(III)-oxide, hydrated

Chemical Formula

Fe2O3 • H2O

Properties

Yellow Ochre provides artists with earthtones from cream to brown. It has good hiding power, produces a quick drying paint, and can be safely mixed with other pigments. Its transparency varies widely from opaque shades to more transparent ones, which are valued for their use as glazes. If gypsum is present, Yellow Ochre is not suitable for frescoing. (See Brown Ochre, PY43.) PY42 is made from synthetic iron oxides. PY43 is made from natural iron oxide.

Permanence

Yellow Ochre has excellent permanence because ochres are some of the most permanent pigments available.

Toxicity

Yellow Ochre is non-toxic unless it contains manganese.

History

Ochre comes from the Greek word ochros, meaning pale yellow. It was one of the first pigments to be used by human beings, and evidence of its use has been found at 300,000 year old sites in France and the former Czechoslovakia.

Pigment Name

PW5-Lithopone

Pigment Type

inorganic

Chemical Name

coprecipitated zinc sulphide and barium sulphate

Chemical Formula

Zn + BaSO4

Properties

Lithopone is a low tinting strength, semi-transparent white pigment that is often used as a filler or extender in other colors, or as the base for laked pigments.

Permanence

Lithopone is absolutely permanent and lightfast.

Toxicity

Lithopone is not toxic.

History

Lithopone was discovered by G.F. de Doubet in 1850. It  was developed commercially in the 1870s as a substitute or supplement for lead carbonate, to overcome the many shortcomings of white lead pigment, including toxicity, poor weathering, and darkening in the presence of sulfur compounds. It is used most often in interior paints and enamels. Its use as a white pigment has been superceeded in many applications by titanium dioxide.