Fugitive Reds and Permanent Replacements

Artists today are fortunate to enjoy a vast selection of intense, lightfast pigments in the red color space; however, this wasn’t always the case. The first artist’s pigments were earth colors: naturally occurring clays and ores. Earth colors are very permanent but limited in brightness. Some, like ochres and umbers, are still in use today. However, most of the brilliant hues now used by artists are manufactured or synthetic compounds that were introduced in the past two centuries. Before then, achieving a full range of color mixtures was a major challenge for artists.

Vermilion, a potent and lightfast (if toxic) mercury ore, added chromatic intensity to the orange side of red thousands of years ago, but violet shades of red remained scarce. For that portion of the palette, artists used dyes derived from other natural sources, like Carmine produced from insects and Madder made from a plant root. Dyes dissolve and bleed readily into liquids and have to be converted into pigment for use in paint. Pigments made by fixing dyes to inert solids are called “lakes.” The neutral-colored bases used for lake colors absorb a lot of oil, so the resulting pigments yield what are called “fat” oil paints, which are better for top layers and glazes.

Madder cultivation was an established and successful enterprise in France up until in 1868, when a process was discovered for synthesizing one of the key components: Alizarin. This was the first natural dye to be reproduced artificially. Alizarin Crimson quickly replaced the original, and madder growing practically died out. Genuine Carmine and Madder pigments are still available to artists but are somewhat rare and relatively costly. This is ironic, because Madder was once cheap enough to be used as a substitute for Tyrian Purple, a rare and costly colorant made from shellfish.

Alizarin Crimson is among the least fade-resistant pigments still considered acceptable for use in permanent art. The French Impressionist Renoir is known to have used Alizarin mixed with white, resulting in color loss from UV exposure. By comparison, red passages in works by Vermeer in which Rose Madder was glazed over Vermilion have proven to be more durable.

Because artistic technique has an impact on fading, some artists still consider this a manageable issue. Many, however, now choose substitutes to avoid the issue altogether. “Permanent Alizarin Crimson” is an improved replacement that is not chemically similar to the original color. Most versions draw on quinacridone or other newer, synthetic-organic pigments to replicate the appearance of the traditional color. Newer Alizarin replacements are not only more lightfast, but they are also more chromatic and concentrated.

The introduction of better performing replacements is not the only challenge to Alizarin Crimson’s continued availability. The fact that Alizarin is largely produced for artistic use puts the traditional pigment at a disadvantage compared to colorants that can be used more diversely in automotive coatings, plastics, and architectural paints. Even with issues of lightfastness and future availability, however, a significant number of artists still prefer the unique, unmistakable color notes of Alizarin Crimson, a pigment with ancient roots in the history of art.