ultramarine artificial

Home » Products » Pigments Checkers » Pigments Checker » Pigments Checker – Standard – Pigments’ List » ultramarine artificial

Ultramarine (artificial)

Artificial ultramarine, in contrast with natural ultramarine, is finely divided and homogeneous.

Manufacturer / product code: Kremer / 45000
Chemical description: sodium-aluminium-silicate, containing sulfur. Kremer PDF
Color: blue
Color Index: PB 29
More info: Pigments Through The Ages Colourlex

The deep, resonant hue of ultramarine, historically derived from the semi-precious Afghan stone lapis lazuli, was once the most expensive pigment in the artist’s palette, often valued above gold. Its name, from the Latin ultramarinus (“beyond the sea”), referenced the vast distance it traveled to reach European painters during the Renaissance. Due to its prohibitive cost, natural ultramarine was strictly reserved for the most sacred figures, most famously the robes of the Virgin Mary, symbolizing sanctity and humility.

The high demand and scarcity of this brilliant blue sparked a major industrial challenge in the 19th century. In 1824, the French Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale offered a prize for a synthetic alternative. This challenge was met almost simultaneously in 1826 and 1828 by two chemists: Jean-Baptiste Guimet in France and Christian Gottlob Gmelin in Germany. Guimet secured the prize by synthesizing a pigment chemically identical to the natural mineral, ushering in the age of “French Ultramarine.”

This invention was a revolution for art. Overnight, the cost dropped from thousands of francs per pound to just hundreds, making the radiant blue accessible to every artist. Freed from financial constraints, 19th-century movements like Impressionism fully embraced the pigment. Artists such as Renoir and Van Gogh used synthetic ultramarine extensively, not just for focal points but for shadows and background details, contributing to the shift towards brighter, more pervasive color use that defined modern painting.

Raman Spectroscopy 532 nm – ElviRa Spectrometer for Art

Raman Spectroscopy 532 nm (ElviRa spectrometer) Pigments-Checker Database (65195 downloads )

Raman spectroscopy 632 nm

Raman spectroscopy 785 nm

Raman Spectroscopy 785 nm Pigments (pure, no binder) (67961 downloads )

Pigments with acrylic binder (Pigments Checker)

Raman Spectroscopy 785 nm Pigments-Checker Database (68138 downloads )

Raman spectroscopy 830 nm

Pigments (powder, no binder)

Raman Spectroscopy 830 nm Pigments-Checker Database (55205 downloads )

Raman spectroscopy 1064 nm

Pigments (powder, no binder)

Raman Spectroscopy 1064 nm Pigments-Checker Database (50939 downloads )

XRF spectroscopy

Pigments Checker (TP-MSI calibration card included)

2 thoughts on “ultramarine artificial”

Nicholas Burnett
January 6, 2023

Very useful but the XRF spectra for artificial ultramarine appears to be missing.

1. Antonino Cosentino
  January 6, 2023
  
  Hi, thanks for your interest in our databases. The images of the XRF spectra that do not have useful features are not shown. Our equipment could not detect the light elements that make ultramarine. Though, you can download all the spectra as a database (not images)