Van Gogh's Yellow

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

View of Arles with Irises Vincent van Gogh

The rise of Impressionism was due in part to new developments in paint chemistry which created brighter, more stable colors previously unavailable. Today, it is hard for us to imagine a world without the beautiful bright reds, blues, mauves and yellows to which every artist has access. However, look in any museum, and you will see a change in the range and brightness of colors in paintings beginning in 1701 with the invention of Prussian Blue, followed by Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Yellow in 1817. By the middle of the 19th century, a great revolution in paint color really got under way, and by 1880, many of the younger artists of the time had fully embraced and were experimenting with the new color technology.

One of those artists was Vincent van Gogh. The brilliance of some of van Gogh’s most famous paintings is due to his use of these newly available vivid industrial pigments. These pigments begin to show up in …