White

"the representative of light"

Mrs. Frederick Barnard 1885 John Singer Sargent

“The first of all single colors is white . . .

We shall set down white for the representative of light,

without which no color can be seen;

yellow for the earth; green for water; blue for air;

red for fire; and black for total darkness.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

The white paint that is so essential in our palettes is white because it reflects light. It reflects most light rays away from itself leaving what has been thought of over the centuries as the purest of colors. The most used white oil paint throughout history also poisoned artists, women who used makeup containing it, workers in the factories producing it and those living in homes painted with it. Lead White poisoned through ingestion, inhalation and absorption into the skin. Still, it was used massively for centuries.

Lead White artists’ pigment can still be found (and used with certain precautions), but not necessarily through the major art paint m…