Yellow
- HEX
- #F2C81F
- RGB
- 242 200 31
- HSL
- 48° 89% 54%
- CMYK
- 0 17 87 5
Language
Yellow and gold come from the same ancient root, *ghel-, to shine. Gleam and glow belong to the family too. To the first speakers, yellow simply was the shining color.
History
Yellow ochre glows on the cave walls of Lascaux. Egyptians painted with orpiment, a gorgeous, poisonous arsenic yellow. In the 1800s chrome yellow arrived, and Van Gogh loaded his Sunflowers with it. Scientists studying the Amsterdam version found its paler, sulfate-rich chrome yellow slowly darkening toward brown under light.
Culture
In Qing China, bright yellow was reserved for the emperor, the empress and the empress dowager. Ordinary people could not wear it; the crown prince wore apricot yellow and other princes a golden yellow. Yellow was the color of earth, the center of the five elements, and so of the ruler at the center of the world.
Symbolism
Alchemy named a yellowing stage, citrinitas, between the white and the final red. Heraldry treats yellow as gold and calls it or.
Philosophy
Goethe called yellow 'the colour nearest the light' in his Theory of Colours. He set it against blue, the color that brings darkness with it, and built his whole system on that pair, pushing back against Newton.
Kin
- Blue: Goethe's polar pair: yellow nearest light, blue nearest darkness
- Gold: Same ancient root, *ghel-, to shine
- Purple: Imperial yellow in Qing China, imperial purple in Rome
- Ochre: Yellow ochre was the cave painters' yellow
- Red: Alchemy's last two stages: yellowing, then reddening
Sources
- Etymonline, 'yellow', 'gold'
- Monico et al., 'Evidence for degradation of the chrome yellows in Van Gogh's Sunflowers', Angewandte Chemie International Edition 54(47) (2015)
- Goethe, Theory of Colours (1810), trans. Eastlake (1840), §765
- South China Morning Post, 'What was the Qing dynasty's imperial yellow jacket'
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.