Chrome yellow
The bright new yellow of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and of North American school buses. It darkens with time.
- Made from
- Lead chromate
- Element found
- Chromium, Vauquelin, 1797
- School bus yellow
- Chosen in 1939, first made with lead chromate
In 1797 the French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin studied crocoite, a bright orange mineral from Siberia, and found a new element in it: chromium, from Greek chroma, color, because its compounds are so colorful; chromium also gives viridian its green. Lead chromate made in the lab gave a range of strong yellows to oranges, and a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence from before 1810 is the earliest known to use it. It joined older yellows, from earthy ochre to costly saffron.
Chrome yellow was cheap and intense, and painters seized it. Van Gogh built his Sunflowers of 1888 from several shades of it. In 1939 a conference of US school transport officials picked a yellow-orange for school buses, originally named National School Bus Chrome and made with lead chromate, because black lettering on it read best at dusk.
It has two problems. It contains lead and chromate, both toxic. And it can darken: light and sulfur in the air turn some chrome yellows brownish, and scientists studying Van Gogh's paintings found the paler, sulfur-rich varieties darken most. Some of his yellows were brighter when he painted them.
Cadmium yellow replaced it for artists, and organic pigments have largely replaced both. The app's canary and yellow are close to the lemon end of the chrome range, amber and marigold to the deep end.
Swatches
- Chrome yellow · lemon (approx.)
- Chrome yellow · deep (approx.)
- Chrome orange (approx.)
Colors
Sources
- Monico, L. et al. (2011). Degradation process of lead chromate in paintings by Vincent van Gogh studied by means of synchrotron X-ray spectromicroscopy. Analytical Chemistry 83(4): 1214–1223.
- Kühn, H. & Curran, M. (1986). Chrome yellow and other chromate pigments. In Artists' Pigments, vol. 1. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
- Wikipedia, 'Chrome yellow' and 'School bus yellow'.
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.