Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Prussian Blue - First synthetic Blue Color


Prussian Blue is one of the most popular 'Blues' used by most of the artists including famous artists like Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso. Prussian Blue is a translucent color. Its opacity is quite less. But has a high tinting strength. 





History of Prussian Blue : 
Purssian Blue was "Accidentaly" discovered by Heinrich Diesbach, while working in the Johann Konrad Dippel's Lab in Berlin in 1704. Diesbach was a painter and a color-maker. Did you know, he was actually trying to create Red (cochineal red lake) color but instead, due to few errors, he came up with Blue. 

During that period of time the discovery of this blue was very important as, the only source available for blue pigment was through grinding up the precious stone 'Lapis Lazuli'. So, the world getting its first synthetic blue color was a great and important achievement. The chemical of this synthetic color is Fe7(CN)18. As per the ancient story, Diesbach used Iron Sulphate and Potash to create cochineal red lake, but as the potash was contaminated by animal oil, the resulted chemical reaction was Prussian Blue !

Cochineal    : obtained by grinding bodies of Cochineal insects. 
Lapis Lazuli : found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan.

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