The Story of GOLDEN Historical Colors

Blood, dirt, urine, berries, leaves and roots. What do these materials have in common? Many such “primitive” elements have been used to make some of the most beautiful artist paints throughout history.

GOLDEN Historical Colors are re-creations of pigments derived from such elements. Our Historical Colors are not made from these original components, however, but are hues of existing colors. Those who are familiar with our products will realize that this is a departure for GOLDEN, since we offer the widest selection of single, pure pigments in 100 percent acrylic emulsion available today. When it is impossible to produce colors from single pigments while retaining our high standards for lightfastness and pigment quality, we will occasionally produce hue colors. In the case of the Historical Colors, there are key reasons we chose to take this step.

Time has proven that the original pigments possessed many disadvantages. In fact, each color in our Historical set has at one time or another been considered controversial with respect to paint quality, lightfastness or artist safety. Some of the pigments are no longer widely produced, others have been banned from the market, and still others continue to be produced but remain fugitive or controversial to this day.

Regardless, the Historical Colors have long been considered essential to a traditional artist’s palette. Artists rely on these colors for mixing or for effects unique to the qualities of the pigments. GOLDEN conducted a survey to determine whether these colors were still pertinent in contemporary painting. Among professionals, the overwhelming response we received was,“yes.”

GOLDEN recognized that these colors could be re-created in a safe, reliable form, meeting the needs of artists still using questionable products because no adequate replacements had yet been created. Great pains were taken to ensure the Historical Colors shared the working properties of their predecessors. Our investigations led us back to traditional oil paints and the works of old masters as we tried to unearth the twisting history of the original pigments. Extensive research was conducted, utilizing the professional expertise of art historians, museum curators and our own technicians. Considerations for masstone, undertone and tint were included in the matching process to closely match the overall color qualities.

Below, we give you a snapshot history of each one of our Historical Colors, including a brief description of our own process of research and development as we labored to achieve highly authentic re-creations. We are proud and excited to continue the legacy of these colors, adding the benefits of lightfastness, safe use and permanence. Thanks to modern chemistry, the Historical Colors are not only fascinating relics from the past, but quality painting materials that can help to shape a creative future.