Cerulean

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Cerulean as a quaternary color on the RYB color wheel
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The color cerulean (American English) or caerulean (British English, Commonwealth English), is a variety of the hue of blue that may range from a light azure blue to a more intense sky blue. Cerulean may also be mixed with the hue of green. The first recorded use of cerulean as a color name in English was in 1590.<ref name="MaerzPaul1930C">Template:Cite book</ref> The word is derived from the Latin word caeruleus ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), "dark blue, blue, or blue-green", which in turn probably derives from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, diminutive of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "heaven, sky".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

"Cerulean blue" is the name of a blue-green pigment consisting of cobalt stannate (Template:Chem). The pigment was first synthesized in the late eighteenth century by Albrecht Höpfner, a Swiss chemist, and it was known as Höpfner blue during the first half of the nineteenth century. Art suppliers began referring to cobalt stannate as cerulean in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was not widely used by artists until the 1870s when it became available in oil paint.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

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Pigment characteristicsEdit

The primary chemical constituent of the pigment is cobalt(II) stannate (Template:Chem).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The pigment is a greenish-blue color. In watercolor, it has a slight chalkiness. When used in oil paint, it loses this quality.<ref name=":13">Template:Cite book</ref>

Today, cobalt chromate is sometimes marketed under the cerulean blue name but is darker and greenerTemplate:Efn than the cobalt stannate version.Template:Efn The chromate makes excellent turquoise colors and is identified by Rex Art and some other manufacturers as "cobalt turquoise".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cerulean is inert with good light resistance, and it exhibits a high degree of stability in both watercolor and acrylic paint.<ref>Patterson, Steven. 2020. "The history of blue pigments in the Fine Arts — painting, from the perspective of a paint maker". Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 153:164-179. https://royalsoc.org.au/images/pdf/journal/153-2-04Patterson.pdf . 172.</ref>

PB35 Bleu Céruléum.JPG

Cerulean blue PB35
Cerulean blue hue.png

A sample swatch of cerulean blue hue oil paint. "Hue" in this instance means that other pigments have been used to mimic the color of oil paint that contains the original pigment.
Ceruleum.png

Cerulean blue pigment in oil. On the left as a standoil glaze over zinc white; on the right as a mass tone in oil-based paint.

HistoryEdit

Cobalt stannate pigment was first synthesized in 1789 by the Swiss chemist Albrecht Höpfner by heating roasted cobalt and tin oxides together.<ref name=":06">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Subsequently, there was limited German production under the name of Cölinblau.Template:Citation needed It was generally known as Höpfner blue from the late eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century.<ref name=":0" />

In the late 1850s, art suppliers begin referring to the pigment as "ceruleum" blue. The London Times of 28 December 1859 had an advertisement for "Caeruleum, a new permanent color prepared for the use of artists." Ure's Dictionary of Arts from 1875 describes the pigment as "Caeruleum ... consisting of stannate of protoxide of cobalt, mixed with stannic acid and sulphate of lime." Cerulean was also referred to as coeurleum, cerulium, bleu céleste (celestial blue). Other nineteenth century English pigment names included "ceruleum blue" and "corruleum blue". By 1935, Max Doerner referred to the pigment as cerulean, as do most modern sources, though ceruleum is still used.<ref name=":0" />

Some sources claim that cerulean blue was first marketed in the United Kingdom by colourman George Rowney, as "coeruleum" in the early 1860s. However, the British firm of Roberson was buying "Blue No. 58 (Cerulium)" from a German firm of Frauenknecht and Stotz prior to Rowney.<ref name=":0" /> Cerulean blue was only available as a watercolor in the 1860s and was not widely adopted until the 1870s when it was used in oil paint. It was popular with artists including Claude Monet, Paul Signac, and Picasso. Van Gogh created his own approximation of cerulean blue using a mixture of cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, and white.<ref name=":13"/>

Notable occurrencesEdit

In 1877, Monet had added the pigment to his palette, using it in a painting from his series La Gare Saint-Lazare (now in the National Gallery, London). The blues in the painting include cobalt and cerulean blue, with some areas of ultramarine. Laboratory analysis conducted by the National Gallery identified a relatively pure example of cerulean blue pigment in the shadows of the station's canopy. Researchers at the National Gallery suggested that "cerulean probably offered a pigment of sufficiently greenish tone to displace Prussian blue, which may not have been popular by this time".<ref>Roy, Ashok. "The Palettes of Three Impressionist Paintings". National Gallery Technical Bulletin 9 (1985): 13. Template:JSTOR.</ref>

Berthe Morisot painted the blue coat of the woman in her Summer's Day, 1879 in cerulean blue in conjunction with artificial ultramarine and cobalt blue.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

When the United Nations was formed at the end of World War II, they adopted cerulean blue for their emblem. The designer Oliver Lundquist stated that he chose the color because it was "the opposite of red, the color of war".<ref name=":13"/>

In the Catholic Church, cerulean vestments are permitted on certain Marian feast days, primarily the Immaculate Conception in diocese currently or formerly under the Spanish Crown.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cerulean warbler catoctin mountain park 5.29.23 DSC 1869-topaz-denoiseraw.jpg

Cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulea), named from its color
The Saint-Lazare Railway Station 1522133478-43f10.jpg

Claude Monet, La Gare Saint-Lazare, 1887
Berthe Morisot - Jour d'été, 1879.jpg

Berthe Morisot, Summer's Day, 1879
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Symbol of the United Nations

Other color variationsEdit

Pale ceruleanEdit

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Pantone, in a press release, declared the pale hue of cerulean at right, which they call cerulean, as the "color of the millennium".<ref name="pantone">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #15-4020 TPX—Cerulean.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cerulean (Crayola)Edit

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This bright tone of cerulean is the color called cerulean by Crayola crayons.

Cerulean frostEdit

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At right is displayed the color cerulean frost.

Cerulean frost is one of the colors in the special set of metallic colored Crayola crayons called Silver Swirls, the colors of which were formulated by Crayola in 1990.