It was the English colour manufacturer, pigment maker and colour theorist George Field (c. 1777-1854) who pioneered the production of synthetic iron oxides. However, he published nothing about the method he had developed for producing the many synthetic iron oxides he created: a series of yellows, oranges, reds and violets, all deriving their colours from ferric oxide1.
Yellow iron oxide is the foundation of the entire series, in the sense that it serves as the basis for producing all the other colours of the family2.
It has been characterised by Church3 as “a kind of yellow ochre prepared artificially”.
The pigments were all named after the name given to the element iron by the old chemists and, even earlier, by alchemists: Mars, after the Roman god of war4.
- Hurst, G. H., “Painters’ Colours, Oils, and Varnishes: a practical manual”, 4th edition, Charles Griffin & Company Ltd., London, 1906
- ibid (Hurst)
- Keane, L. A., “Yellow bricks”, Journal of Physics and Chemistry, 1916, 20 (9), pp. 734–760
- Crichton, R., Pierre, J. L., “Old Iron, Young Copper: from Mars to Venus”, Biometals 14, pp. 99–112, 2001
