The darkening of zinc yellow: XANES speciation of chromium in artist's paints after light and chemical exposures

Zanella, Luciana; Casadio, Francesca; Gray, Kimberly A.; Warta, Richard; Ma, Qing; Gaillard, Jean François

doi:10.1039/c0ja00151a

Cited by 40 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This agrees with the reactivity model suggested by Monico and Tan et al, that relates the tendency to degrade with the solubility of the chromate pigments, see Table 1 [15,16]. Darkening of zinc chromate (4ZnCrO 4 ·K 2 O·3H 2 O) has been observed in Georges Seurat's paintings including A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884 [4,[17][18][19]. Casadio et al studied the darkening of oil paints prepared with a modern zinc yellow (DuPont, Y-539-D; PS-83109) and cold pressed linseed oil (W&N), and subjected to artificial aging under combined environmental conditions: light/ dark, air humidity (50 and 90% RH) and acidic gases (SO 2 and CO 2 ).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…By means of Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), they determined that the darkening is related to the reduction of the original Cr(VI) in zinc yellow pigment to Cr(III) species such as the green chromium oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ). Orange Cr(VI) dichromate species were also detected in the samples aged under light, SO 2 and 50% RH [17][18][19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barium, zinc and strontium yellows in late 19th–early 20th century oil paintings

et al. 2017

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This work focuses on the study of the 19th century yellow chromate pigments based on barium (BaCrO 4 ), zinc (4ZnCrO 4 ·K 2 O·3H 2 O) and strontium (SrCrO 4 ). These pigments, which are reported to shift in hue and darken, have been found in 19th century artworks. A better understanding of their historic manufacture will contribute to the visual/chemical interpretation of change in these colours. Research was carried out on the Winsor & Newton (W&N) 19th century archive database providing a unique insight into their manufacturing processes. One hundred and three production records were found, 69% for barium, 25% for zinc and 6% for strontium chromates, mainly under the names Lemon, Citron and Strontian Yellow, respectively. Analysis of the records shows that each pigment is characterised by only one synthetic pathway. The low number of records found for the production of strontium chromate suggests W&N was not selling this pigment formulation on a large scale. Furthermore, contrary to what the authors have discovered for W&N chrome yellow pigments, extenders were not added to these pigment formulations, most probably due to their lower tinting strength (TS). The latter was calculated in comparison to pure chrome yellow (PbCrO 4 , 100% TS) resulting in 92% for barium, 65% for zinc potassium and 78% for strontium chromate pigments. This indicates that W&N was probably using extenders primarily to adjust pigment properties and not necessarily as a means to reduce their costs. Pigment reconstructions following the main methods of synthesis were characterised by complementary analytical techniques: Fibre optic reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, micro-Raman and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. These pigments can be clearly distinguished on the basis of their infrared CrO 4 2− asymmetric stretching fingerprint profile (between 1000 and 700 cm −1

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barium, zinc and strontium yellows in late 19th–early 20th century oil paintings

et al. 2017

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“…Thus, more paintings have to be investigated in order to find out, which role chromate pigments played in Krøyer's palette. The instability of the chromate pigments was already in the nineteenth century well known among artists [22][23][24], which makes it a possibility that Krøyer deliberately avoided using them to a greater extent in his paintings.…”

Section: Tube Coloursmentioning

confidence: 99%

The artists’ materials of P. S. Krøyer: An analytical study of the artist’s paintings and tube colours by Raman, SEM–EDS and HPLC

Christiansen¹,

Baadsgaard²,

Sanyova

et al. 2017

Herit Sci

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An analytical study of two paintings by P. S. Krøyer and the tube colours found in his painting cabinet has been carried out in order to investigate the artists' materials used by Krøyer in the latter part of his oeuvre. The study has given a valuable knowledge about Krøyer's choice of materials and their composition that may be helpful in e.g. preservation issues. The pigments and dyes were analysed by micro-Raman spectroscopy (MRS), scanning electron microscopyenergy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD). The technical analyses were supplemented with archival studies of Danish nineteenth century paint shops. The results show that Krøyer used commercially available artists' materials typical for that period in time. Being a wealthy artist, he seems to have favoured expensive pigments such as cobalt blue, viridian and cadmium yellow. Based on the analyses, the main development in Krøyer's palette is the substitution of lead white with zinc white that appears to have taken place after 1886. The results also show that the contents of the tube colours in some cases differ from what was expected based on the trade names. This is particularly observed for the tube colours named "Oxide rouge" of which only one contains the expected hematite pigment, while all the remaining contain cadmium sulfide and natural organic red lakes. A rare tube colour named "Laque verte clair" was characterised to be mixture of Prussian blue and synthetic Indian yellow. The study therefore also illustrates that it was not always obvious to the artists what they bought from their colour merchant. It hence relates to existing international studies of nineteen century artists' materials, which highlight the complexity of tube colours from this particular period in time.

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“…Several examples of the discoloration of synthetic yellow pigments from the turn of the twentieth century (e.g. zinc yellow (K 2 OÁ4ZnCrO 4 Á3H 2 O) [1], chrome yellow (PbCrO 4 ) [2][3][4][5][6], and cadmium yellow (CdS) [7,8]) have been recently reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

2D X-ray and FTIR micro-analysis of the degradation of cadmium yellow pigment in paintings of Henri Matisse

et al. 2015

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The chemical and physical alterations of cadmium yellow (CdS) paints in Henri Matisse's The Joy of Life (1905Life ( -1906, The Barnes Foundation) have been recognized since 2006, when a survey by portable X-ray fluorescence identified this pigment in all altered regions of the monumental painting. This alteration is visible as fading, discoloration, chalking, flaking, and spalling of several regions of light to medium yellow paint. Since that time, synchrotron radiation-based techniques including elemental and spectroscopic imaging, as well as X-ray scattering have been employed to locate and identify the alteration products observed in this and related works by Henri Matisse. This information is necessary to formulate one or multiple mechanisms for degradation of Matisse's paints from this period, and thus ensure proper environmental conditions for the storage and the display of his works. This paper focuses on 2D full-field X-ray Near Edge Structure imaging, 2D micro-X-ray Diffraction, X-ray Fluorescence, and Fourier Transform Infra-red imaging of the altered paint layers to address one of the long-standing questions about cadmium yellow alteration-the roles of cadmium carbonates and cadmium sulphates found in the altered paint layers. These compounds have often been assumed to be photo-oxidation products, but could also be residual starting reagents from an indirect wet process synthesis of CdS. The data presented here allow identifying and mapping the location of cadmium carbonates, cadmium chlorides, cadmium oxalates, cadmium sulphates, and cadmium sulphides in thin sections of altered cadmium yellow paints from The Joy of Life and Matisse's Flower Piece (1906, The Barnes Foundation). Distribution of various cadmium compounds confirms that cadmium carbonates and sulphates are photo-degradation products in The Joy of Life, whereas in Flower Piece, cadmium carbonates appear to have been a [(partially) unreacted] starting reagent for the yellow paint, a role previously suggested in other altered yellow paints.

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The darkening of zinc yellow: XANES speciation of chromium in artist's paints after light and chemical exposures

Cited by 40 publications

References 23 publications

Barium, zinc and strontium yellows in late 19th–early 20th century oil paintings

Barium, zinc and strontium yellows in late 19th–early 20th century oil paintings

The artists’ materials of P. S. Krøyer: An analytical study of the artist’s paintings and tube colours by Raman, SEM–EDS and HPLC

2D X-ray and FTIR micro-analysis of the degradation of cadmium yellow pigment in paintings of Henri Matisse

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