Inc Kelly Grovier traces the pigments that make up hidden layers in masterpieces – some of them toxic – from Picasso and Hokusai's Prussian Blue to Vermeer's shade of red. Colours have minds ...

It's believed that Prussian blue was first synthesized by accident by a Berlin paint maker named Johann Jacob Diesbach around 1706. Diesbach was trying to make a red pigment, which involved mixing ...

When Johann Jacob Diesbach tried to create a batch of cochineal red around ... turning a deep blue instead. This synthetic pigment was termed Berlin blue and then Prussian blue because the ...

This blue pigment was used by many painters, but obtained the name following the decision by the Prussian Army to mass-dye its uniforms with it due to it being cheap and durable. While the ...

The researcher and her team have proved that these and other compounds originate from the cyanide liberated by the salt Prussian blue (the name of which refers to the dye used in the uniforms of ...