# Colors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036 "2004-04-14T20:45:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/21 "2004-04-16T02:00:03Z")
> [@](#): > > **Shutup** : “However, outside of occcuring in nature weren’t colors that were combinatorial, such as pink, orange, and other " secondary” colors unavailble until the early 20th century?" > > **peter morris** : “The method of mixing red and yellow was invented by Elijah Smallwood… Nobody in the whole of human history had thought of combining colours until Smallwood invented the “mixing two colours” process.” > > **slipster** Can anyone suggest where I can read about Elijah Smallwood, his “invention” of orange, and the sensation it supposedly created at The Great Exhibition of 1851?" [Cite 1](http://www.collectmad.com/collectibles/bbmsasq.htm) [Cite 2](http://tinyurl.com/4ejg) [Cite 3](http://tinyurl.com/2m24b) ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/22 "2004-04-16T02:38:53Z")
> [@Fat Bald Guy](#): > > People have been mixing colors using natural dyes and other substances since the dawn of history. Just look at some of the paintings of the Renaissance (sp?) artists if you think secondary colors have only been available _this century_\*. _Tsk tsk!_ This last two centuries. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/23 "2004-04-16T02:54:15Z")
> [@Sérgio](#): > > it is very rare to see blues in Renaissance paintings. Would you mind defining what “very rare” is? Certainly you see a pretty large patch of blue in the Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480-1556) painting I linked to – firmly in the Renaissance period by any reckoning. Granted, I don’t know how many square inches of blue paint appeared on Renaissance paintings in comparison to other colors, but, well, that’s why I’d like to know what “very rare” means. Also – once again I claim no expertise – _Pigments through the Ages_ has this to say about blue pigments:[ul][li] **Azurite** : “An inexpensive greenish blue. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, azurite was the most important pigment in European painting, Under ordinary conditions it is remarkably stable.”[/li] **Smalt** : “Smalt is ground glass of blue colour and was the earliest of the cobalt pigments.” And its discovery was dated “before 16th century.”[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/24 "2004-04-16T03:25:03Z")
> [@Sérgio](#): > > it is very rare to see blues in Renaissance paintings Simply not true. There was a little known artist in Renaissance Italy named Leonardo daVinci, maybe you’ve heard of him. He was one of the pioneers of a landscape painting technique in which blues were used to give the impression of distance to far away objects. Blue was quite common throughout renaissance and earlier art (since it is handy for representing, oh, THE SKY), and is in fact one of more common dyes that I know of. I wouldn’t be surprised if people painted in blue on cave walls. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/25 "2004-04-16T03:46:21Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > All right, then, what did they call that color in the rainbow or in a sunset that was reddish-yellow? Entirely a product of modern industrial air pollution. Sunsets used to be green. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/26 "2004-04-16T03:48:33Z")
\*\*Peter\_morris’ \*\* little ruse is one of the lower points in GQ history. Sheesh. \*\*Sailor \*\* even tried to rip the lid off the sucker … people were still biting. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Shutup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Shutup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shutup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/27 "2004-04-16T07:15:25Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > As what? Dye for fabric? Paint for houses? > > The dye question can be answered by leaving the fabric in red dye for less time, or diluting the dye. Water = “white” here. > > For paint, in that era, you didn’t just pop over to Home Depot to pick up a gallon of Satin Flat Peppermint Patty Pink Latex Enamel. You’d have a container of white paint, and tubes/cans of pigment. Much like the big turret things at paint stores today, but done by hand. A dab of red in the white, a good stir, and you’ve got pink. Even today, the paint stores don’t have pink pigment. All of those hundreds of colors come from roughly ten basic pigments mixed into white. > > Artists did the same thing, but on a rather smaller scale on their mixing palette. As pink as in pink ribbons. > [@](#): > > in which it is noted a **girl has pink ribbons** , using that the idea that pink was not available, I sought to prove that this entire story was a dream, without getting bogged down into that argument, I simply wished to know if the color pink was availble. and wow they didn’t have home depot in prarie life? MY GOD THAT"S SURPRISING WHERE DID THEY DRIVE THEN? LOWES? Does dye have the same mixing properties as paint? I mean can you source this information? ---
**Author:** ![Shutup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Shutup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shutup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036/28 "2004-04-16T07:18:45Z")
So to recap is making pink paint the same as making pink clothes? Without getting into the stylistics and semantics of color mixing, does anyone know if this type of mixing was both common and readily available in the mid 18th century. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colors/240036.md?page=1)