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Indian Yellow, also known as Piuri / Puree / Euxanthin / Euxanthin / Turner’s Yellow, is a beautiful, bright, translucent, warm, sunny tone that is an integral part of today's paintings.

There is much controversy surrounding the origins of this beautiful colour. According to one theory, Indian Yellow was urine collected from cows forced to eat a diet of mango leaves. The urine was collected and dried, producing small foul-smelling balls of raw pigment called purree. Cows do not digest mango leaves very efficiently, as the leaves contain a toxin similar to poison ivy. Consequently, the cows were often thin and malnourished. Even though the cow has long been considered sacred by many in India, some did not think anything wrong with profiting from the cows’ slow starvation. The practice of producing Indian Yellow was declared inhumane and outlawed in 1908. More likely [Indian yellow probably was] “the juice of some tree or plant, after it dried.

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“…the coloring matter is extracted from a tree or large shrub, called memecylon tinctorium, the leaves of which are employed by the natives in their yellow dyes. From a smell like cow’s urine, which exhales from this colour, it is probable that this material is employed in extracting the tint of the memecylon.”

               -The Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco, 1839

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Chemist John Stenhouse published his findings about how Indian Yellow came about. Looking under a microscope, he saw small needle-shaped crystals when viewed under a microscope and smelled distinctly of castor oil. He concluded that Indian Yellow was not cattle urine. It was instead either the collected gallstones of various animals (including but not limited to camels, elephants and buffalos); alternatively, it was of a vegetable origin, created from:

 

“… the juice of some tree or plant, which, after it has been expressed, has been saturated with magnesia and boiled down to its present consistency.”

               -John Stenhouse

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Modern paint is cruelty-free, cow-friendly, and synthesized from nickel or plants, such as Reseda luteola, a flowering species in the Resedaceae. Common names include Dyer's Rocket, Dyer's Weed, weld, woold, and Yellow Weed. A native of Europe and Western Asia, the plant can be found in North America as an introduced species and common weed. The plant is rich in luteolin, a flavonoid that produces a bright yellow dye.

 

 

 

References

The Artist Companion, April 9, 2020

https://artistscompanion.com/turners-yellow/

 

Douma, Michael, curator. Pigments through the Ages. 2008. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development. April 15, 2016. http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments

 

Winsor & Newton, website. Spotlight on Colour: Indian Yellow. 2013. Winsor & Newton Blog. April 15, 2016. http://www.winsornewton.com/uk/discover/articles-and-inspiration/spotlight-on-colour-indian-yellow

 

Baer, N. S. et al. ‘Indian Yellow’, in Feller, Robert L (ed.) Artists’ Pigments, Oxford 1986 ISBN 0-89468-086-2

 

Merimee, M.J.F.L. (8/5/2009). The Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4371-4116-0.

 

Finlay, Victoria (2003). Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Random House. ISBN 0-8129-7142-6.

 

Jonathan Jansen, author. Essential Vemeer. April 16, 2016. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/palette/palette_lead-tin_yellow.html#.VxFqlCMrJN0

 

Vibrant Art, February 20, 2014

INDIAN YELLOW - HOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY MADE - Welcome to Vibrant Art (vibrant-art.com)