Look at a Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary and you'll almost always find her wrapped in a deep, glowing blue. That color wasn't chosen at random. For centuries, it was one of the most expensive materials a painter could buy.
A blue from beyond the sea
Ultramarine was made from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone mined for thousands of years in the mountains of Badakhshan, in what is now northeastern Afghanistan. The stone traveled thousands of kilometers to reach European workshops. Its name says it all: ultramarinus, from beyond the sea.
Turning the stone into paint was slow, skilled work. It had to be ground, mixed into a paste, kneaded and washed again and again to separate the pure blue from the grey impurities. The finest quality could cost more than its weight in gold.
Saved for what mattered most
Because it was so precious, contracts between patrons and painters sometimes specified exactly how much ultramarine was to be used, and for which figure. It was usually kept for the most sacred parts of a painting, above all the robe of the Virgin.
Some painters loved it beyond reason. Johannes Vermeer used natural ultramarine generously, even mixing it into shadows and walls, which gives paintings like The Milkmaid their cool, luminous calm.
From treasure to everyday blue
In the 1820s, a French chemist, Jean-Baptiste Guimet, developed a synthetic version, sometimes called French ultramarine. Suddenly the most precious blue became affordable to every painter. The Impressionists used it freely in their skies and shadows.
Look at blue slowly
Next time you see a deep blue in a painting, a robe, a sky, a jug, stop for a minute. Remember the mountain, the journey, the hours of grinding. Breathe while you look. Blue has always been a color of calm and depth, and knowing its story makes it even more precious.
A blue to live with
My print Blue Toile n.1 is a fragment of a modernized toile de Jouy pattern, reimagined in blue: a quiet image to rest your eyes on. Each print is hand-finished, signed, and comes with a meditation letter. Not quite worth its weight in gold, but made with the same love for blue.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi