Indian Yellow
Indian Yellow is a brilliant golden yellow pigment which is supposed to have originated, as the name suggests, in India. It is supposed to have first been used in Europe by Dutch artists and by the end of the eighteenth century being widely used across Europe. But beautiful as the pigment was, it was reputedly foul-smelling in its raw form (hard, dirty yellow balls of pigment) and the origins much speculated over. The debate was supposedly settled in 1883 when an investigation found that it was created in one village from the urine of cattle fed only mango leaves. By 1890 enough anti-cruelty legislation had been passed to make the supposed practise illegal and by 1908 the colour was no longer available. If it had ever been? It remains an enigma……