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Through Brown, Mining and Renaissance
History
Ocher, a family of earth pigments which includes umber, has been identified in the caves of Altamira in Spain and the Lascaux Cave in France. Some sources indicate that umber was not frequently used in medieval art because of its emphasis on bright and vivid colors. Other sources indicate, however, that umber was used in the Middle Ages to create different shades of brown, most often seen for skin tones. Umber's use in Europe increased in the late 15th century. Umber became more popular during the Renaissance when its versatility, earthy appearance, availability, and inexpensiveness were recognized.
Umber gained widespread popularity in Dutch landscape painting in the eighteenth century. Artists recognized the value of umber's high stability, inertness, and drying abilities. It became a standard color within eighteenth-century palettes throughout Europe. Umber's popularity grew during the Baroque period with the rise of the chiaroscuro style. Umber allowed painters to create an intense light and dark contrast. Underpainting was another popular technique for painting that used umber as a base color. Umber was valuable in deploying this technique, creating a range of earth like tones with various layering of color.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the Impressionist movement started to use cheaper and more readily available synthetic dyes and reject natural pigments like umber to create mixed hues of brown. The Impressionists chose to make their own browns from mixtures of red, yellow, green, blue and other pigments, particularly the new synthetic pigments such as cobalt blue and emerald green that had just been introduced. In the 20th century, natural umber pigments began to be replaced by pigments made with synthetic iron oxide and manganese oxide.
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Criticism
Beginning in the 17th century, umber was increasingly criticized within the art community. British painter Edward Norgate, prominent with British royalty and aristocracy, called umber "a foul and greasy color." In the 18th century, Spanish painter Antonio Palomino called umber "very false." Jan Blockx, a Belgian painter, opined, "umber should not appear on the palette of the conscientious painter."
Visual properties
Umber is a natural brown pigment extracted from clay containing iron, manganese, and hydroxides. Umber has diverse hues, ranging from yellow-brown to reddish-brown and even green-brown. The color shade varies depending on the proportions of the components. When heated, umber becomes a more intense color and can look almost black. Burnt umber is produced by calcining the raw version. The raw form of umber is typically used for ceramics because it is less expensive.
These warm and earthy tones make it a valuable and versatile pigment for oil painting and other artwork. Umber's high opacity and reactivity of light allow the pigment to have strong hiding power. It is insoluble in water, resistant to alkalis and weak acids, and non-reactive with cement, solvents, oils, and most resins. Umber is known for its stability.
Pigment samples
Notable occurrences
Umber became widely used throughout the Renaissance period for oil paintings. In the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci used umber for the brown tones throughout his subject's hair and clothing. Da Vinci also extensively used umber in his painting the Last Supper to create shadows and outlines of the figures. Throughout the Baroque period, many renowned painters used umber.
Use in art
Varieties
Raw umber
This is the color raw umber.
Burnt umber
Burnt umber is made by heating raw umber, which dehydrates the iron oxides and changes them partially to the more reddish hematite. It is used for both oil and water color paint.
The first recorded use of burnt umber as a color name in English was in 1650.