Mars Colors: Bold and Bright

Along with Cadmiums, Cobalts and Chromium, Mars Colors, from yellow to violet, were among the bright new inventions of 19th century color chemistry that subsequently sparked a color revolution in painting.

*The Awakening Conscience*, by **William Holman Hunt**, 1853, oil.
An early example of the “new” Mars Orange.

Mars Colors were favored early on by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, such as the example above by William Holman Hunt, through later periods of art history culminating with the avant-garde movement of Fauvism ushered in by Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck.

*The (River) Seine at Chatou*, by **Maurice de Vlaminck**, 1906, oil on canvas,
32.13 x 39.75 inches, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Splendidly Rich and Opaque

Distinguished by their rich opacity, Mars Yellow, Mars Red, and Mars Violet are all robust in color strength and offer cleaner mass tones than natural earth colors or the modern Transparent Iron Oxides.

Brighter and stronger, our Mars Yellow, above at left, offers greater opacity and a more colorful tint when compared to our French Golden Ochre shown above at right. Natural earths colors, such as the French Golden Ochre, tend to be warmer and more transparent, offering a greater degree of nuance in mixing than the much denser and more robust Mars Colors. Both shown mixed with our Titanium-Zinc White.

As manufactured Iron Oxide pigments, the Mars Colors are easily tinted with whites into colorful yet natural notes and a little Mars pigment goes a long way!

Here’s our Mars Red, shown above, tinted with our Titanium-Zinc White compared to the more modern Transparent Red Oxide, shown above at right. Notice how clean and strong the Mars Red is yet able to tint into soft and natural looking pinks with extra white. The Transparent Red Oxide has a very hot undertone and tints less cleanly.

American Realist painter John Singer Sargent worked with both Mars Red and Mars Yellow on his palette. In his portrait, shown below, of fellow painter and friend Charles Stuart Forbes, he has combined the two in various mixtures to create a warm orange background.

*Portrait of Charles Stuart Forbes*, by **John Singer Sargent**, 1882-1883, oil on canvas, 28.74 x 24.25 inches, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. Inscribed lower right: to my friend Forbes / John S Sargent

Our **Mars Yellow** shown at top left out of the tube, mixed at center left with varying amounts of our **Mars Red** to create a warm and colorful orange. Our Mars Red is shown unmixed at bottom right.

Mars Colors can also be used to create colorful grays. Here’s an example, below, using the same combination of our Mars Yellow and lesser of our Mars Red, then complemented by our Cobalt Blue into a dark neutral. Our Titanium-Zinc White lightens the final mixture into a gray.

Our **Mars Yellow**, at middle left, is combined with our **Mars Red**, shown unmixed at top left. The resulting warm orange is complemented by our **Cobalt Blue** shown, unmixed, at top right, into a deep neutral. At the bottom right is a pile of our Titanium-Zinc White that I brought up into the mixed neutral to turn it into a cool gray.

Enhancing Primaries

Mars Colors are often combined with brighter primaries as they offer shifts in tone and value while enhancing the opacity and richness of the mixture.

Here’s a few examples:

In the mixture above, our Mars Red, shown unmixed at right, is combined with our Alizarin Crimson, shown unmixed at bottom left. Notice how the Mars Red warms up the cooler Alizarin as it gives it more density while the Alizarin pushes the earthy Mars Red into a more colorful and glowing note.

*The Red Room, Etretat*, by **Félix Edouard Vallotton**, 1899, oil on artist’s board,
19.3 x 20.1 inches, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Our Mars Violet is shown unmixed, in the image above, at lower left, and then combined with our Alizarin Crimson, shown unmixed at top right. The Mars Violet gives the Alizarin more opacity without any warming since the Mars Violet is also a cool mixing pigment. Notice how the tints, made with our Titanium-Zinc White, shown along the bottom right, are softly natural and more blue than the tints from the Mars Red example earlier.

*Juliet / The Blue Necklace*, by **John William Waterhouse**, 1898, oil on canvas,
28.3 x 18.8 inches, private collection

Fauvism and Mars Colors

Fauvism marked a turning point where paintings became about paint and the new colors of the 19th century, with their vivid mass tones and robust color strengths fueled this new artistic movement.

Painters André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Henri Matisse were greatly inspired by Van Gogh’s intense colors and Gauguin’s flat color application. Their exhibition, Salon d’Automne in late 1905 caused a storm of criticism forever marking their bold new works as the “the wild beasts” and Fauvism was begun.

*Open Window, Collioure*, by **Henri Matisse**, 1905, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

*Estaque*, by **André Derain**, 1905, oil on canvas, private collection

*Barges in Chatou*, by **Maurice de Vlaminck**, 1905, oil on canvas

Greatly influenced by the Fauves was French painter Raoul Dufy who rejected all natural earth colors to use the full range of Mars Colors from Yellow to Violet, and the beautiful new Cerulean Blue.