Colour Stories | Gamboge
From poisonous purgatives to Flemish masters, this rich yellow has a distinctly chequered history. Story by Xanthe Brookes.
In Cambodia, there are shiny leafed trees with diminutive pumpkin-like fruits, part of the Garcinia family. If you slice deep cuts into the trunk, the tree will bleed resin. When the resin dries, raw gamboge remains and when powdered, the resulting resin is a distinctive deep, golden yellow with a red undertone.
Garcinia | Photo Justin Johny
Use of this colour can be traced back to 8th century Japanese scroll paintings and other early Asian watercolours. This dye even coloured the distinctive robes of Buddhist monks. Yet Gamboge took its time travelling to the West, arriving in the early 17th century, touted primarily for its medicinal qualities. Initially it was claimed as a cure for cerebral congestion, as a purgative and for hypertension. However, it had a nasty habit of poisoning people, which somewhat affected medicinal sales.
There is evidence that J.M.W. Turner, who made many of his watercolour paints himself, used Gamboge, and that Rembrandt and other 17th century Flemish painters employed the colour as a transparent oil glaze. Gamboge remained popular into the 19th century; in 1813, the New Pocket Cyclopedia described it as
‘A beautiful pigment, and affords a fine bright yellow, but is only used in watercolours.’
It’s also listed in Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, first published in 1813, compared, rather poetically, to the wings of a goldfinch, yellow jasmine, and highly-coloured sulphur.
Joseph Mallord William Turner | Modern Rome, Campo Vaccino | Getty Museum
Gamboge was still in production as an artist’s paint up until 2005. Then concerns about its toxicity and tendency to fade led it to being replaced with a lightfast alternative. Even if this traditional pigment is now in a new guise with safer formulations, the name alone still has a certain allure.
Paint companies are not averse to a little Gamboge; it’s a colour that turns up at Paint and Paper Library, for example. House of Hackney also has a paint colour called Gamboge, describing it as ‘bold yet soothing.’
There’s an undeniably earthy feel that works well with the current interest in warm, natural hues, but equally there is a louche quality at play here, with nods to 70s aesthetics. With these rich, golden elements, no wonder it’s a popular colour for textiles, especially velvet. And Gamboge brings a glowing warmth to glass, spotted at Casarialto in the shape of Dolce Vita wine glasses.
Working in both neutral and maximalist schemes, this is a colour well placed to make the most of the current demand for natural yellows.
Casarialto | Dolce Vita
This feature was first published in MIX Magazine. For more colour and design insights visit our creative agency Colour Hive's digital platform, In Colour.
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