Coveted Color: Kremer Historical Pigments

The walls of Kremer Pigment's New York shop are stacked with piles of vibrant pigments. Photos Kremer Pigmente, Monika Titelius

What paint would you use if you were to restore the Sistine Chapel? This is a trick question. You can’t simply buy paint from the store. You have to make your own. And you will probably make it with pigments from Kremer.

In the ranks of good-better-best, Kremer Pigments fall under divine. Search the world over and there is simply nothing like them. Described as displaying “heavenly luminosity”, “unmatched brilliance” and a “transcendental character”, Kremer Pigments are sought after by fine artists and art conservators. Almost 40 years ago, Dr. Georg Kremer, a chemist by training, was posed with a challenge: to recreate the infamous smalt blue pigment originally developed in 2000 BC. His successful match led to founding his eponymous company in 1977. He opened shop with five pigments; today he has matched more than 80 historical pigments. The company carries over 1,000 pigments in total.

On Kremer's website, a series of images called "Colors of Nature" can help the online customer see the true colors of the pigments, and can even help adjust the color settings on your monitor. Photos Kremer Pigmente, Monika Titelius

Kremer is a detective, an archaeologist, a chemist and a sorcerer all at once. He has combed the world to find specific minerals, even acquiring sources from wildly remote and sometimes forbidden territories. You will not find any substitutes or shortcuts taken here. The ingredients read like a medieval alchemical text or a witch’s brew: vermillion made from cinnabar gathered in a remote Chinese province, condensed cattle urine, dried lice, madder root, arsenic sulphur, lapis lazuli and malachite. Glass is produced in specific historic shades and then ground to a fine powder. The pigments are formulated at the company’s facility in Germany and they have a shop on 29th street in New York City.

Kremer often has in store workshops and lessons on how to mix colors for oils, watercolor, etc. Photo by Candace Thompson

Imagine the color Sepia. Do you know what the original Sepia looked like? Few of us do. But you can find genuine Sepia, the very same as was used by Leonardo DaVinci, at Kremer. This most exquisite reddish brown hue is made specifically from the ink of the Adriatic cuttlefish. Lead Tin Yellow, the pure yellow typically used by the Renaissance painters, as well as South American Maya Blue and Egyptian Blue can all be found here as well.

Their most expensive pigment is a shade of magenta and it is more precious than gold. A single gram is made with the secretions of 8,000 magenta snails (Murex trunculus) from New Zealand. It sells for $392.00 a gram. But you can also buy the ever-so-popular lapis lazuli blue, the same one used by Fra Angelico, for $37.50 a gram.

All of Kremer's pigments are processed at their water powered mill in Germany, Photos Kremer Pigmente, Monika Titelius

When asked to choose his favorite color Kremer replied “Never!” He refuses to have a favorite color. It’s no wonder. In his shop, who could choose?