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One of the 2 pigments known to be used for at least 100,000 years. In stone age languages with which we are familiar, the word for light and yellow ochre are the same, whereas the name for dark and red ochre are the same, and all colors shared one or other of these 2 terms. Unlike our modern fine distinctions between colors it seems yellow ochre represented all things light in prehistoric times.
Until recent times it was the most important yellow on the palette, but is now being supplanted by the synthetic Yellow Oxide even in many tubes still carrying the ‘ochre’ name. The synthetic version is more purely yellow, natural ochre beside it is noticeably brownish, and the natural ochre tends to be variable in quality. It’s one advantage (for some artists) is it is slightly more transparent than Yellow Oxide, but not so much as Transparent Yellow Oxide.
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