The bright yellow paint these artists used was made from the chemical compound cadmium sulfide. The pigment was beloved by many European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rest in peace, Cadmium Yellow, Orange and Red (c. 1829-2014). Your vibrant, exuberant and reliable reign is about to be brutally terminated—cut down in your prime by colorless legislators in the ...

Unfortunately, cadmium yellow (cadmium sulphide) has proved to be one of the unstable pigments, with samples fading or even becoming obscured by a thick, ivory-coloured crust. Previous analyses of ...

To their credit, pre-1920s manufacturers attempted to heat and stabilize the pigment, but gave up when their efforts went awry. Matisse's cadmium yellow paint resulted from a precipitation process.

Furthermore, degradation is more evident in paintings dated between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, at a time when the methods for synthesising cadmium yellow pigment ...

According to an article from The New York Times, the cadmium yellow pigment present in several aspects of the painting’s background and forefigure is gradually turning to white.

The cadmium sulfide signal started to wane as early as week one, eventually decreasing by more than 80% by week four. The signal loss is a result of chemical changes in the pigments, Zhou said.

The bright yellow paint these artists used was made from the chemical compound cadmium sulfide. The pigment was beloved by many European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.