Description
- Viridian is the standard green and is stable, powerful, and cold with an emerald green undertone.
- It has a transparent hue, good tinting strength, a dark masstone that can be almost black at full strength, and a slow drying time in oil form.
- Viridian is commonly replaced by the darker, more saturated, and staining Phthalo Greens, but its properties make it a necessary part of the palette of an experienced landscape painter.
- Viridian name comes from the Latin viridis, meaning green.
- The process for manufacturing Viridian, or Transparent Oxide of Chromium, was patented by Guignet in Paris in 1859.
- However, it had actually been discovered by Pannetier and Binet in 1838.
- Viridian replaced Verdigris, which was reactive and unstable, and Emerald Green, which was a poisonous copper aceto-arsenite used as a rat poison in the sewers of Paris.