Painting Could Be Risky

When chemists analyzed the paint used in a masterpiece painting from four centuries ago, they found a list of toxic ingredients. The massive masterpiece displayed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is The Night Watch which measures 12 by 15 feet.

Dutch painter, Rembrandt van Rijn painted it in 1642.  It depicts a militia company charged with protecting Amsterdam.  Typically, these portraits would show the militia in neat rows, but Rembrandt wanted action and used light and shadow to achieve it.  

The focal point of the painting is a lieutenant’s gold tunic which pops from the painting with a golden glow.  Rembrandt used an unusual combination of paints, including lead-tin yellow and red-orange pigments made with arsenic and sulfur.  Both lead and arsenic are highly toxic.  

In utero and early childhood exposure impacts cognitive development and increases death in young adults. The immediate symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning include vomiting and diarrhea and eventually death.  Sulfur which he also used causes skin rashes and breathing it over time can cause chronic bronchitis. To make matters worse, some of the rich pigments were made by adding extra arsenic or sulfur to heated arsenic sulfur ores like bright yellow or bright red realgar also known as ″arsenic blende″, ″ruby sulfur″ or ″ruby of arsenic″.      

We’re only now learning the hazards of being a painter during that time period and hope Rembrandt didn’t like to lick his paintbrushes!