Archived under:

William Hooker (1779–1832) worked as the official botanical illustrator for UK’s leading gardening charity, the Royal Horticultural Society, and has been referred to as “one of the greatest pomological artists of all time.” In need of a green that would work for depicting plants, Hooker combined Prussian blue with gamboge, and the resulting hue has since been called Hooker’s green.

“But then, what is Prussian blue?” you ask. “And what is gamboge?” I’m glad you asked:

Prussian blue is the first modern synthetic pigment. It was discovered by accident in the very early 1700’s, when paintmaker Johann Jacob Diesbach (1670 – 1748) was going to make a batch of carmine lake, which normally called for powdered cochineal, alum, ferrous sulphate, and some alkali. Diesbach had run out of alkali and borrowed some that unbeknownst to him had been distilled with animal oil, and the result was that instead of the red he was trying to create he got a bright blue. Prussian blue has later been the basis of photocopying technology and has been used to create cyanotypes, an early method for photographic printing. (Prussian blue also has medicinal uses, so much so that it is on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines. I’m not sure how you would “take Russian blue after each meal,” but then again I’m not a doctor. )

Gamboge is a yellow pigment which comes from the latex of a tree that is found in Cambodia. The tree, and gamboge, can be found in other Southeast Asian countries as well, but if you say Cambodia out loud, especially if you pronounce it in French — Cambodge — and then you say gamboge, you’ll get a good understanding of how the pigment got its name.

1x
Hooker’s green My sample sheet with Hooker’s Green from Winsor & Newton (Professional Watercolour) and Daniel Smith (Extra Fine Watercolors). At the bottom, two different mixes of Prussian Blue and New Gamboge from Daniel Smith (Extra Fine Watercolors). The two Hooker’s Greens, one from Winsor & Newton and one from Daniel Smith, are more similar than they look in this photo when undiluted, but they start to appear different from each other when they are diluted with water. Photo and coloring: Martin Høyem
1x
Hooker’s green? This is an illustration from William Jackson Hooker’s Garden ferns; or, Coloured figures and descriptions, with the needful analyses of the fructification and venation, of a selection of exotic ferns adapted for cultivation in the garden, hothouse, and conservatory from 1862. This book was published in the midst of the fern craze of the Victorian age. You might think that William Jackson Hooker (1785 – 1865) was the same guy who invented Hooker’s green. But you’ll be wrong — William Jackson Hooker was director of Kew Gardens in London and him and the William Hooker who invented Hooker’s green were born only six years apart and had fairly similar interests … but they were not the same person. Cornell University Library
1x
Hooker’s green?! This is an illustration from The paradisus londinensis: or coloured figures of plants cultivated in the vicinity of the metropolis published between 1805-1807. The illustrations are by William Hooker. I can’t tell if he used Hooker’s green on this particular illustration, but I guess there’s a good chance? From The Peter H. Raven Library at Missouri Botanical Garden, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Bibliography

  • Blunt, Wilfrid. The art of botanical illustration. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors’ Club in association with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. 2000.
  • Finlay, Victoria. Color: A Natural History of the Palette. New York: Random House, 2004.
  • FitzHugh, Elisabeth West, Marco Leona, and John Winter. Pigments in later Japanese paintings: studies using scientific methods. Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. 2003.
  • Kelleher, Katy. “Hooker’s Green: The Color of Apple Trees and Envy.” The Paris Review. October 3, 2018.
  • Salisbury, R. A., William Hooker, and D.N. Shury. The paradisus londinensis: or coloured figures of plants cultivated in the vicinity of the metropolis. London: Printed by D.N. Shury, and published by William Hooker. 1805.