WHYEVER?
Hues in Tubes… and how they made a name for themselves

Constant or Permanent White and Green were named thus to make a statement about the stability of their contents. They needed to make themselves known as radically different from Lead White and all previous greens, which were mostly prone to colour shifts. Permanent Green’s name has stuck and can still be seen in most ranges today, while I only know of a few ranges offering Baryte White under the ‘permanent’ label.

Other attributes, such as Brilliant, Vivid or Radiant, boast more about the beauty of the colour and, although we are seeing a revival of this descriptive naming, most of the older colours named thus do not exist anymore. Only Radiant Yellow (a Reeves cadmium sulphide slightly orangey in colour) has, strangely enough, survived in a few ranges under its French name of Jaune brillant. Overall, however, the profession lets the colours speak for themselves without adding too many dithyrambic adjectives on the tubes.

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