To Die For: Scheele’s Green and The Arsenic Poisoning Epidemic of The Industrial Revolution

Written By Kirsty Hill

Although green is a colour abundant in the natural world, artists have historically struggled to capture this verdant beauty and vegetal inspiration in their artworks. For centuries, painters and textile makers struggled to create green dyes and pigments that met their creative needs. Natural dyes and extracts used to achieve the colour green were unsatisfactory - plants such as foxglove and nettle yielded a green that was not rich or deep enough in hue or saturation. Additionally, the mixing together of different substances to form green - a secondary colour - was misunderstood, mistrusted and taboo during medieval times. 

The taboo against mixing substances began to wane in the 1400s, around the time of the early Renaissance, but artists still struggled with mixed pigments. Terre verte, verdigris and verditer were too weak, not durable and prone to blackening when exposed to light and oxygen. This is why several Renaissance paintings feature foliage that has faded from its original green to a dull, brown tone. Into the late 1700s, artists were still struggling to achieve a green that was vivid, long-lasting, lightfast, and accurately captured the verdant beauty of nature. This goes some way towards explaining why Scheele’s Green, though very toxic, was also very popular.

Angelo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino Noli me Tangere, showing detail of oxidised green pigment, 1560 or 1561, oil on wood

Image Credit: Louvre Museum

So, what is Scheele’s green and what makes it different to the greens that had come before? Sometimes also called Schloss green, this compound was developed by chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1775. The pigment is arsenic-based, and has the chemical formula AsCuHO3.

Chemical structure of Scheele’s green

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The addition of an arsenic solution to a copper solution created a vivid, yellow-based green the likes of which had never been commercially available before. Earlier copper-based pigments yielded a more blue-green which we might think of today as closer to teal than to a true green. In an attempt to make a more stable version of the pigment, an alternative named Paris green was developed in 1814 by paint manufacturers Wilhelm Sattler and Friedrich Russ.

The inclusion of arsenic in these paints made them extremely dangerous. Contact with arsenic, a poisonous substance, was causing illnesses and fatalities to people who were manufacturing and consuming products made using Scheele’s green. A popular practice was to dust artificial flowers with the green powder, to give the foliage a vibrant and realistic look. In one notable case, a flower-maker named Matilda Scheurer’s symptoms were recorded as “[vomiting] green waters; the whites of her eyes had turned green, and she told her doctor that ‘everything she looked at was green.’ ” The arsenic she had inhaled whilst at work had reached her stomach, lungs and liver.

Accidents Caused by the Use of Green Arsenic 1859 from Annales d'hygiène publique et de médecine légale J.-B. Baillière et fils, 1829-1922

Image Credit: Wellcome Collection

Although Scheele knew about the toxic nature of his pigment, this information was not made overtly available. This is likely for two main reasons: so that Scheele could capitalise on his invention by not alerting people to its dangers, and also more generally because of the prevailing Victorian attitude towards hazardous substances and materials. Victorians knew about the dangers of ingesting arsenic, and were also living through a time where people were exposed more regularly to toxic chemicals that were byproducts of the Industrial Revolution - like lead and phosphorus. This could have contributed to a more laissez-faire attitude towards putting literal poison in one’s home or on one’s body.

A satirical illustration demonstrating the consequences of the trend for Scheele’s green, unknown publisher, 1862

Image Credit: Wellcome Collection

Besides having a more casual outlook on toxic materials, what was so appealing about Scheele’s green to the Victorians that made it so trendy? Scheele’s green was cheap to produce and acquire, and it was a shade that accurately reflected the green of nature. It wasn’t too blue or too brown to mimic the green vegetation that the Victorians were trying to emulate in their homes and their clothing. The Industrial Revolution was taking its toll on London’s environment, and city-dwellers were concerned with protecting and developing green spaces - many public parks and gardens were established during Victorian times. Feeling like their access to nature was dwindling, Victorians sought to replicate it in their fashions instead, through things like artificial flowers to wear or display at home, striking green-dyed fabric dresses and, in particular, wallpaper.

Silk taffeta dress which has tested positive for arsenic, 1860s

Image Credit: Toronto Metropolitan  University

Covering your wall in Romantic imagery of trailing vines, unfurling leaves and blooming wildflowers was a very popular thing to do. The designs of Arts and Crafts innovator William Morris became highly sought after; a designer who, despite warnings around arsenic toxicity, continued to favour it in his designs as nothing else available could quite achieve the vivid green he desired. It wasn’t until the 1870s that Morris began using arsenic-free designs, and by this time hundreds of rooms would have been decorated with arsenic-laced materials. Around the same time, certain shades of blue and yellow were also created using arsenic, but because of the sheer popularity and prevalence of green, this is the colour we now mainly associate with arsenic poisoning. Although there is contention around this today, it has often been thought that Napoleon was poisoned by the arsenic in the green wallpaper that decorated his lodgings on the island of St Helena, where he lived his last years in exile.

William Morris Trellis wallpaper, 19th Century

Image Credit: William Morris Gallery

Today, Scheele’s green and Paris green are a thing of the past in the world of art, fashion and interior design, but are still found in certain pesticides. The pigments fell out of fashion in part due to regulations around hazardous substances and in part due to the changing taste in fashions brought about by World War I - Victorian aesthetics began to be seen as fussy and frivolous. Safer alternatives such as Emerald Green, Cobalt Green and Viridian were also developed and became widely available. These colours were adopted from the late-nineteenth century onwards, and featured prominently in the palettes of the Impressionists.

A selection of modern green pigments

Image Credit: Jackson’s Art SUpplies

Sources:

Kirsty Hill
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