Minium 50ml

Minium (Red Lead) is a deep orange red color. Minium, which is red lead or lead tetroxide, is an oxidation product of lead. Lead pigments have been made artificially since antiquity, although health concerns of lead poisoning has greatly diminished its role in paint today.

Minium is liable to discolor in the presence of hydrogen sulfide, which is present in air pollution. It may also react when mixed with sulfide pigments, such as cadmium pigments. In oil paint it is fairly permanent, however, some have noted that when mixed with white lead, it tends to fade rather than turn dark. Red lead oil paint dries the quickest of all pigments and for this reason we use only 98% lead tetroxide, add a small amount of aluminum stearate (less than 2%), and make only small batches to avoid hardening in the tube. This is done to prevent hardening in the tubes quickly, but will not prevent it entirely.

Composition and Permanence

For a detailed explanation of the terms in the table above, please visit Composition and Permanence.

Notes

Some separation of pigment and oil may occur in Rublev Colours Artist Oils and is a natural process when no wax or stabilizers are added to paint to prevent this from occurring.

All images of color swatches in this web site are only approximations of the actual color of the oil paint. We have taken every care to match the color in these pictures on calibrated color monitors to the actual color. However, because of the wide variance in color monitors the results you get may vary.

Color Swatch Note: The color swatch was created with a thick application (left side) of color and a tint (right side) made with equal parts of color and titanium white and applied on acrylic primed cotton canvas.

Drawdown Note: The image of the "drawdown" contains a pre-mixed paint film of 6 mil (0.006 inch) thickness applied to a standard test card for the purposes of examining color consistency, opacity and other qualities. The drawdowns show the color full strength (mass tone), on the left, and mixed in a 1:2 ratio with titanium white on the right. The bottom area of the drawdowns are scraped to show undertones.