Artelier delves into the allure of blue, from ancient epochs to today. Once the most elusive and prized pigment in all the world, blue has enchanted artists for centuries. From Gainsborough's The Blue Boy to star-studded contemporary artists, our curator explores those who submerged their worlds in blue hues.
"Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do..."
Major Tom speaks to Ground Control one last time before drifting off lost into the endless blue expanse. In 1954, humans saw space for the first time. An aerobee rocket, carrying two 16mm movie cameras (one with colour film) captured the first images of Earth from space, dizzying the imaginations of the world and everyone in it. We are enveloped in blue.
The colour itself has an infinitely beguiling quality. Blue is all around us, yet perpetually feels out of reach. We can't touch the blueness of the ocean — it slips through our fingers the moment we try to grasp it, dissolving into shades of grey, green, or transparency. Nor can we touch the nebulous horizon in the distance. It has and continues to be, a challenge for artists to capture. As to do so is to capture the great beyond.
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Here at Artelier, we believe that investing in art is more than just a financial decision—it's an immersion into a world of rich appreciation and learning. By exploring global trends, socio-political dynamics, and the evolving artist-audience dialogue, we gain a nuanced understanding that informs both passion and pragmatism. Balancing strategic financial insight with a genuine love for art materials and practice is key to making sound investments.
With this in mind, we case study 7 blue-chip artist whose technical brilliance is underscored by their glorious use of blue as a pigment. In particular, we encapsulate their lives and emotions that so sensationalised their work, springing them into the public gaze. It's a rich pool to dive into.
Ancient Blue Pigment
A Brief History
Egyptian blue was the first colour pigment to be created synthetically, around 2,2000 B.C. It was crafted by mixing ground limestone with sand and any copper-containing mineral, then heating to between 800-1000°c. This process results in an opaque dusk-blue glass, which, when crushed and combined with thickening agents, creates a long-lasting varnish, or enamel. In ancient Egypt, the colour blue was revered, used to decorate the tombs of pharaohs and swathe Egyptian deities like Amun and Hathor in divine light.
Along with the fortunate Egyptians who were the first and some of the only makers of blue pigment for millennia, the Indus Civilisation also sourced this precious pigment. Inhabiting regions across Afghanistan and India from 3300-1300 B.C, they discovered found the richest and most brilliant blue known to man: lapis lazuli, hidden within the rocky walls of underground caves. Marco Polo who once traversed the Sar-i Sang mines in Shortugai, Afghanistan, wrote of lapis-lazuli:
“There is a mountain in that region where the finest azure in the world is found. It appears in veins like silver streaks.”
The pigment travelled all over, especially adorning mosques, from Iran to Uzbekistan, used in Islamic tradition to connotate the unfathomable depths of the cosmos and the purity of the soul in its divine essence.
When lapis lazuli arrived in Venice from distant lands, carried by Arab sailors across 4,000 miles of sea, it captivated artists like a celestial gift. "A noble colour, beautiful, the most perfect of all colours," wrote the pre-Renaissance painter, Cennino Cennini. From Botocelli's dreamscapes to Titian's crisp blue skies, blue signified only the most divine, sacred imagery, bought at astronomically high prices and truly revered. It's difficult to imagine, but blue had never before been used in art in the West.
By the 18th century blue, when German colour maker Johann Jacob Diesbach accidentally stumbled upon Prussian blue while experimenting with concocting plant ash, iron and animal blood, blue became more widespread and relatively affordable compared to before.
The Blue Boy
Once the Most Famous Painting in the World
Scrawled in pencil on the back of one of the world's most prized paintings are the words: "Au revoir. CH". This farewell note, penned by National Gallery director Sir Charles Holmes in 1921, echoed the sentiments of a heartbroken British public as Gainsborough's famous oil painting, The Blue Boy completed in 1770, departed from auction.
Sold to American railway tycoon Henry Huntington for a record-breaking $728,000 at the time (a record-breaking amount) its departure was seen by many as a national loss. In many ways, with the First World War just over, the blue boy in Gainsborough's picture symbolised to the British public the countless boy soldiers—some 250,000 of whom were under 18—who marched rosy-cheeked and zealous for their country, too many never to return.
Not only culturally significant, but the sleek blue attire of Gainsborough's young subject inspired awe in Georgian-Era Britain, as the pinnacle of childhood and masculinity. The renowned rivalry between Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, both prolific portraitists, is legendary. Reynolds, founder of the Royal Academy in London, dictated the artistic norms of the time, favouring warm, red tones over blues. Gainsborough, in a bold move, defied this convention by dressing his subject in striking Prussian blue—a defiance that cemented this portrait as his most celebrated work.
But what of the blue-boy mania today? Re-created in many different glints of pop culture: magazines, lampshades, chocolate wrappers, Laurel and Hardy's short Wrong Again (1929), Tim Burton's Batman (1989), Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012).
Picasso's Blue Period
1901-1904
"I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death"
In 1899, Pablo Picasso crossed paths with a young man who would soon become his closest companion and conduit for his most profound artworks: Carlos Casagemas. Only a year apart in age—Picasso at 18, Casagemas at 19—they both left their families and homes behind, leaving Spain to rent a modest studio in the beating heart of the art world: Paris. Nations all over the world were flocking to the city with bright new architecture, artworks and inventions for the 1900 Exposition Universelle - a world-famous art fair which sought to bring in the very best of one century to the next.
Young and broke, both Picasso and Casagemas sought to be part of this new world. Living la vie de bohème, they painted by day and partied hard during the night. During this period, Casagemas fell deeply in love with muse and model, Germaine Gargallo. Consumed by passion, he ardently pursued her, until one night, on February 17th 1901, Casagemas asked her to marry him at the Café Hippodrome in Pigalle. When she refused, Casagamas fired a shot at her, narrowly missing, but, believing he had killed her, took the gun to his right temple, and tragically ended his own life.
This event profoundly impacted Picasso, catalysing a seismic shift in his subject matter. Confronting mortality, Picasso immersed himself in the life of his bereaved best friend. He moved into Casagemas' house and began a relationship with Germaine, Casagemas' girlfriend. His grief propelled him from a tight academic style to simplistic skeletal figures, painted with haunting blue hues. Blue, for Picasso, symbolised the in-between—a place of contemplation on mortality and the great beyond. Immersed in sorrow, his figures, from crouching prostitutes sacralised as the Virgin Mary, to mythical scenes of hollowed-out figures with sunken eyes, epitomised Realism with sharp emotion in a somewhat rancid, cheap, blue synthetic paint.
By 1906, Picasso was discovered by French art dealer Ambroise Vollard, a major supporter of Modernist artists including Cézanne, Renoir, Gaugin and Van Gogh. Vollard bought Picasso's entire blue period collection for 2,000 French francs, roughly £150 today (although francs were worth much more then). This sale established Picasso as "the new great genius, after Rembrandt and Goya," marking a turning point in his career.
Henri Matisse's 'Nu Bleu'
1952
“When you see [the nudes] together, the skill and sheer exuberance of the material will be apparent. People sometimes say these could be done by a child, but it’s only an old man that has this incredible freedom of mind.”
~ Sir Nicholas Serota
A contemporary to Picasso, Henri Matisse was amongst the same group of Parisian artists and intellectuals who sought to define the new artistic system. The classical style, once the pinnacle of art, no longer satisfied the avant-garde tastes of the day: and these Parisian-centred groups of artists sought to redefine it.
Developed later in life, the nudes were part of Matisse's desire "to draw in paper", especially since he was no longer able to paint or sculpt after surgery for abdominal cancer. Finding inspiration in the widest of sources, from Greek traditions to Islamic art, Japanese prints and the natural world, Matisse sought to embrace flat shapes, controlled lines, and fluid brushstrokes in the Fauvist style (a movement in which he led), culminating in his flat, blue lithographs of collage, with blue nudes that seem as though the sky has personified a female form.
In deep blue against a white background, Blue Nudes appear deceptively simple but took numerous studies and weeks of laborious cutting and arranging to create the perfect form, with the paper pre-painted with blue gouache by his assistants before Matisse “drew” the forms with his scissors and then assembled the figures. Quite unlike Picasso's blue period, Matisse’s Blue Nudes are the result of his lifelong quest to create “an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter.”
Infinite Blue
Yves Klein's blue
"The colour blue is the one colour you can disappear into. When gazing at it, you forget the frame and the size, you just get lost in it. It's the universe's colour; so little but so big and so powerful. It's limitless" - Rotraut Uecker
Late in the autumn of 1960 a young Yves Klein, clad in a sharp navy-blue suit, spread his arms wide as though they were wings, and lept from the second-story window of his Parisian art dealer's home. Suspended momentarily, he seemed as though he might just drift away weightlessly or thump to the ground brittle and broken.
In reality, the photo was exquisitely staged—Klein's fall was caught by a tarpaulin held by a group of judo friends, repeated three times.
But why orchestrate such an act? For Klein, it was about actualising his deep passion for the blue sky— or rather, 'the void', as he termed it. Deep, vast and boundless, to Klein — a mystical thinker — jumping into the open blue vista symbolised surrendering to infinity. This moment, captured in a now-famous photograph, challenged photography's traditional role as a purveyor of life's truth.
Born in 1928, Klein navigated a whirlwind era of change shaped by World War Two's aftermath. Existentialist ideas flourished in response to the war's devastation: yhreats of nuclear war loomed, and the Cold War brought the rise of Communism amidst a booming advertising industry. Simultaneously, the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum, while luminaries like Freud, Einstein, and Carl Jung reshaped humanity's understanding. Humanity was in a state of flux.
Amid this cacophony stood Yves Klein, deeply influenced by the social and political upheaval of his time. For this young artist, blue represented purity, spirituality, an escape into the boundlessness of the cosmos—a stark contrast to the trauma of war. Klein's paintings demanded active engagement, urging viewers to reconnect with existence, to become impregnated and rebirthed by the colour's effects.
Klein was utterly consumed by blue — rather than painting with the colour, like our previous artists, Klein wanted his art to become the colour — to be ineffable, fathomable, transformative. He went so far as to revolutionise blue pigment so that it became the brightest, burning blue synthetically made ever, which he termed International Klein Blue. As far as he saw it, the traditional oil used to liquefy blue pigment powder into paint always adulterated the colour.
Klein's International Klein Blue not only transformed modern art with its unparalleled vibrancy but also established a timeless legacy, making his works an enduring cornerstone of art investment portfolios.
Anish Kapoor
Sculptures from the Sky
When lapis-lazuli came to Europe in the early 15th century, people believed the stone to be a fragment of the sky that had fallen to Earth. The atmosphere crystallised.
Blue-chip British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor allows us to relish this. Continuing the same fascination as Klein with inifinity, Kapoor's ultramarine pigment (developed from lapis-lazuli) coats his sculptures in a sumptuous, velvety layer. Whether resting on the floor or projecting from walls, his sculptures create a mesmerising effect that tease and test the boundaries of spatial perception. The powdered pigment doesn’t just make his works tangible; instead, they seem to partially submerge from the ground, sort-of other-worldly voids.
Kapoor likens his creations to icebergs — a reflection of his deep interest in existence and presence. His works often appear to recede into the distance, meld with the earth, or distort their surroundings, inviting viewers into a world where the lines between substance and emptiness blur.
"While making the pigment pieces, it occurred to me that they all form themselves out of each other - like infinite objects. The powder works sat on the floor or projected from the wall. The powder on the floor defines the surface of the floor and the objects appear to be partially submerged, like icebergs."
James Turrell
Roden Crater
For five decades, LA-based artist Turrell had devoted his practice to sculpting light and space in extraordinary ways. "We are creatures of light", he says. Devotees flocks to his exhibitions in America, Europe, Australia and Asia, including skyspaces, enclosed rooms with apertures in the roof that manipulate the sky’s hues. Galleries and museums can’t get enough of him despite the painstaking need to build pieces on site, installing light sources, blocking off windows and constructing zigzag hallways and drywalls with Nasa-level meticulousness to achieve the desired effect.
In terms of blue, Turrell's work in the desert is particularly wonderful. With the feel of a minimalist design of a temple, the artist's 'Roden Crater' in the Arizona desert, show the blue sky - as it shifts from dusk to twilight - in a clean oval cut-out with stairs leading up to it, as though the portal from earth to heaven.
This monumental project, 580 feet tall and nearly two miles wide, features tunnels and chambers crafted to capture celestial light. One completed tunnel, stretching 854 feet, refracts moonlight through a six-foot lens onto an eight-foot marble disk below. Aligned with the Major Lunar Standstill every 18.61 years, Turrell collaborated with astronomers to account for cosmic geometry changes over millennia. They joke that the project will be perfected in about 2,000 years, mirroring the universe's expansion.
"In the age of consumerism and mass-production... I sell blue sky and coloured air." - James Turrell
Top Tips for Investing in Blue Art
Historical context is key in valuing art, with both diligence and passion required for the investment process. Our featured blue-chip artists offer a robust exploration of blue pigment's poetic and financial legacy in art history. Setting aside part of your collection for these sublime effects could be your next smart investment move.
Take, for example, Thomas Gainsborough's iconic The Blue Boy which — although it remains housed in The Huntington Museum— is a testament to how context can influence an artwork's significance and worth.
Picasso’s Blue Period works, exceedingly rare at auction with fewer than five pieces sold in the last 15 years, illustrate how rarity and historical significance drive up value. Ambroise Vollard’s 1906 purchase of Picasso’s work for £150 likely couldn’t foresee its 1995 auction price of £19 million for Angel Fernández de Soto, and its further escalation to £35 million just 15 years later, an 84% profit. La Gommeuse similarly fetched £53.5 million, affirming these pieces as enduring investment gems — and perhaps as inspiration to stay on top of the emerging art market here, to see such returns in your portfolio one day.
Young investors just starting their collection may choose Henri Matisse's sleek blue collages as a more accessible entry point. His estate's commercial prints, termed 'After Matisse,' are budget-friendly, but lack the artist’s direct oversight, affecting paper choice, print method, and color fidelity. Savvy investors should seek original lithographs with an edition number and signature for genuine quality and potential appreciation.
If you're looking for long-term investment potential, Matisse’s drawings, priced between £10,000-£40,000, are hidden gems with long-term exclusivity. Selling between the £10-40,000 mark, these drawings are prized possessions, sure to appreciate as the years go by.
Henri Matisse, (left to right) 'Two Studies of a Nude', 'Four Nudes, Two Heads', 'Two Women in Street Costumes',
drypoint on paper
Yves Klein’s artworks, although infrequently available due to his early death, command prices exceeding £1 million, with certain editions tripling in value over the years. Editions like The Venus of Alexandria have seen substantial appreciation, tripling in price from 2005 to 2023. For those with smaller budgets, pieces such as La Terre Bleue or Sculpture Eponge bleue sans titre, can be acquired for upwards of £20,000. These posthumous editions, while not Klein's own productions, still hold significant investment potential.
Yves Klein, 'La Terre Bleue', IKB pigment and synthetic resin on plaster cast, numbered 102/300
Anish Kapoor's works are accessible through top outlets like Christie's and by a range of leading galleries, from Alpha 137 to Baldwin Contemporary. Typically, Kapoor's paintings sell anywhere from £20,000-£50,000, and over £100,000 for sculptures. Early sculptural works, particularly his blue and chrome pieces, are highly sought after. For instance, Untitled, 2008 exceeded expectations at Christie's, selling for £733,000.
If you're looking to source a sculptural work by Kapoor, but want to avoid the aforementioned monumental prices, check out his early pieces such as Angel, with estimates far lower, currently at £100,000-£150,000.
Finally, James Turrell's expansive land art is ideally suited for art institutions or sculpture parks due to its large scale. However, for collectors interested in owning a piece, there are drawings, prints, and architectural plans available, priced between £500-£2000. These pieces reveal Turrell’s intricate design process and are expected to appreciate, especially posthumously.
Ultimately, Turrell’s creations are not just about owning a piece of art but about immersing oneself in a collaborative journey. His commissions are highly selective and involve intricate detail, focusing on creating land art or public art experiences that foster a deep relationship between the artist and the client. This approach transforms the investment into a vessel for lasting generations,
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