Why Is Oil Paint So Expensive?

A skilled artist can paint a great picture even with plain gouache, since artistic value lies not in the materials but in the artist's idea and its originality — the buyer pays for a one-of-a-kind work. Yet most renowned artists prefer oil paint as their medium, and its price, as is well known, exceeds that of every other type — depending on quality, a litre of paint costs anywhere from 285 to 1,000 euros. So why do artists prefer oil paint, and why is it so expensive?

Oil paint became popular during the Renaissance, but works from as early as the 7th century, painted with pigments mixed into poppy-seed oil, have been found in Afghanistan. The composition of this paint is very simple — oil and pigment. It might seem there is little to improve on, yet it turns out there is a great deal. First of all, one must find the right pigment. By right we mean not only its colour but also its quality. The quality of a pigment determines the colour's resistance to light, and this, in turn, determines whether an artist's masterpiece will last for centuries or fade within a few decades.

How Are Pigments Extracted?

In ancient times, all pigments used were natural. In ancient Rome, the most expensive pigment — royal purple — was extracted from sea snails. From twelve thousand snails, one could obtain barely two grams of pigment. Indian yellow was made from the urine of cows fed only on mango leaves. The mummy brown pigment, popular from the 16th to the 19th century, was made from crushed remains of Egyptian mummies. Although the colour was excellent, mummies for this purpose soon ran short. Perhaps the most valuable pigment of all time was ultramarine. The word itself means “beyond the sea,” since the lapis lazuli from which it is made was mined in Afghanistan, and even today its price can reach 30,000 euros per kilogram. Until 1826, when an artificial substitute was invented, the pigment was obtained by grinding the gemstone. Its vivid blue colour was so prized during the Renaissance that it was used to paint only the cloak of the Holy Virgin Mary. As you have probably already realised, these pigments were more expensive than gold.

Nowadays, most pigments in use are synthetic, but although this represents great progress, producing some of them is still highly complex. Cobalt blue, for example, is obtained by heating ingredients to 1,200 degrees Celsius. And now consider that in the highest-quality paints, pigment can make up as much as 75% of the total mass.

How Does Pigment Become Paint?

Even once you have the pigment, the work is not over — the fineness to which it is ground and the ratio in which it is mixed with oil are both extremely important. The vividness of the same pigment will vary depending on how it is ground: one pigment ground too finely becomes too dull, while another ground too finely turns purple instead of blue. Did you also know that each pigment requires a different amount of binding oil? Every manufacturer spends years refining this ratio. First, a small sample batch is produced in the laboratory, and only after testing its light resistance and trying out its consistency does production of larger quantities begin.

Why Do Artists Choose Oil Paint Despite the Price?

Nowadays, cheaper acrylic paints are available, but artists choose oil paint for its longevity — even paintings made centuries ago, still admired today, remain vivid, with their colours unchanged and every detail clearly visible. Artists also value the ability to apply paint in layers. It can be scraped off and started again, and a single painting can be worked on for years, as the famous Da Vinci did with the “Mona Lisa,” until a masterpiece is born. In this way, canvases often hold a much longer history than the viewer sees.