Zinc white

[1]: 172–75  It was initially developed in the 1780s by the French chemist and magistrate Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, who struggled to popularize its use.

[5] Since antiquity, zinc oxide has been a readily available byproduct of brass production, but the idea of using it as a pigment was not widely considered until the eighteenth century.

[1] A report drafted by Guyton de Morveau in 1782 brought the first significant attention to zinc oxide as a pigment.

Working in the late 1830s and early 1840s, he improved the hiding power of zinc white and added siccatives that reduced its drying time in oil.

[6]: 175 While zinc white was available to painters by the end of the eighteenth century, relatively few examples of its use have been found before 1850, when its adoption steadily increased.

[6]: 180  When zinc white has been found in works by Impressionists, it generally constitutes a lightening agent that was added to another color by the paint manufacturer, not the artist.