The Surprising History of the Color Blue

As the year wraps up, I’ve been thinking a lot about inspiration, the kind that sneaks up on you while you’re working, teaching, or staring suspiciously at that one stubborn area of the painting that refuses to work.  Lately, one color has been doing a lot of sneaking: blue.

Blue shows up in my paintings whether I invite it or not. It’s grounding, vast, familiar, and mysterious. And as it turns out, blue has a history just as layered as the paint on my painting surfaces.

So today, I’m diving into the history of the color blue, its symbolism, its meaning, and why humans (apparently) can’t get enough of it. If you love blue, art, or mildly fun art history facts, this one’s for you.

​Blue Didn’t Have a Name (Seriously)

One of my favorite facts about blue is that early cultures didn’t have a word for blue at all. Not one. Ancient Greek texts describe the sky as “bronze.” The ocean? “Wine dark.” Some researchers believe people simply didn’t notice blue until they had a name for it.

I feel better already, if ancient poets couldn’t identify blue, I won’t beat myself up for misplacing my phone multiple times a day. 

The First True Blue: Egyptians Were Ahead of Everyone

The Egyptians created the first synthetic blue pigment around 2200 BCE — appropriately named “Egyptian blue.” They used it on jewelry, murals, and statues, proving once again that they were very committed to coordinating their aesthetic.

Using quartz/sand and copper-glaze, they made this vivid blue long before someone casually said “paint it sky-blue.” 

To put it another way: if they could see one of my modern acrylic blues, say Liquitex Brilliant Blue for example, they might have thought, “good grief, how did she make that?”

This Egyptian Blue pigment was so luminous that modern scientists can still detect it in microscopic traces thousands of years later. The material was special and valued. Here’s one example:

​Blue Faience Saucer and Stand (c.1400-1325 BC), Walters Art Museum

Blue as luxury and decoration

Later, in Europe, pigment made from lapis lazuli (ultramarine) was so expensive it was like wearing jewelry. Painters reserved it for the most important bits of a painting.
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Decoratively, cobalt-blue glazed porcelain became popular across Asia and Europe: the crisp white background + ultra-blue pattern combo.

Ming dynasty Xuande-period blue-and-white vase, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lapis Lazuli: The Pigment Worth More Than Gold

Move on to the Renaissance, where blue becomes the luxury color. The prized pigment ultramarine, made by grinding lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, was more valuable than gold. Artists used it sparingly, often reserving it for the Virgin Mary’s robes, partly for symbolism and partly to avoid going bankrupt. An interesting story that I found out while visiting the Sistine Chapel was that the Pope didn't provide Michelangelo with ultramarine when the Sistine Chapel ceiling was started because the Pope wasn't sure that the artist's work was worth all that expensive pigment. As you view the ceiling, you will see that the blue changes from one side of the ceiling to the other. This is because the Pope was impressed and supplied Michelangelo with the more expensive pigment to complete the project. 

This period marks the beginning of blue symbolism, blue meaning “divine,” “pure,” and “serious business.” My own relationship with blue has no real symbolic meaning at this point, but I appreciate the history.

Why Humans Universally Love Blue
Unlike other colors (looking at you, orange), blue is consistently ranked as the world’s favorite color. Interior designers adore it. Corporate branding teams worship it. My students reach for it before anything else.

​There’s a reason: Blue is trustworthy, calming, and timeless. In psychology, blue is associated with serenity, clarity, order. And in interior spaces, blue is a decorator’s magic trick — instantly pulling a room together.

Here's one of my paintings in an interior featuring blue which shows you how calming the room appears when painted a serene blue color. 

Blue in My Artwork (Where It Sneaks In Every Time)
In my own abstract and landscape-inspired paintings, blue shows up like an uninvited guest who ends up being the life of the party. Whether I’m inspired by mountains, water, or weathered walls, blue has a way of anchoring the painting.

Even when I’m working intuitively, which is most of the time, the color pulls me back to calm, openness, and that feeling of vast possibility.

(Also: if you ever want to get lost in a painting,  blue will help.)

Rhythms of the Forest, 47"x23.5," acrylic on canvas, ©Lynn Goldstein

Hide & Seek, 24"x24," acrylic on wood, © Lynn Goldstein

From Ancient Pigments to Modern Studios The fascinating thing about the history of blue is how it winds through every era:
Egyptian blue on tomb walls and artifacts. 
Ultramarine in Renaissance masterpieces.
Prussian blue in Japanese woodblocks.
Indigo in textiles.
Blue LED lights in our phones (less poetic, but historically relevant).
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And now, blue lives on in my work, textured, layered, sometimes bold, sometimes barely there. It’s a color with deep roots and endless possibilities.

If you’d like to see how blue appears in my latest paintings, head on over to my Newest Art page right here on this website.