Cerulean Blue

A heavenly pale blue hue. (The Bus 3.22)

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

Considered by many artists to be the ‘perfect sky-blue hue,’ cerulean is a ‘bright, pure semi-transparent pigment with green undertones’ which reacts to neither light nor chemicals. After French chemist Louis Jacques Thénard discovered cobalt blue in 1802, three years later the Swiss chemist Albrecht Höpfner created cerulean blue. Though it was immediately recognised as a potentially invaluable addition to the artists’ palette, the expense of producing it meant it would take over 50 years before the pigment would become commercially available.¹

Cerulean Blue (Winsor and Newton)

‘Cerulean’ comes from the Latin caeruleus - ‘dark blue, blue, or blue-green’ - which is thought to derive from caerulum, itself the diminutive of caelum, meaning ‘heaven’ or ‘sky.’ It was this connection to the sky that was immediately seized upon by its earliest users. From the beginning of its usage, cerulean blue was believed to have the capacity to bring about a ‘certain peace,’ as the ‘retiring, quiescent colour’ was considered reminiscent of ‘time spent outdoors, on a beach, near the water,’ and other ‘associations with restful, peaceful, relaxing times.’

Adopted almost immediately once it was commercially viable, cerulean blue (along with related colours such as cobalt blue and ultramarine) became adopted as part of a new set of colours employed by artists wishing to ‘enhance their paintings with a sense of vibrance and life.’ The Impressionists were some of the first to use it: Pissarro ‘banished the old, dull ‘earth’ colours from his palette,’ and Monet began to mix ‘complex combinations’ from the new pigments. Two famous early uses of cerulean blue can be found in the clothing of figures in Édouard Manet’s ‘Corner of a Café-Concert’ (1878) and Berthe Morisot’s ‘Summer’s Day’ (1879):

(L-R) Manet, 'Corner of a Café-Concert' and Morisot 'Summer's Day' (Detail)/Public Domain

Though still an expensive pigment, cerulean blue today remains as popular as when it was first introduced. Highly prized for portraiture, the colour - while strong on its own - weakens in strength when mixed, and this capacity for low-tinting gives cerulean blue its ‘superpower:’ the ability for artists to use a single pigment to create a range of subtle effects for ‘sky, sea, fashion and beyond.’

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to ‘Why Fake Punches in Movies Look Real,’ a great documentary (6:45) that explains - in great detail - how movie fight scenes are choreographed and edited to make them appear real. A rather interesting explainer - and worth the watch.

Why Fake Punches in Movies Look Real

The Recommendation

Today’s Recommendation is The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel and directed by David Frankel, the film - starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci - is an American comedy-drama set in the world of high fashion. Andy Sachs (Hathaway) is a young journalist who lands a dream job with Runway magazine as personal assistant to its editor, the imperious, terrifying Miranda Hartley (Streep).² Though initially out of her element in an environment that goes completely against her ethics, Andy starts to change and adapt to the Runway philosophy. It’s a fun film and a good Friday-evening watch.³

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Trailer

The Sounds

Today’s playlist - which is entirely unrelated to today’s Stop - is composed of five tracks from various incarnations of the talented, eclectic and eccentric Will Oldham:⁴ ‘Riding’ (Palace Brothers, 1993), ‘New Partner’ (Palace Music, 1995), ‘I See a Darkness’ (Will Oldham, 2018), ‘Arise Therefore - Live’ (Bonnie Prince Billy, 2008), ‘Patience’ (Bonnie Prince Billy, 1997).

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from The Devil Wears Prada. In this scene, Andy - new to the high-fashion world - sniggers when someone queries the colour of a belt. When Miranda questions her, she replies that the colours look the same to her because she’s ‘still learning about this stuff.’ Miranda’s response has become so popular that, for many, it’s the most important scene in the film:

‘‘This…stuff?’ Oh, okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You … go to your closet, and you select … I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean.

You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it?… who showed cerulean military jackets …. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores, and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin.

However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry, when in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of ‘stuff.’’

It’s a great scene, which deserves watching: The Cerulean Sweater Scene (The Devil Wears Prada)

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

Thanks to everyone who subscribes - your interest and support is truly appreciated. If you like The Bus, please SHARE it with a friend or two. 

If you haven’t climbed aboard The Bus, please do!

If you like The Bus, why not check out other newsletters?

The Sample sends out articles from blogs and newsletters across the web that match your interests. If you like one, you can subscribe with one click.

Refind picks five links from around the web that make you smarter, tailored to your interests. Refind is a must-read newsletter loved by over 200,000 curious minds. There’s also a very cool app. Sign up for free!

Until the next Stop …

1. I love colour and blue is one of my favourites. Today’s Stop is the fifth colour investigated by The Bus - for the others, see: Tyrian Purple (1.16), Mummy (1.41), Jet (2.11) and Indian Yellow (2.42) (some issues paywalled). Sources for today’s Stop include Cerulean Blue (Winsor and Newton) and St. Clair, Kassia. The Secret Lives of Colour. London: Hatchette, 2016.

2. Runway is based on Vogue magazine and Miranda is believed to be based on Anna Wintour, the notoriously terrifying real-life editor of Vogue.

3. I’ve included this film in today’s Stop because of the ‘cerulean sweater’ scene (see below).

4. Unfortunately, my two favourite Will Oldham albums - Joya (1997) and Summer in the Southeast (2005) - are unavailable on Spotify, so I’ve had to choose tracks from others. If you like these selections though, I’d highly suggest checking out those albums. They’re sublime.