It’s the paint pigment that brightened Monet’s autumn leaves and Matisse’s red studio. But there are dark times ahead for cadmium, which was also beloved of masters including Cézanne ...

A new cadmium-free paint has just hit the market ... intense pigments in hues of red, yellow, and orange, among others. It was discovered in 1820 and put up for commercial use in the mid-1840s ...

It’s that warm, glowing yellow that envelops the two lovers in the painting. Without cadmium red, the startling bursts of flowers in Claude Monet’s “Wild Poppies Near Argenteuil” might not ...