In Search of Blue

Tragedy, elation and madness in the search for the world’s most sought-after pigment, ultramarine blue.

Photo by Sam Balye on Unsplash

There is a boy who watches the sky. He is nineteen, arrogant, French. He turns to his friend and offers him the earth and its riches. To his other friend, he gives the air. Himself? He takes the heavens. “The blue sky,” he declares, “is my first artwork.”