Jean-Baptiste Guimet

{{Short description|19th-century French industrial chemist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Jean-Baptiste Guimet

| image = Jean-Baptiste Guimet.jpg

| caption = Jean-Baptiste GuimetEngraving published in Le Livre du centenaire, 1794-1894, Vol. III, (Paris, Gauthier-Villars et fils) 1897.

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1795|07|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = Voiron, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|1871|04|08|1795|07|20|df=y}}

| nationality = French

| alma_mater =

| occupation = industrial chemist

|notable_works = synthetic colors

}}

Jean-Baptiste Guimet (20 July 1795{{snd}}8 April 1871), French industrial chemist, and inventor of synthetic colors,{{cite book |last= Chang |first= Ting |author-link= |date= 11 October 2016|title= Travel, Collecting, and Museums of Asian Art in Nineteenth-century Paris| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8Tmh1c7HkO4C|access-date= 21 February 2022 |location= Oxon | publisher= Routledge | page=76| isbn= 978-1-138-24919-6}} was born at Voiron, Isère.

He studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, and in 1817 entered the Administration des Poudres et Salpêtres. As natural lazurite was expensive and inaccessible, different options for its artificial production were explored in Europe.{{cite journal |last1= Nečas |first1= Radovan |title= Ultramarine – Not Just a Pigment of Traditional Folk Architecture Plasters |url= https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187770581631788X/pdf|journal= Procedia Engineering |year=2016 |volume=151 |issue= |pages=114–118|doi= 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.400|access-date= 22 February 2022|doi-access= free }} Jean Baptiste Guimet discovered a synthetic route in 1826.{{cite book |last= Evans |first= Rachel C. |author-link= |date= 8 July 2014|title= Applied Photochemistry| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=loXEBAAAQBAJ|access-date= 21 February 2022 |location= Berlin | publisher= Springer Science & Business Media | page=152| isbn= 978-9-048-13830-2}} He finally prepared the synthetic lazurite, called ultramarine in 1828. It was also called as French ultramarine.

In 1828 he was awarded the prize offered by the Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale for a process of making artificial ultramarine with all the properties of the substance prepared from expensive natural source lapis lazuli;{{cite book |last= Perrin |first= Paul |author-link= |date= 31 January 2018|title= Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8f_2DwAAQBAJ|access-date= 21 February 2022 |location= Singapore | publisher= National Gallery Singapore | page=179| isbn= 978-9-811-14515-5}} and six years later he resigned his official position in order to devote himself to the commercial production of that material, a factory for which he established at Fleurieu-sur-Saône.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Guimet, Jean Baptiste|volume=12|page=696}}

His son Émile Étienne Guimet succeeded him in the direction of the factory.