Cobalt turquoise was developed in the 20th century as an opaque, permanent turquoise — filling a gap in the artist's palette between the transparent phthalos and the more blue cobalts. Its development reflects the 20th century expansion of the cobalt pigment family.

Vivid, tropical, and modern. Cobalt turquoise has the freshness of tropical water with the permanence and opacity of a mineral pigment. It is simultaneously natural-feeling (turquoise is the colour of sky and sea) and distinctly contemporary in its purity.

Turquoise as a colour (distinct from cobalt turquoise as a pigment) has deep cultural significance across many traditions — the turquoise of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the turquoise tiles of Persian architecture, the turquoise jewellery of Native American and Tibetan cultures all reference a colour of sky and water that has held sacred significance across civilisations.