How long has painting been around?

Paint is at least 35,000 years old, but could even be 100,000 years old. Paint pre-dates our recorded history, so there is no documented invention of paint. Humans have only existed for about 200,000 years, so it cannot go any further back than that.

The oldest known cave painting is in Chauvet Cave in France. According to retrocarbon dating, the paintings were made about 35,000 years ago. Archaeologists in South Africa discovered in 2011 tools to make an ochre-based compound 100,000 years old. The ochre compound may have been used as paint, but also could have been a form of ancient glue.