Mauveine
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Description
A pale purple dye that is one of the first synthetic dyes. Mauveine was discovered accidentally when William Perkin, a Scottish chemist, treated aniline with sulfuric acid and potassium dichromate. He patented the colorant in August 1856 and by the next year he was mass producing it as a dye called aniline purple. Mauveine is composed of amino-phenylamino-p-tolyl ditolazonium sulfate. Mauveine is not lightfast and but is still occasionally used in some watercolor paints.
Synonyms and Related Terms
CI 50245; Perkin's mauve; mauve; Malven (Deut.); mauve (Fr., Ned.); mauvéïne (Fr.); pourpre d'aniline (Fr.); violetto anilina (It.); malva (Port.); Perkin's violet; Perkin's purple; aniline purple; aniline violet
Physical and Chemical Properties
- Slightly soluble in ethanol, methanol.
- Insoluble in benzene.
- Composition = several isomeric forms exist
Additional Images
Mauve
Mauve
Resources and Citations
- R. J. Gettens, G.L. Stout, Painting Materials, A Short Encyclopaedia, Dover Publications, New York, 1966
- Reed Kay, The Painter's Guide To Studio Methods and Materials, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1983
- Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)
- Rosalie Rosso King, Textile Identification, Conservation, and Preservation, Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, NJ, 1985
- F. Crace-Calvert, Dyeing and Calico Printing, Palmer & Howe, London, 1876
- A.Scharff, 'Synthetic dyestuffs for textiles and their fastness to washing', ICOM-CC Preprints Lyon, Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1999
- Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000
- Wikipedia: Mauveine Accessed Feb. 2026
- E. Hagan, I. Castro-Soto, M. Breault, et al. The lightfastness of early synthetic organic dyes. Herit Sci 10, 50 (2022).