Mauve

This article is about the color mauve. For other uses, see Mauve (disambiguation).

Mauve (/ˈmoʊv/ ^ⓘ, mohv;^[2] /ˈmɔːv/ ^ⓘ, mawv) is a pale purple color^[3][4] named after the mallow flower (French: mauve). The first use of the word mauve as a color was in 1796–98 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but its use seems to have been rare before 1859. Another name for the color is mallow,^[5] with the first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English in 1611.^[6]

Mauve (mallow)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#E0B0FF
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(224, 176, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(276°, 31%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(79, 61, 290°)
Source	Maerz and Paul[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Brilliant purple
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Mallow wildflower

Mauve contains more gray and more blue than a pale tint of magenta. Many pale wildflowers called "blue" are more accurately classified as mauve. Mauve is also sometimes described as pale violet.

Mauveine, the first commercial aniline dye

Main article: Mauveine

The synthetic dye mauve was first so named in 1859. Chemist William Henry Perkin, then 18, was attempting to synthesize quinine in 1856; quinine was used to treat malaria.^[7] He noticed an unexpected residue, which turned out to be the first aniline dye. Perkin originally named the dye Tyrian purple after the historical dye, but the product was renamed mauve after it was marketed in 1859.^[8][9] It is now usually called Perkin's mauve, mauveine, or aniline purple.

Earlier references to a mauve dye in 1856–1858 referred to a color produced using the semi-synthetic dye murexide or a mixture of natural dyes.^[10] Perkin was so successful in marketing his discovery to the dye industry that his 2000 biography by Simon Garfield is simply entitled Mauve.^[11] Between 1859 and 1861, mauve became a fashion must-have. The weekly journal All the Year Round described women wearing the colour as "all flying countryward, like so many migrating birds of purple paradise".^[12] Punch magazine published cartoons poking fun at the huge popularity of the colour: “The Mauve Measles are spreading to so serious an extent that it is high time to consider by what means [they] may be checked.”^[13][14]

But, because it faded easily, the success of mauve dye was short-lived; by 1873, it was replaced by other synthetic dyes.^[15] As the memory of the original dye soon receded, the contemporary understanding of mauve is as a lighter, less-saturated color than it was originally known.^[16]

The 1890s are sometimes referred to in retrospect as the "Mauve Decade" because of the popularity of the subtle color among progressive artistic types, both in Europe and the US.^[17]

Variations

Rich mauve

Mauve (Crayola)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#E285FF
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(226, 133, 255)
HSV (h, s, v)	(286°, 48%, 100%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(70, 91, 295°)
Source	Crayola
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Vivid purple
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color displayed at right is the rich tone of mauve called mauve by Crayola.

French mauve (deep mauve)

Mauve (Pourpre.com)
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#D473D4
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(212, 115, 212)
HSV (h, s, v)	(300°, 46%, 83%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(63, 76, 308°)
Source	Pourpre.com
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Vivid purple
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color displayed at right is the deep tone of mauve that is called mauve by Pourpre.com, a color list widely popular in France.

Opera mauve

Opera mauve
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#B784A7
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(183, 132, 167)
HSV (h, s, v)	(319°, 28%, 72%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(61, 34, 324°)
Source	ISCC-NBS
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Light reddish purple
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color displayed at right is opera mauve.

The first recorded use of opera mauve as a color name in English was in 1927.^[18]

Mauve taupe

Mauve taupe
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#915F6D
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(145, 95, 109)
HSV (h, s, v)	(343°, 34%, 57%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(46, 31, 354°)
Source	ISCC-NBS
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Grayish purplish red
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Main article: Taupe

The color displayed at right is mauve taupe.

The first recorded use of mauve taupe as a color name in English was in 1925.^[19]

Old mauve

Old mauve
Color coordinates
Hex triplet	#673147
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(103, 49, 71)
HSV (h, s, v)	(336°, 52%, 40%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(28, 32, 348°)
Source	ISCC-NBS
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Dark purplish red
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color displayed at right is old mauve.

The first recorded use of old mauve as a color name in English was in 1925.^[20]

The normalized color coordinates for old mauve are identical to wine dregs, which was first recorded as a color name in English in 1924.^[21]

See also

• Shades of purple
  • Lilac (color)
• Malvaria (Pyroluria), from the term mauve factor in Orthomolecular psychiatry

References

1. The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called mauve in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill; the color "mallow" is displayed on page 125, Plate 51, Color Sample I3 Note: It is stated in A Dictionary of Color that mallow and mauve are two different names used in English to refer to exactly the same color—the name mallow came into use in 1611 and mauve came into use as its synonym in 1856—see under the entry for each name on page 198 in the Index. See also discussion of the color Mallow (Mauve) on page 166.
2. Brians, Paul. "Mauve". Common Errors in English. Washington State University. Archived from the original on 2008-02-25. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
3. Oxford English Dictionaries on-line
4. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition (1964): "any of several shades of delicate purple."
5. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930, McGraw-Hill, Page 198
6. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 198; Color Sample of Mallow: page 125 Plate 51 Color Sample I3
7. Jubilee of the discovery of mauve and of the foundation of the coal-tar colour industry by Sir W. H. Perkin (1906) - digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library
8. Travis, Anthony S. (1993). The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry in Western Europe. Bethlehem: Lehigh Univ. Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0934223188.
9. St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray. pp. 169–171. ISBN 9781473630819. OCLC 936144129.
10. Travis, Anthony S. (1993). The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry in Western Europe. Bethlehem: Lehigh Univ. Press. pp. 45–6. ISBN 978-0934223188.
11. Garfield, S. (2000). Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World. Faber and Faber, London, UK. ISBN 978-0-571-20197-6.
12. Garfield, Simon (2000-09-21). "Simon Garfield on mauve". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
13. Blakemore, Erin. "How Malaria Gave Us Mauve". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
14. Jackson, Shelley. "Colors / Mauve | Shelley Jackson". cabinetmagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
15. Travis, Anthony S. (1993). The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry in Western Europe. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh Univ. Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0934223188.
16. History of Dyes from 2600 BC to 20th Century - natural dyes, synthetic, by Susan C. Druding, 1982
17. Thomas Beer (1926). The Mauve Decade: American Life At The End Of The Nineteenth Century. A. A. Knopf. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
18. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample page 107 Plate 42 Color Sample H5--Opera Mauve
19. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of Mauve Taupe Page 37 Plate 7 Color Sample C8--Mauve Taupe
20. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Old Mauve: Page 109 Plate 46 Color Sample I5
21. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 207; Color Sample of Wine Dregs Page 37 Plate 7 Color Sample L7

External links

• Media related to Mauve at Wikimedia Commons