07/16/2025
Kremer Pigments specializes in sourcing the most important colors from throughout art history. Few compare in their impact to Tyrian Purple. With a long history of use in royal clothing, tapestries, tekhelet and argaman dyes, this material helped shape the world as we know it.
Read more about this incredible material below, with even more resources available on the Kremer Pigments website.
“Tyrian purple was one of the most costly organic coloring matters of the ancients. It was prepared from several mollusks or whelks, including Murex brandaris and Purpura haemostoma, which are found on the shores of the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. Huge quantities of these mollusks were used for dyeing fabrics in classical times.
We produce Tyrian purple from the shellfish, Purpura Lapillus, which excretes the fluid from which the dye is won. Traditionally marking the dress of emperors, kings and chief magistrates, 1 gram of this dye is made from the secretion of 10,000 of these large sea snails.
This purple color is remarkably stable, resisting alkalis, soap, and most acids. It is insoluble in most organic solvents.
Tyrian purple was used in the preparation of a purple ink and in dyeing parchments upon which the codices of Byzantium were written. Whelks that produce the purple dye, are also found on the coasts of the British Isles, and they furnished the purple color for some of the early English, Irish and French manuscripts
(Thompson).
The color went out of use about the 8th century, though it may have been used occasionally up until the 11th
century.”
Excerpts from: Painting Materials by Rutherford J. Gettens and George L. Stout
Tyrian purple was even briefly used as an early photochemical fluid by zoologist Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, who produced a self portrait using the technique.
Thank you for reading and Happy Painting!
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