Mummy brown

Mummy brown
A tube of mummy brown in a coffin
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Mummy brown, also known as Egyptian brown or Caput Mortuum,[1]: 254 [2] was a rich brown bituminous pigment with good transparency, sitting between burnt umber and raw umber in tint.[3] The pigment was made from the flesh of mummies mixed with white pitch and myrrh.[4][5] Mummy brown was extremely popular from the mid-eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. However, fresh supplies of mummies diminished, and artists were less satisfied with the pigment's permanency and finish.[2] By 1915, demand had significantly declined.[6] Suppliers ceased to offer it by the middle of the twentieth century.[7]: 82 

Mummy brown was one of the favourite colours of the Pre-Raphaelites.[6] It was used by many artists, including Eugene Delacroix, William Beechey, Edward Burne-Jones, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Martin Drolling.[2]

  1. ^ St. Clair, Kassia (2016). The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray. pp. 253–255. ISBN 978-1473630819. OCLC 936144129.
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