Editing Violet (color) (section)

===18th and 19th centuries===
In the 18th century, purple was a color worn by royalty, aristocrats and other wealthy people. Good-quality purple fabric was too expensive for ordinary people.

The first [[cobalt violet]], the intensely red-violet cobalt arsenate, was highly toxic. Although it persisted in some paint lines into the 20th century, it was displaced by less toxic cobalt compounds such as cobalt phosphate. Cobalt violet appeared in the second half of the 19th century, broadening the palette of artists with its range of purple colors. Cobalt violet was used by [[Paul Signac]] (1863–1935), [[Claude Monet]] (1840–1926) and [[Georges Seurat]] (1859–1891).<ref>Isabel Roelofs (2012), ''La couleur expliquée aux artistes'', p. 52–53</ref> Today, cobalt ammonium phosphate, cobalt lithium phosphate and cobalt phosphate are available for use by artists. Cobalt ammonium phosphate is the most reddish of the three. Cobalt phosphate is available in two varieties — a deep less saturated blueish type and a lighter and brighter somewhat more reddish type. Cobalt lithium phosphate is a saturated lighter-valued bluish violet. A color similar to cobalt ammonium phosphate, cobalt magnesium borate, was introduced in the later 20th century but was not deemed sufficiently lightfast for artistic use. Cobalt violet is the only truly lightfast purple pigment with relatively strong color saturation. All other light-stable purple pigments are dull by comparison. The high price of the pigment and the toxicity of cobalt have limited its use.

In the 1860s, the popularity of using violet colors suddenly rose among painters and other artists.<ref name="Computational evidence of first ext"/> For example, [[Vincent van Gogh]] (1853–1890) was an avid student of color theory. He used violet in many of his paintings of the 1880s, including his paintings of irises and the swirling and mysterious skies of his starry night paintings, and often combined it with its [[complementary color]], yellow. In his painting of [[Bedroom in Arles|his bedroom in Arles]] (1888), he used several sets of complementary colors; violet and yellow, red and green and orange and blue. In a letter about the painting to his brother Theo, he wrote, "The color here...should be suggestive of sleep and repose in general....The walls are a pale violet. The floor is of red tiles. The wood of the bed and the chairs are fresh butter yellow, the sheet and the pillows light lemon green. The bedspread bright scarlet. The window green. The bed table orange. The bowl blue. The doors lilac....The painting should rest the head or the imagination."<ref>John Gage (2006), ''La Couleur dans l'art'', p. 50–51. Citing Letter 554 from Van Gogh to Theo. (translation of excerpt by D.R. Siefkin)</ref>

In 1856, a young British chemist named [[William Henry Perkin]] was trying to make a synthetic [[quinine]]. His experiments produced instead an unexpected residue, which turned out to be the first synthetic [[aniline dye]], a deep purple<ref name="Computational evidence of first ext"/> color called [[mauveine]], or abbreviated simply to [[mauve]] (the dye being named after the lighter color of the mallow [mauve] flower). Used to dye clothes, it became extremely fashionable among the nobility and upper classes in Europe, particularly after [[Queen Victoria]] wore a silk gown dyed with mauveine to the Royal Exhibition of 1862. Prior to Perkin's discovery, mauve was a color which only the aristocracy and rich could afford to wear. Perkin developed an industrial process, built a factory, and produced the dye by the ton so almost anyone could wear mauve. It was the first of a series of modern industrial dyes which completely transformed both the chemical industry and fashion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Garfield, S.|year=2000|title=Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World|publisher=Faber and Faber, London, UK|isbn=978-0-571-20197-6}}</ref>

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File:Musée Fabre expo. Jean Ranc48 Ranc Jean infant Charles.jpg|Charles de Bourbon, the future King [[Carlos III of Spain]] (1725).
File:Arthur Hughes - April Love - Google Art Project.jpg|In England, [[pre-Raphaelite]] painters like [[Arthur Hughes (artist)|Arthur Hughes]] were particularly enchanted by purple and violet. This is ''[[April Love (painting)|April Love]]'' (1856).
File:Whistler James Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow 1876.jpg|''Nocturne: Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow'' (1876) by [[James McNeill Whistler]], used violet to create a wintery mood.
File:VanGogh-starry night.jpg|''[[The Starry Night]]'', by [[Vincent van Gogh]] (1889), [[Museum of Modern Art]].
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