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Mummy Brown

brown Mummy brown, also known as Egyptian brown or Caput Mortuum,[1]: 254 [2] is 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] History[edit] Before "mummy brown" was used as a pigment, Egyptian mummies were known for their medicinal qualities.

[2] In 1797, a Compendium of Colours published in London proclaimed that the finest brown used as a glaze by Benjamin West, the president of the Royal Academy, "is the flesh of mummy, the most fleshy are the best parts. [1]: 255[10] The Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones was reported to have ceremonially buried his tube of mummy brown in his garden when he discovered its true origins. In 1964, Time magazine reported that the sole distributor of the pigment, London colourmaker C. Roberson, had run out of mummies a few years prior.

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