Originally, the word Magenta referred to a small city in Italy, in a region called Lombardy, where the French and Piedmontese troops defeated the Austrian army in June of 1859.

How did it transpire that this name has come to represent this vivid red colour, (bordering on pink), that we know so well?

Near the end of 1859, a new red pigment was discovered that was named magenta red, in remembrance of the blood that had been shed at Magenta that same year. The following year, a new red-pink became very popular in London's high society and that colour was subsequently named red magenta.

Had this pigment been discovered but a bit sooner, it may have just as easily been called Waterloo!

Pastoureau, Michel: Dictionnaire des couleurs de notre temps; Christine Bonneton, 1999, 255 pages; Collection Symbolique et société.

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