Fun fact: Pantone, famous for its color standardization system, has named Viva Magenta 18-1750 its color of the year 2023. As the company describes it, Viva Magenta is “brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.”
Give the color below a good look:
Do you feel brave and fearless, joyous and optimistic now?
The less snooty might well ask: Isn’t that just purply-red?
If this is you, take two minutes to watch this video clip from the classic move, “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.” In it, Mrs. Blandings is instructing her foreman on the paint colors she wants:
Technically, the color magenta is located precisely midway between red and blue on a color wheel. It was originally named fuchsine by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, inventor and patent owner of the color, but was renamed to celebrate the Italian-French victory at the Battle of Magenta in 1859.
Fun Fact: Not one AKC dog breed mentions the color “magenta” in its standard.
Another fun fact (are you having fun yet?) Many people actually see purple when they see magenta, and for them, we mention that in 2018, Pantone’s color of the year was Ultra Violet, and in 2014, it was Radiant Orchid.
And guess what? One AKC breed does mention purple in its standard, or more accurately, refers to the breed color as being “rich liver to dark liver with a purplish tinge, sometimes called puce liver.”
Only two breeds mention the color, “puce” in their AKC standards. The aforementioned sentence in italics come from the Irish Water Spaniel breed standard, and it is the required color. In the Sussex Spaniel standard, however, puce is a major fault.
You might find the origins of the word, “puce” to be interesting, if not downright curious. Read on!
It seems appropriate to have had a bit of fun (that word again) in this post about the Irish Water Spaniel’s color since they are famously known as the clowns of the spaniel family.