Series 5Rublev Colours Watercolors are made with the same pigments used by watercolor masters of the 17th to 19th centuries. The colors are genuine single pigment paints available individually in tubes and cakes. Apply Rublev Colours watercolor paint on paper or other absorbent surfaces prepared to accept water-borne paint. Clean up is easy with soap and water.

Alizarin Crimson is the synthetic analog of the colorant from the roots of the plant Rubia tinctorum and that in past centuries was used to make madder lakes. Alizarin or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone (also known as Mordant Red 11 and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Historically it was derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus. In 1869, it became the first natural pigment to be duplicated synthetically. Alizarin is the main ingredient for the manufacture of the madder lake pigments known to painters as Rose madder and Alizarin crimson.

The roots of the plant Rubia tinctorum supply the coloring substances that are converted to madder lakes, the principle coloring substance which is alizarin. The shades of colors of madder lakes vary from scarlet (stannous madder lakes), carmine red (carmine-containing madder lakes called madder carmine), pink madder (madder lakes with a high content of pseudopurpurin and/or purpurin called pink madder or rose madder), to red with a bluish tint (alizarin lakes).