The crystals are vitreous and vary in color from brown, blue, and green to more rare violet and pink.

Substitution of iron and other tri-valent elements for aluminium result in the color variations.

Dumortierite was first described in 1881 for an occurrence in Chaponost, in the Rhône-Alps of France and named for the French paleontologist Eugène Dumortier (1803–1873).

The most extensive investigation on dumortierite was done on samples from the high grade metamorphic Gfohl unit in Austria by Fuchs et al. (2005).

Sources of Dumortierite include Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Madagascar, Namibia, Nevada, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.