Dr. Kyle McPhail, Intern Curator
Today many people see the colour pink as a ‘girly’ colour, but in fact that is a 20th centrury concept. In the Victorian era it was a little different. In 1893 the New York Times suggested boys should always wear pink. This was because pink was a stronger colour, as it is closer to red. The word pink to describe a pale red didn’t come into use until the late 17th century. As a result, most of the history of pink is modern and in fact from the 20th century.
Pink pigments have had their place in history. The colour pink was all the rage in the Rococo era; pink pigments were used in painting the flesh of nude women from around this time forward, therefore there is an association with the over-sexualization of women associated with the colour. It was in the 19th century that the colour pink disappeared from menswear. Before this, it was perfectly acceptable and rather fashionable for men to wear shades of pink, as evident in Thomas Gainsborough’s Francis Nicholls “The Pink Boy” (1782). In the 19th century men began to wear somber colours, like blacks and greys. The change in attitude towards colour has to do with the now heighted ideas of gender difference. Colour, including pink, was seen as feminine, while dark somber colours were masculine. However, pink is possibly the colour that is most policed when it comes to gender roles. The colour pink symbolises that thoughts on or associations with a certain pigment can influence the interpretation of wearer or object. Shades of pink can be seen as a colour of activism and have been used in various forms of protest art, such as The Guerilla Girls and ACT UP.
Francis Nicholls “The Pink Boy” (1782) Thomas Gainsborough. Source: https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-pink-boy-229417.
Pink is a colour full of contradictions: it is both sophisticated and kitsch, erotic and childlike. From flowers, to royalty and mistresses, to being disreputable and then to protest, the colour pink is a strong colour full of political meaning.
Pastel Pink and Rose Pompadour
It was in the Renaissance that pink began to appear on the artists palette. Then in the 18th century Rococo era pastel pink became very fashionable in interiors and art. It was very popular in salons and bedrooms, often framed with golds and whites. The painting The Swing (1767) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard highlights Rococo’s use of pastel pink, with the young women central in the painting sporting a beautiful pink dress. Many paintings by François Boucher feature pastel pink. Many of Boucher’s paintings also featured nude women. Boucher always painted flesh with pink undertones, perhaps fueling pinks associated with eroticism. Rosalba Carriera’s A Young Lady with a Parrot (1675-1757) features flashes of pastel pink against the pastel blue dress of the main figure. The parrot the woman is holding cheekily opens the boddice of the young lady’s dress, exposing her skin which also incorporates a flesh tone with pink mixed in.
The Swing (1767) Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Source: https://www.artsy.net/series/stories-10-art-historys-iconic-works/artsy-editorial-undressing-erotic-symbolism-the-swing-fragonards-decadent-masterpiece.
A Young Lady with a Parrot (1675-1757) Rosalba Carriera. Source: https://wsimag.com/art-institute-of-chicago/artworks/108011.
It was in the 18th century that the colour Rose Pompadour, or Pompadour pink, was invented. This pigment has origins in South America from the brazilwood family of plants. At the time, pink was considered a royal colour, its popularity was owed in part to Madame du Pompadour. The Madame du Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV, loved pink so much that porcelain manufacturer Sèvres named the newly invented ground pink pigment after her in 1757. The chemist working for the Sèvres, Jean Hellot, discovered multiple shades that defined the Rococo era. Pink is also often associated with the Madame du Pompadour from her portrait by François Boucher in 1758. Pompadour pink had a revival at the turn of the 20th century, along with other light pinks.
Madame de Pompadour (1758) François Boucher.
Fuchsia and Magenta
The history of pink is tied to the histories and study of plants. Many shades of pink are named after flowers, in fact in many languages the word for ‘pink’ is derived from the word for rose. The English word for pink comes from the flower of the same name, which came into use to refer to the colour in the 17th and 18th centuries. Referring to colours as rose dates back to the Middle Ages. Some flower named shades of pink include cherry blossom pink, carnation pink, amaranth pink, rose and fuchsia. The colour cherry blossom pink was very popular and important in Japan. Interestingly, the Japanese word for pink (momo) has been in use since 750 CE. During the 19th century Japanisme, a period of great inspiration from Japanese aesthetics, cherry blossom pink made its way into Impressionist paintings.
The study of plants dates back to ancient Greece, but it wasn’t until the 16th century that significant study and publications on the field were conducted. In 1542 Leonhard Fuchs published one of the first thorough books on plants. Although the flower Fuchsia was named after him, it wasn’t discovered until 1703 in the Caribbean. Much later, during the 1960’s and the rise of pop art, fuchsia really came into its element.
With the Industrial Revolution the production of cheap and accessible pink pigments was on the rise. This was the time when pink went from the sophisticated paintings of Rococo’s pastel pinks to a more loud and garish pink, for example magenta. Magenta was made in 1859 by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, and it is a mixture between purple and red, sometimes its referred to as a purplish-red or a reddish-purple. Is it red, is it purple or is it pink? Nonetheless, with the invention of synthetically and mass-produced pinks, bright colourful clothes were more popular than ever. Despite this, many Victorian women saw these loud pinks as vulgar. Some saw pink as an erotic colour: the reddish tones and its association with flesh (perhaps due to the trend of pink flesh started by Boucher) did not help pink generate a pure reputation. Additionally, pink was used for many pieces of 19th century lingerie. It wasn’t until French couturier Paul Poiret in the early 20th century did the colour pink switch back to a sophisticated shade. Poiret designed sophisticated outfits with featured loud and deep shades of pink, including this evening gown from c.1912-14.
Evening Gown, 1912-1914, Paul Poiret. Source: https://exhibitions.fitnyc.edu/pink/#grid-page.
Poiret’s usage of a deep pink rather than a pastel pink was very different than Victorian fashion. In the Edwardian and into the 1920’s Art Deco fashion, the colour pink was a prominent trend.
Political pink and Millennial pink
Pink has had a lot of political meanings throughout the centuries. After ending the 18th and 19th centuries with associations with flesh and lingerie, the 20th century saw a political turn for the colour pink. It was at this time that deeper and more shocking shades of pink, like fuchsia and magenta, gained in popularity. In the 20th century, the colour pink begins to be thought of as a political colour, although plenty of people continue to see it as frivolous. There is an association with pretty, soft and feminine. In the 1980s, however, the pink triangle was reappropriated and used in many AIDS activist artworks, being heavily featured in the works of Keith Haring, Act Up and General Idea. For the queer community, the pink triangle that went from a symbol of hate from the Nazi era that was appropriated into the symbol of resilience and survival.
Silence = Death (1989) Keith Haring. Source: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/keith-haring-silence-equals-death-11.
In 2017 the pink ‘pussy’ hats worn during Women’s Marches across the world shows that once again, pink is a colour of resilience and protest. However, some were critical of the use of the colour pink, thinking that protesters wearing the colour wouldn’t be taken seriously. This shows that the social construction of the colour as feminine and frivolous is still alive in the 21st century. These outdated ideas are slowly changing in the mainstream. Also in 2017, the shade called Millennial pink brought the colour pink back to its gender-neutral roots; the timeless light pink shade became all the rage for people of any gender, which was included in designs by icon Rihanna.
Advertisement for Fenty x Puma (2017). Source: https://www.allure.com/story/rihanna-new-fenty-x-puma-collection.
Similarly, the shades of pink in Dalnavert reflect the trends of the 19th century but without the politics. Many of the pink objects in Dalnavert’s collection are in the form of cranberry glass. The colour is a cranberry-like rose pink, which is a result of adding gold chloride to the glass. The more gold-chloride present, the deeper the colour. It is believed that cranberry glass was first made in the Roman Empire, however, it was most famously produced in the Victorian era, when glass-blowers refined and improved the manufacturing of cranberry glass. Therefore, like Rihanna, the use of pink in Dalnavert reflects the trends of the time. The colour pink, no matter what one thinks of it, plays an important role in the histories of art, politics, protest, fashion and décor.
Dalnavert, in Colour: Pink.
This is part of a series of blog posts related to our Dalnavert, in Colour exhibit. Look out for posts on more colours!
Bibliography
Bucknell, Alice. ‘A Brief History of the Color Pink.’ Artsy. 06/11/2017 [retrieved 03/03/2021]. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-pink.
Cerini, Marianna. ‘Refined, rebellious and not just for girls: A cultural history of pink.’ CNN. 31/10/2018 [retrieved 03/03/2021]. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/history-of-color-pink/index.html.
Materials and their Makers. ‘Rose Pompadour.’ Materials and their Makers. N/D [retrieved 03/03/2021]. https://bt.barnard.edu/ave2015/project2/eighteenth-century-colors/rosepompadour/.
Museum at the FIT.’ Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty and Powerful Color.’ Museum at the FIT. N/D [retrieved 03/03/2021]. ‘https://exhibitions.fitnyc.edu/pink/?url=the-feminization-of-color%2Ffeminzation-P92.40.1-1.
Steele, Valerie. Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018.
St Clair, Kassia. The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray, 2016.
Wiggins, Pamela. ‘Collect a Crop of Cranberry Glass’. The Spruce Crafts. 15/01/2019 [retrieved 18/02/2021]. https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/collecting-cranberry-glass-147996.