How Did The Colour 'Indian Red' Vanish From Our Palette?

If you give 10 people multiple crayon boxes and ask them to pick the colour "red", chances are that everyone will pick a different red. Because there is no one way to describe colours. German-American artist and educator Josef Albers once said that if you were to say "red" to 50 different people, there would be 50 different versions of the colour in each person's mind. However, what if we were to be specific, and say "Indian Red"? This is a colour of nostalgia. But why is it now lost?Let us dig a little deeper into it.The name Indian Red for a colour comes from the opaque and deep red colour, which is found in the red laterite soil in India. It is rich in iron, and so has a warm, dark, earthy-red tone to it. In fact, before it even made it to anyone's

colour box, it was used by the very first painters in the humanity.

If you are a traveller and go to Madhya Pradesh's Bhimbetka caves, you will find 30,000-year-old cave paintings. The colour you see is the same iron-rich ochre, warm in tone, thanks to the bright Indian sun and for it got oxidised. The paintings come from various periods, including Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Chalcolithic, and even some from the medieval times. The paintings really are a unique window into the evolving lifestyles and artistic expressions of humans over millennia.

Who "Discovered" The Indian Red?

Well, to be fair, something that has already been found cannot be discovered. However, the name that the colour bears was first identified by a Scottish scientist Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. In the 1800s, he trekked through Kerala's Angadipuram and saw locals cutting red soil blocks that hardened into bricks - laterite. This was the source of pigment. He named the bricks "Later", Latin for brick. When chemists found Kerala's laterite was rich in iron oxide, then came the name "Indian Red".

Indian Red, Colour Of Artists

Soon, Indian Red became staple for artists across the world. The greatest names in the art world, whether Rembrandt or Michelangelo, all used it for shading, underpainting, and to represent natural flesh tones. Thanks to its durability, opacity and warm hue, it was perfect for oil paintings too. In fact, colours like Venice Red, Turkey Red, and Pompeian Red were all inspired by the Indian Red.

If you look around, you will find Indian Red everywhere. Whether murals, palaces, or in your every day life the monuments that you cross through, which stand tall in red sandstones.

In fact, until 1996, this colour was used in Indian railway trains. The maroon-red oxide primer was made of ferrous oxide, originated from local sources, though the colour was never described as Indian Red. In fact Bob and Roberta Smith's book, You Are an Artist, describes how in the 90s, one could buy enamel paint in the UK from a company named Bollom that supplied a colour range of Edwardian colour schemes used on railways, which also included Indian Red.

How Did Indian Red Disappear From The Colour Box?

It was in 1958, when the crayon colour brand Crayola captured this shade in its 64-colour crayon box. The colour was loved by everyone across, with kids using it to colour barns, bricks, and sun set. A colour that carried the essence of land, even far away. However, years later, in 1999, the crayon was renamed "Chestnut". While the colour itself remained unchanged, the name "Indian Red" gradually vanished, what was left was only its mention in the pages of history, or to those who still held close to their older colour set. Despite its loss of name, "Indian Red" continues to appear on paintings, murals, brands, historical monuments and for their restoration, across borders.