The French historian, Michel Pastoureau, notes that red, black and white, are the only colours found in Paleolithic  cave painting.  And in Europe, red is the first colour to have been mastered – using madder – for the purposes of painting and dyeing cloth. 

 

The historian refers to red as THE COLOUR of  colours for its vivacity, its longevity in human history and the contradictory symbolism with which it has been loaded.

 

Red is symbolically an ambivalent colour.  Its positivity is associated with power, love, beauty, festivities, women, childhood.

 

Its ‘bad’ side is its association with the fire which destroys, and possessive love which destroys, and danger, and the blood of criminality, and with perversity, and anger.

 

 Pastoureau notes that red is associated in many cultures with fire and blood. In some civilizations, it is associated with revolution and rebellion.

 

In the ‘West’, we rarely see red worn from head to toe by anyone on a street or in a public place; or used in an interior decoration in a major way.

 

It takes to go to south-east Asia to see the possibilities of the reds, public and private.  Here are some photos taken in Gujarat and Rajasthan in 2008 and 2010.

 

 

Nandi in a shrine of Lord Shiva, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

 

 

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Widely worn or not, red remains associated in the ‘West’ with women for the entire cycle of life and red has featured prominently in paintings of women

 

from the pink associated with girlhood and purity; to the rose of weddings; to the reds of the reproductive cycle; to the violet shades of female eroticism; to the purples which used to denote widowhood and mourning (in parts of the ‘West’).

 

 

Portrait of a Lady, tempera on panel. 

Piero del Pollaiuolo, Italian, 1441-1496.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY 

 

 

 

Madonna and Child, c. 1480, tempera, oil and gold on wood 

Vincenzo Foppa, 1430-1515, Italian.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The colour, unlike the more customary Marian blue, associates the Virgin Mary with the power and the glory.

 

 

 

Courtly Scene, c. 1525-30, oil on wood panel.

  Unknown artist, Netherlandish or German.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

Portrait of a Lady, oil on wood panel, 1577-80. 

Attributed to El Greco, Spanish born Crete, 1541-1614.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Merrymakers at Shrovetide (Mardi Gras today), 1616/17, oil on canvas. 

Frans Hals, 1582/83-1666, Dutch.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The woman is thought to be – probably – a man because these are performers and women were not permitted to perform in this kind of spectacle.

 

 

 

Saint Cecilia and An Angel, c.1617/18 and c.1621/27.

Orazio Gentileschi, 1563-1639, Florentine; Giovanni Lanfranco, 1582-1647, Italian. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 A Maid Asleep 1656-’67, oil on canvas;

Johannes Vermeer, baptised 16320-1675, Dutch. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

 

 

 

 

Woman with a Pink, early 1660’s, oil on canvas. 

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669, Dutch.  Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

 

 

A Young Woman and Cavalier, oil on canvas

Cornelis Bischop, 1630-1674, Dutch.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of a Woman and an Enslaved Servant, 1696, oil on canvas 

Nicholas de Largillierre, 1656-1746, French.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The slave is wearing a hinged slave collar.  Slavery was not permitted at this time within France itself but they nevertheless existed particularly in families whose income derived from slavery outside of France proper.

 

 

 

 

Seated Woman Holding a Fan, 1717, red, black and white chalk.

  Antoine Watteau,1684-1721, French.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Hayne Hudjihini, Eagle of Delight, 1832-33, oil on canvas.  Henry Inman, 1801- 1846, American.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

The tattoo on her forehead denotes her royal lineage (Otoe-Missouria).  This portrait was commissioned by a Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent who met her in Washington DC and fell in love with her.

 

 

 

 

Girl in Red, c.1866, oil on canvas

Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Madame Camus, oil on canvas, 1869/70, and detail. 

Edgar Degas, 1834-1917, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Old Mill (The Morning Bell), 1871, oil on canvas.

Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, American. Loaned by Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2022

 

The American civil war is done and the country has begun its industrialization. A woman carrying her lunch pail goes to work at the mill, watched by three others in homespun who are clearly still tied to the still dominant agrarian economy.

The colour red seems to have two meanings here: the young woman is proclaiming her liberation from the kind of work in which her foremothers were engaged; the artist is noting the beginning of societal cleavage and tension between people engaged in very different kinds of work. 

 

 

 

 

Henri  Michel Lévy, c. 1878, oil on canvas 

Edgar Degas  . Loaned by the Calouse Gulbenkian Museum, London to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2023/24

 

This painting shows a mannikin, used to model the figure to the right of the painter,   was apparently allowed to slump to the ground.

The angle of her body and particularly her head is unsettling; an unsettlement encouraged by the red tie of her high-neck blouse.   As though she had been strangled.

Commentary on this painting by the museum points to the ambiguity of Degas’ attitudes to women which, in the eyes of others, amounted to a straightforward misogyny in a  misogynistic civilization.

 

 

 

 

 

Portia, 1886, oil on canvas.

Sir John Everett Millais, 1829-1896, British.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Study of Lilia, oil on canvas, 1887 

Carolus-Duran, 1817-1917, French.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

Woman in the Garden of Monsieur Forest, 1889-91, oil on canvas.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, French.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day, 1890, oil on canvas 

Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947, French.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance, 1890, oil on canvas

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, French. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Hugh Hammersley, oil on canvas, 1892

John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

The Three Sisters, 1896, oil on canvas

Leon Frederick, 1856-1940, Belgian. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

The Lie, oil on artist’s board, 1897

Felix Valotton, 1865-1925,  Swiss active France.  Baltimore Museum of Art. 

Originally one of 10 woodcuts on the vagaries of the married life, this one scene to be later produced in this painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Visit by Lamplight, 1899-1900, oil on cardboard. 

Felix Valloton, 1865-1925, Swiss active France.  Kunst Museum Winterthur on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2019/2020

 

 

 

 

Woman in Pink , c. 1900, pastel

 

 

An Actress, Portrait of Suzanne Santje, 1903, oil on canvas.

 Thomas Eakins, American, 1844 – 1916.  Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

Interior with Woman in Red, 1903, oil on canvas. 

Felix Vailloton, 1865-1925, Swiss active France.   Kunsthaus Zurich on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2019/2020

 

 

 

 

At the Lapin Agile, 1905, oil on canvas. 

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

The museum’s notes say: a self-portrait of Picasso with his recent lover, Germaine Pinchot, the former lover and obsession of Picasso’s friend, Carles Casagemas who killed himself in 1901. 

This painting was the only Picasso work on view in Paris between 1905 and 1912 when it was sold. 

It was commissioned by the proprietor of the cabaret in Montmartre, Fredo Gérard, who is seen in the background.

 

 

 

A Rose (Rebecca H. Whelan) 1907, oil on canvas.

Thomas Anschutz, American, 1851-1912.  Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

 

Red Head Madras, 1907, oil on canvas

Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

Maria, 1907-1910, oil on canvas. 

Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968, Dutch active France  Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum, NY

 

 

 

White Feathers (Plumes Blanches), 1910-1912, oil on canvas

Kees Van Dongen, 1877-1968, Dutch active France.  Private loan in 2024 in the Metropolitan Museum, NY

 

 

 

 

Dancer at Pigalle’s, 1912, oil and sequins on sculpted gesso on artist’s canvas board. 

Gino Severini, 1863-1966, Italian.  Baltimore Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

Woman in Red Blouse with Tulips, c. 1913-14, oil on canvas. 

William James Glackens, 1870-1930, American.  Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

 

 

 

The Dining Room at Vernonnet, 1916, oil on canvas Pierre Bonnard, 1867-1947, French. ?Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Three Women by a Garden, 1922, oil on canvas. 

Fernand Léger, 1881-1955, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Henriette Wyeth, 1922, oil on canvas.

  N.C. Wyeth, 1882-1945. Brandywine Museum, Chadds Ford, PA

 

 

 

 

The Mirror, 1925, oil on canvas.

  Fernand Leger, 1881-1955, French. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

 

The Kiss, 1925-26, oil and enamel paint on canvas. 

Francis Picabia, French, 1879-1953. On loan to MOMA, NY 2016-2017

 

 

 

 

Self-portrait in Velvet, 1926, oil on canvas. 

Frieda Kahlo, 1907-1954, Mexican.  Exhibited in the winter of 2016 at the Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

Dance in Tehuantepec, 1928, oil on canvas. 

Diego Rivera, 1886-1967, Mexican.  Exhibited in 2016 at the Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Woman in Thought II, 1928, oil on canvas.

Gabrielle Munter, 1877-1962, German, MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Madeleine Castaing, oil on canvas, c. 1929.

  Chaim Soutine, 1893-1943, French born Lithuania.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

 

A portion of a panel from America Today, 1930-’31, egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior. 

Thomas Hart Benton, American, 1889-1975, American.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.    Originally made for the board room and a class room of the New School for Social Research, NY.

 

 

 

 

Panel, lacquered wood and copper powder. 

Jean Dunand,  1877-1942, French born Switzerland. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

In the Salon, 1893, pastel and oil on paperboard. 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1864-1901, French. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

 

 

 

Mme. Kupka Among The Verticals, 1910-11, oil on canvas. 

Frantisek Kupka, Czech, 1871-1957. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

The Study of a Student, c.1940, oil on canvas

Laura Wheeler Waring, 1887-1948, American.  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

 

 

 

 

Spring, c. 1937/38-43, oil on canvas. 

Francis Picabia, 1879-1953, French.  Menil Collection, Houston, on loan in the winter of 2016/7 to MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Sarah Ruth Wood Ferguson (1890-1969), oil on canvas board, 1943. 

Violet Oakley, 1874-1961, American.  Private loan to the Woodmere, Philadelphia in 2017

 

 

 

A Widow, oil on canvas, 1943. 

Jean Dubuffet, 1901-1985, French.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

The Congo Queen, 1946, enamel, oil and pencil on cardboard. 

Hector Hyppolite, 1894-1948, Haitian, MOMA, NY.  

 

The Black Madonna of Częstochowa, brought to Haiti in the early 19th century by Polish soldiers is one of the main sources of this syncretic image. 

The image, the museum says, became associated with Erzulie Dantor, protector of women and children in Haitian lore and senior spirit of a strand of Haitian voodoo.

 

 

 

 

Helen at the Easel, 1947, casein tempera underpaint, and oil-varnish glaze on panel.

  A portrait by John Sloan (1871-1951) of his second wife.  Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

 

 

 

 

Cape Cod Morning, 1950, oil on canvas. 

Edward Hopper, 1882, 1967, American.  Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington DC

 

 

 

 

Triumph and Glory, December 1950, oil on canvas 

Jean Dubuffet, 1900-1985, French. Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY

 

 

 

 

 

Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989), oil on canvas, 1957. 

Fairfield Porter, 1907-1975, American.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

Anticipation, 1961, screenprint.

Bettye Saar, American born 1926. MOMA, NY

Awaiting the birth of her third child.

 

 

 

Madonna and Child, 1963, acrylic and gesso on canvas

Alan D’Arcangelo, 1930-1998, American. Whitney Museum, NY

 

 

 

 

Axell-ération, 1965, oil on canvas in artist’s frame.

Evelyne Axell, Belgian, 1935-1972. MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Stride, 1969, acrylic on canvas.

Helen Frankenthaler, 1928-2011.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Marilyn, 1987, color photoscreenprint and color screenprint. 

Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, American. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

The Little Concert, 1968, oil on canvas. 

Marc Chagall, 1887-1985, French born Russia.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Revolutionary, 1972, acrylic paint and mixed media on canvas.

  Wadsworth Jarrell, American born 1971.  Exhibited at Brooklyn Museum, NY in 2018/19

 

 

 

 

La Reina del Barrio, 1974-75, aerosol spray paint, gess0, and marker on paper. 

Judith Hernandes, American born 1948.  MOMA, NY

A composite of the (spirit of) women, Chicana activists like herself, in their East Los Angeles neighbourhood in the 1970s.

 

 

 

 

Faith Ringgold, 1977, oil paint on canvas, and detail. 

Alice Neel, 1900-1984.  Private collection on loan to Brooklyn Museum in 2018/19

 

 

House of Fire, 1981, oil on canvas.

  James Rosenquist, American, 1933 -2017.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

 Red Coat oil on canvas 1982

Alex Katz, American born 1927,  on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2016. 

 

 

Genesis/Violent Garden, 1981, acrylic, and wax over ink with modelling paste, broken seashells and metallic particles on canvas. 

Kay Walkingstick, American and Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, born 1935.  Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Targets, 1992, acrylic on canvas with handwoven fabric and African fabric borders.

Emma Amos, 1937-2020, American. Amos Family loan to the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2021

 

 

 

 

Self-portrait, oil and inkjet printing, 2003.

Jacqueline Humphries, American born 1960. Morgan Library, NY

 

 

 

 

I  6AM  STIL7 ALIVE3 , Stencil, spray paint, 2004. 

Mircea Cantor, Romanian, born 1977.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

The Museum notes that in 2000, the artists Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno bought the copyright to the Japanese  comic character AnnLee in order to use her in their art.  They also invited a number of peer artists to do the same.

Two years later they attempted to block further use of this character’s image by transferring these rights to an independent AnnLee Association.

Mircea Cantor then inserted this image into a museum context to refute the notion that the meaning of images can be exhausted by their ownership. 

 

 

 

Bones of a Whale, 2006, oil on canvas. 

Jamie Wyeth, American born 1946. Loan from the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MI to the Brandywine Museum, Chadds Ford, PA in 2024

 

 

 

 

 

Dim All the Lights, 2009, rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on panel.

Mickalene Thomas, American born 1971. Private loan to the Barnes Foundation in 2024

 

 

 

 

 Nicole, 2014; oil on canvas.

Alex Katz, American, born 1927.  On loan in 2016 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Handmaid’s Costume from the Handmaid’s Tale 2017 , wool with polyster fleece lining, cotton bonnet, underbonnet and belt, rayon dress. Designed by Ane Crabtree, American.

Philadelphia Art Museum on loan from Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 2019/2020.

 

 

 

 

 

Extinction Rebellion demonstrating in Westminster, London on October 7, 2019 (men may be among the red-attired ones).  Photo from the net.

 

 

 

 

The Oracles’ Silence, 2019, collage with hand-made Japanese papers, magazine paper, jade glue, and charcoal on canvas with matte medium.

Maria Berrio, Colombian born 1982. Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

 

Riding Places, 2019, watercolour on paper. 

Elizabeth Colomba, French of Martinique heritage born 1976.  Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia