A Treasured Incan Red

For your introduction to "Red" this month, we are going on an adventure... this week's blog is inspired by memories from my travels, historical color stories from two books I'm in love with (Bright Earth by Phillip Ball and Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay), and a recent viewing of the movie Mr. Turner - the new film about famous British painter J.M.W. Turner.  

To create a moody atmosphere in his paintings, J.M.W. Turner used a color palette that included both muted and brilliant pigments.  I remember seeing his work for the first time when I was an art history student in Boston and was completely floored by the dramatic color and brushwork in his seascapes.  He had a close working relationship with his Colorman, George Field, and tried out new pigments whenever they became available, even if they were known to be problematic.  Turner was frequently careless about his pigment decisions and put more concern on using colors that looked appealing when fresh on the canvas, rather than ones that would age well, and it is because of this that many of Turner's paintings have faded.

The first Turner painting that caught my eye - notice his use of red!

Among these fugitive pigments was a red called Carmine.  One of the reddest dyes in the world at that time, Spain had been importing it since the late 16th century when the conquistadors seized control of the carmine industry from the indigenous people of the Americas.  Pigment dealers in Europe had to purchase it from Spain who held the monopoly on the red dye market until the mid 1800's when new, more lightfast pigments became available.  Rumored to have been made from nuts or berries, the real source of carmine was long kept secret by Spain until a French botanist, Thierry de Menonville, went on a years-long undercover mission to expose this well hidden information.  De Menonville sailed across the ocean, made it past customs officials, got into Mexico and journeyed to an area near Oaxaca where he finally learned the real truth about carmine - it comes from Cochineal.  An insect!

Cochineal living on a cactus in Peru

The cochineal lives on the prickly pear cactus and was used historically as a colorant by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas.  Today, Peru remains the largest exporter of cochineal as it is still used in food and beauty products.  When I was traveling in Peru in 2013, I visited a textile market where Quechuan weavers were demonstrating how they use natural dyes for their wools and the first material they brought out was cochineal...

Cochineal produces a red dye when crushed

The insects contain carminic acid which has a red color.  When the bugs are crushed, they produce a rich red pigment.  This red was treasured by the Incas as a textile dye...

Undyed wools in Peru

Wools being dyed by Quechan women in Peru

Bonus red: Another red dye treasured by the Incas was called Annatto and comes from Achiote seeds - I was fortunate to see this being used as a paint right from the seeds by locals in the Ecuadorian Amazon last Fall.  It, too, is used as a colorant in food!

Achiote seeds, Ecuador

As a lover of artists pigments and history, it was truly amazing to see both of these reds in their natural form!  

Going back to carmine, De Menonville ended up buying some cactus leaves with cochineal and smuggled them out of Mexico to Haiti where he started his own cochineal operation which allowed the French carmine industry to thrive for a few years.  Carmine fell out of popularity when synthetic dyes were discovered in the late 1800's - unfortunately for Turner, this was years after his death, though with his love of new colors I can only imagine he would have scooped them up fast!

Artist's reds today, especially the synthetic versions of lake pigments like carmine and alizarin (lake pigments = any pigment made from a dye), are more lightfast and less suseptible to fading.  Next week's blog will go into depth about some of my favorite reds, their pigment properties, and how I like to utilize them in my work!  Stay tuned!