Indian red is a

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...

, a variety of

ocher Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

, which gets its colour from

ferric oxide Iron(III) oxide or ferric oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Fe2O3. It is one of the three main oxides of iron, the other two being iron(II) oxide (FeO), which is rare; and iron(II,III) oxide (Fe3O4), which also occurs naturall ...

, produced in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. Other shades of iron oxides include Venetian Red,

English Red Iron oxide red is a generic name of a ferric oxide pigment of the red color. Multiple shades based on both anhydrous and its hydrates were known to painters since prehistory. The pigments were originally sourced from natural sources, since the ...

, and

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...

, all shown below.

Chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrel ...

is a colour similar to but separate and distinct from Indian red.

Etymology

The name ''Indian red'' derives from the red

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

soil found in

, which is composed of naturally occurring

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of wh ...

s. The first recorded use of ''Indian red'' as a color term in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

was in 1672.

Variations of Indian red

Venetian red

At right is displayed the colour Venetian red. ''Venetian red'' is a light and warm (somewhat unsaturated) pigment that is a darker shade of scarlet, derived from nearly pure

(Fe₂O₃) of the

hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

type. Modern versions are frequently made with synthetic red iron oxide. The first recorded use of ''Venetian red'' as a colour name in English was in 1753.

Deep Indian red

Deep Indian red is the colour originally called ''Indian red'' from its formulation in 1903 until 1999, but now called ''chestnut'', in Crayola

crayon A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of w ...

s. This colour was also produced in a special limited edition in which it was called Vermont maple syrup. At the request of educators worried that children (mistakenly; see

Etymology Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...

) believed the name represented the skin color of Native Americans, Crayola changed the name of their crayon color ''Indian Red'' to ''Chestnut'' in 1999.

English red

At right is displayed the colour English red. This ''red'' is a tone of Indian red, made like Indian red with pigment made from iron oxide. The first recorded use of ''English red'' as a colour name in

was in the 1700s (exact year uncertain). In the '' Encyclopédie'' of

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

in 1765, alternate names for Indian red included "what one also calls, however improperly, English Red."

Kobe

At right is displayed colour kobe. The colour kobe is a dark tone of Indian red, made like Indian red from iron oxide pigment. The first recorded use of Kobe as a colour name in

was in 1924. The normalized colour coordinates for Kobe are identical to sienna, first recorded as a colour name in English in 1760.

Indian red in culture

;Railroads/Railways * The

Talyllyn Railway The Talyllyn Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865Drummond 2015, page 17 ...

painted their locomotives ''Talyllyn'' and ''Dolgoch'' Indian Red in honour of the 150th anniversary of the line in 2015. Furness Railway No 20

* The Furness Railway in the UK used ''Indian Red'' for its locomotive livery. * The Department of Railways New South Wales,

Public Transport Commission The Public Transport Commission (PTC) was an agency of the Government of New South Wales responsible for the provision of rail, bus and ferry services in New South Wales, Australia from October 1972 until June 1980. Upon dissolution, responsi ...

and the State Rail Authority painted their diesel locos and passengers cars in Indian red.

References

{{Color topics Iron oxide pigments Shades of red Shades of brown Indian culture