THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RED. 365 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RED. 



By HAVELOCK ELLIS. 



AMONG all colors, the most poignantly emotional tone undoubtedly 

 belongs to red. The ancient observation concerning the resem- 

 blance of scarlet to the notes of a trumpet has often been repeated, 

 though it was probably unknown to the young Japanese lady who, on 

 hearing a boy sing in a fine contralto voice, exclaimed: "That boy's voice 

 is red."' On the one hand, red is the color that idiots most easily learn 

 to recognize; on the other hand, Kirchhoff, the chemist, called it the 

 most aristocratic of colors; Pouchet, the zoologist, was inclined to think 

 that it was a color apart, not to be paralleled with any other chromatic 

 sensation, and recalled that the retinal pigment is red; Laycock, the 

 physician, confessed that he preferred the gorgeous red tints of an 

 autumn sunset to either musical sounds or gustatory flavors. Artists 

 more cautious than men of science in expressing such a preference — 

 knowing that a color possesses its special virtue in relation to other 

 colors, and that all are of infinite variety — yet easily reveal, one may 

 often note, a predilection for red by introducing it into scenes where it 

 is not naturally obvious, whether we turn to a great landscape painter 

 like Constable or to a great figure painter like Rubens, who, with the 

 development of his genius, displayed even greater daring in the intro- 

 duction of red pigments into his work. 



In all parts of the world red is symbolical of joyous emotion. Often, 

 either alone or in association with yellow, occasionally with green, it is 

 the fortunate or sacred color. In lauds so far apart as France and Mada- 

 gascar scarlet garments were at one time the exclusive privilege of the 

 royal family. A great many different colors are symbolical of mourn- 

 ing in various parts of the world; white, gray, yellow, brown, blue, 

 violet, black can be so used, but, so far as I am aware, red never. Every- 

 where Ave find, again, that red pigments and dyes, and especially red 

 ochre, are apparently the first to be used at the beginning of civilization, 

 and that they usually continue to be preferred even after other colors are 

 introduced. There is indeed one quarter of the globe where the allied 

 color of yellow, which often elsewhere is the favorite after red, may be 

 said to come first. In a region of which the Malay peninsula is the 

 center and which includes a large part of China. Burmah and the lower 

 coast of India, yellow is the sacred and preferred color, but this is the 

 only large district which presents us with any exception to the general 

 rule, among either higher or lower races, and since yellow falls into the 



