Description
The range from madder to magenta presents and array of intense rose colours which can be regarded as the most showy and titilating of all hues. Magenta cannot be mixed satisfactorary.

Psycho-factor
The mixture of stimulant reds and blues (both light and of high intensity) results in a violet or purple tint. It tends to have an unstable appearance, appearing red at one moment and blue the next, sometimes because of lighting changes or the movement of the viewer, and sometimes for no apparent reason but perhaps because of subjective changes in the viewer’s perception. This gives the purples and especially the rose purples an oscillant qualitiy. Max Lüscher sees a liking for these effects as echoing a wish for the magical fulfillment of one's illusory fantasies. These colours are sublimations of the hues of over-stimulated flesh.

Aesthetic Effects
The showy side of these colours gives them a certain panache in colour schemes when used well. On the other hand, they can look gaudy in poorly conceived colour work.
The rose pinks have a traditional history in their association with all aspects of feminine coquetry. The bluer-magenta and Tyrian purple have also been much used in erotic contexts but their eye catching splendour has also made them an ostentatious signal of rank (e.g. the togas of the Roman emperors).

E xamples

Interiors
Many of the great houses and chateaux (Versailles and Blenheim, for example) have rooms with intense Rose Pompadour or Du Barry Red brocaded wall-paper ( Madames Pompadour and Du Barry were royal mistresses).
In the 1960s the combination of red-orange with magenta in all forms of decoration was a bringing together of a pulsating vibrance (magenta) with an energetic expression of physical well-being (orange-red). It was a favoured coloured choice in the late 1960s heralding the beginning of the so-called permissive generations.

Products
Carnival, Christmas and funfare decorations. Confectionary packaging. Feather dusters and the plumes of ambassadors’ hats. The panache of the circus horse. All these notably included magenta.

To the left are the Prestigious Purples.

Orchid Purple • Royal Purple • Imperial Purple • Bishop Violet • Amethyst Violet • Organic and Analine dyes.

Description
The deep purples include red and blue varieties. They are rich, vibrant and valuable looking. They can be mixed from magenta with some reddish blues.

Psycho-factor
These are elite colours which make an appeal to ones delusions of grandeur.

Aesthetic effects
The purples in their fullest intensity are particularly useful for ceremonial purposes; and they are usually best in small areas emphasising their preciousness. They can easily become pretentious in large areas unless handled with consumate skill.

Examples

Interiors
Traditional colours for carpets, curtains and upholstery where an emphasis upon prestige is required. Can be used in an entrance hall to set the ‘tone’ to a prestiguous establishment. Generous use of the deep purples will tend to imply ecclesiastical or regal association.

Products
Tableware and kitchenware in these colours bring out the spicy and citric colours of food. In small objects this colour may be used to express high value.

To the left are the Prophylactic Violets.

Lavender • Methyl Violet • Organic and analine dyes • Veronica Violet • Heliotrope • Blue Purple.

Psycho factor
These colours seem to give objects possessing them purificatory properties. Hence, traditional preservativies such as Lavender and Metholated spirits of this colour.

Aesthetic effects
Exotic and seemingly alien to every day human experience, these colours are much used in science fiction. Traditionally, too, they have virtually the power to 'suspend animation' so that all eternity is crowded into one moment. Thus ones senses may be numbed to ones present anxieties as if by a panacea to ones ills. As a Renaissance emblem writer suggested the enchantment of violet is capable of enabling one ‘to suffer vicissitude with patience’ (Alciato, 1525).

Examples

Interiors
The aesthetic fantasy and touch of surrealism that these colours can bring to an interior can be equally appropriate for the mystic with psychedelic visions as for the healer or the aesthete.

Products
These colours have been especially favoured by beauticians for toiletry accessories since the late 18th century.

Finally, the Nostalgic Mauves.

Heather Mauve • Amethyst Mauve • Perkin's Mauve • Lilac • Mauvette • Red Purple • Organic and analine dyes.

Description
Pale warm or cold purples of a light midtone. Cold and ashen purples such as Mauvette often have a sad and whistful air; while the warm and ashen purples, such as Old Rose, used to bear the symbolism of ‘love lies bleeding’. More human than the magical ‘Prophylactics’, they suggest the long smoldering embers of unrequited love, imbued by poets with nostalgia. Mauve can be mixed from Magenta, Crimson and black or grey.

Psycho factor
These colours carry the same feeling as the ethical reds (Glaze Reds q.v.). Raised in lightness, ‘anaesthetised’ as it were, seem as if they have been benumbed by further draining away their intensity. The mauves are sometimes associated with matriachal symbolisms.

Aesthetic effects
One has to be on one's guard against ghastly greenish after-images from the mauve colours. They can usually be satisfactorily absorbed by green contrasting areas.

Examples

Interiors
Mauve can be enchanced by contrast with greens. Like other purple colours the mauves are at their best in smaller areas, as if they are acting the part of precious colour effects.

Products
The mauves have also been favourite colours for toiletry and bedroom accessories.

Continue on to the Near-Neutral Array or
Return to 'The Significance and Usage of Individual Colours'.