Purple is probably the most artificial colour there is. Rare in its natural state, its name comes from the delicate "violets" which in the language of flowers express affectionate thoughts. Symbols of childhood and innocence, but also associated with femininity and vanity, it is also the haunting trail of Dolores in Nabokov's sultry novel Lolita is perfumed with violets. Similarly, the flower can represent a hidden love.
Édouard Manet, The Bouquet of Violets, 1872, Private collection.
Manet painted this picture for Berthe Morisot in 1872. Although the story begins with love at first sight between the two artists, their love remained hidden - and almost platonic since Manet was married. Berthe ended up marrying his younger brother because she could not be with the oldest of her siblings.
Deep purple
The symbolism of the colour is linked to the fact that it is more or less complicated and expensive to obtain, and therefore potentially reserved for an elite. In order to understand how the colour purple became a symbol of power - for example, the armrests of the coronation throne and the crowns of England's sovereigns are adorned with purple velvet - we have to go back to the origins of the colour: purple. The jeweller Asprey, one of the official jewellers of the English royal family, has made this colour its trademark.
Ring, heraldic intaglio, engraved amethyst
At Galerie Pénélope, when we hear the word "purple", we think of a colour that tends to be red. In fact, when Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453 (if you had any doubt that memorizing a series of dates for the Brevet des Collèges would ever pay off), they destroyed the purple workshops and murdered the dyers. Purple disappeared and the new "purple" became the second in line on the list of expensive colours, also called kermes red. Our current purple.
Did you know that ancient purple was obtained by soaking a cloth in a macerate of shellfish called murex, then exposing it to the sun? We don't recommend trying this with your leftover seafood from New Year's Eve, as it takes 3 million molluscs to dye a single coronation coat anyway. This explains why this colour was reserved for the stars of the time.
The Emperor Justinian and his Court, Mosaic, mid 6th century, Church of St. Vitus, Ravenna [Italy].
To drive the point home, Julius Caesar passes a law stating that only he can wear a purple coat. As a footnote, Cleopatra (don't make us say what we haven't said about her nose) had the sail of her ship dyed the same colour. In 300, Diocletian imposed an imperial monopoly on purple.
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Do you know the fibula? It is a clasp used to fasten the ends of a garment. It is not known whether the daisy on Justinian's right shoulder is a fibula or a brooch; in any case, the custom has endured to the point of Scottish jewellery. Plaid brooches were traditionally used to fasten a tartan, a coloured woollen cloth, to the shoulder. We've got just the one with amethysts for you if you're feeling Scottish - or empress-like!
Gold and Amethyst Scottish Thistle Brooch
There is also enough to say about purple and the Christian religion, but we'll save the explanations for our spin-off on amethyst, the birthstone of February.
Start wearing purple
Purple is the favourite colour of only 3% of the Western population. Rarely trendy, it also seems to be the colour that wears out the fastest.Like all colours obtained by mixing - violet being the combination of blue and red - our colour is perceived as ambivalent and uncertain.
Complementary to yellow in the chromatic circle and symbolising reason, purple is also the colour of extravagance and marginality. It is linked to the sin of appearance, and did you know that purple was associated with "old maids"? In other words, single women too old for pink who didn't have Tinder and wanted to continue wearing a pastel colour to signify their availability on the market. Well, like the Lilac Fairy from Peau d'Âne.
One thing is certain, purple attracts attention. Perhaps that is why it was chosen as the colour of feminist and homosexual struggles.
Combining blue and red, the colours of opposites - body and mind, feminine and masculine, purple has historically been associated with male homosexuality. As homosexuality was strongly repressed until not so long ago, it would seem that wearing a purple shirt or a purple clutch bag was a discreet sign of recognition for those who wanted to announce the colour. The purple hand was also the emblem of the American gay liberation movement before it was replaced by the rainbow flag.
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Purple is finally the colour of feminism. From 1870 onwards, suffragettes in the United Kingdom held demonstrations demanding the right to vote for women - which, as a reminder, was then forbidden to prisoners and delinquents, to the mentally ill in institutions and to the "weaker sex". This is it.
Marc Chagall, The purple watermark1945, Private collection.
As a sign of recognition, the suffragettes had chosen the following colours: purple, white and green. Three colours, like the tricolour flag of the French Revolution, symbol of the liberation movements - even if, as far as women's rights are concerned, we are not exactly the most avant-garde: acquired in 1918 in the United Kingdom, we had to wait until 1944 to obtain the right to vote for women in France.
According to Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, a member of the English trade union Women's Social and Political Union Purple [...] symbolises the royal blood that runs through the veins of every woman fighting for the right to vote, the consciousness of freedom and dignity. White symbolises honourability [...]; and green, the hope of a new beginning.
The suffragette jewellery s most commonly found are characterised by the use ofamethystof the pearl and the peridot but it was also possible to use the diamonds and emeralds as well as theenamel. Below is an example from Aberdeen, Scotland.
The colour purple was taken up again in the 1970s, again by feminists, for the fight for abortion rights and gender equality in terms of pay.
Purple Rain
The colour is also linked to the hippie decade for other reasons: a symbol of artificial paradise, of the spiritual - the colour of the forehead chakra and of reincarnation in Indian symbolism - the 1970s represent the heyday of purple.
After a fifty-year hiatus, Pantone's 2018 colour of the year, purple has been re-invading our wardrobes for the past two seasons.
It's time to show off your empowerment Beyoncé-style with this lovely amethyst ring. And if purple isn't your thing, Artemis and its girl gang or Cleopatra will remind you who runs the world, girlzz!
If you liked this article, check out Blushing with pleasure and Fifty Shades of Green.
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