Men and Women in Pink: A Study in Gender and Color

 In a modern gendered world when we look at art we cast our modern day ideas onto the piece. We see men in heels and giggle and women with their breasts exposed and try to look away. Since the end of World War II, pink has been seen as an effeminate color, assigned to girls at birth. In the mid-18th century, pink was a fashionable color amongst both men and women aristocrats. Madame de Pompadour, King Louis XV’s mistress, loved pink, so much so that a new shade was named after her. Pink was seen as a symbol of class and luxury. Pink was continually seen as this symbol of high class throughout France especially, but even in America. A study in 1927 in Time Magazine showed that 60% of answers showed that people thought pink was a more masculine color and even that blue could be seen as more feminine. But after the brutality of World War II, men started wearing darker colors as they reflected their service in the war. Pastel colors, like pink, were marketed to be more feminine to help establish the traditional gender norms as soldiers returned home.   

In the modern day, we still see pink as feminine and girly, weaker than the more masculine blue. When portraits from hundreds of years ago depict women in pink we nod in agreement and can see how this is showing our norms were common even then. We see men in pink and are confused. Why would this war-hero looking man be in pink? In this exhibit, think more about how pink was a masculine color when these paintings were done. How do these women in pink then rock that status quo? How do we see one sex as lesser than based on color or pose? Challenge yourself in focusing on what this painting could be saying about gender at the time it was created. 

Berthe Morisot, The Girl in the Pink Dress (Albertie-Marguerite Carré, later Madame Ferdinand-Henri Himmes, 1854–1935) Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2003.20.8.

This painting depicts a young woman in a light pink dress sitting on a light blue loveseat with her hand resting on a pillow. Morisot, being one of the only women in the Impressionist school in France, was looked upon by audiences of her paintings of women. When looked at close, this painting shows an amazing variation of brush strokes and an amazing use of value. Morisot highlights the wealthy status of this young woman with her elaborate dress and black lacy hat. Through this young woman’s black choker with a gold pendant and her engagement ring her wealth status is not in question, and even more so through her pink dress. Now how does her pink dress affect how you see her and her status?

Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Scale of Love Oil on canvas. National Gallery in London, Accession Number: NG2897. 

This painting is of a musician in a matching pink costume holding a guitar, sitting on a rock in the woods and leaning down to look at a woman who is sitting at his side. The tone of the painting is warm with the mix of pink, red, and light brown with a cooler background of the woods. Despite being technically part of the Rococo Movement, this painting does not invoke the pretty light almost cotton candy-esque that are key features of the Rococo. The man is both the focal point of the painting due to him being the center of the painting as well as the color of his attire, drawing attention to his artistic ability. Art and culture was highly loved and exalted at this time, so how does the man in pink further exalt art and music as a masculine skill to have?

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing. Oil on canvas. Wallace Collection, London.

                                                

In a lustrous garden a woman in a pink dress is high in the air on a swing while an older man is operating the swing with ropes. A man beneath the woman, half hidden in bushes, peers up her skirt while one of her dainty slippers is mid-air coming off of her foot. The playfulness and eroticism of this painting can’t be missed with the image of cupid on the left side as well as the opulent rose bush the man is hiding in. Much like how a swing moves quickly back and forth, Fragonard is beckoning the audience to move back and forth across the painting, taking in how each man is joined together with the woman. The woman’s pink dress echoes the roses in both color and the literal style and shape. What is this painting saying about fertility and the sexual nature of man and woman through the pink dress. 

Giovanni Battista Moroni Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli, called Il Cavaliere in Rosa (The Man in Pink). Oil on canvas. The Frick Collection. 

This portrait of Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli was painted during the Renaissance as a likeness of Isotta Brembati, who was an Italian countess and poet, second husband. During the Renaissance, portraits of people were incredibly important, as this would be how their likeness would be remembered in history. Moroni is very specific in how he paints Grumelli, from dressing him in pink, to his pose with one hand on his sword, all the way to the broken statue on the ground that harkens back to Greece and Rome. Not only is Grumelli wearing head to toe pink, there are also details of silver and shades of pink throughout. Why do you think Moroni put Grumelli in pink? What is this saying about his status, especially with the other details in the painting like the statue and the Biblical scene on the right on the wall?

John Duncan Ferguson, The Hat with the Pink Scarf, 1907. Oil on board. The Ferguson Gallery, Accession Number: 1992.209

Scottish painter John Duncan Ferguson, much like Morisot, moved to France and became enraptured in the Impressionist Movement. With varied paint strokes and the use of value, Ferguson diverges from the traditional style of portrait painting to depict this woman with a blank background. The details of her face and clothing, from her large hat to her earrings and brooch, reveal her wealth status and the fashion of the day. With the styling of her hair and the high collar of her dress, this woman can be seen as a picture of womanly grace and beauty. If that is the case, what is Ferguson doing by painting her in not just one but two shades of pink? What is he saying about high class women’s femininity? 

Gainsborough Dupont, Henry Fiennes Pelham Clinton (1750–1778), Earl of Lincoln. Oil on canvas. UK Art, Accession Number: NCM 1982-642.

Henry was a British politician who served under King George II and III. Upon inheriting the title of Earl, Henry subsequently expanded his family’s land holdings, adding on the Pelham Clinton part of his name, bringing greater wealth and respect to the Fiennes name. There is a portrait of a younger Henry when he was a child dressed in blue, but as an adult he is dressed head to toe in a silk, light pink suit. Knowing that Henry is a prolific politician who served under two kings and was a rich landowner, what is Dupont saying about the color pink in this portrait? How do our modern meanings of pink affect how we see Henry?