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Brown
Brown is not a color of the rainbow, but a trick of the eye that exists only when light is dimmed. It is a dark orange, a low-intensity yellow, or a mixture of red, green, and blue light that fails to shine brightly enough to be perceived as a primary hue. This optical illusion has been understood by scientists since the 19th century, yet humans have been painting with it for millennia. The first recorded use of the word brown as a color name in English appeared around the year 1000, describing a dusky wave in a translation of Boethius. Before that, the Germanic root for the word meant both dark and glistening, hinting at a quality that was once associated with the shine of polished wood or the dullness of mud. The color has always been the shadow of the spectrum, the background against which brighter colors are defined, existing only in the presence of a brighter contrast.
Earth And The First Pigments
The history of brown is written in the soil itself, dating back to 40,000 BC when prehistoric artists mixed iron oxide and manganese oxide to create umber. These natural clay pigments were ground and mixed with animal fat to paint the walls of the Lascaux cave, depicting brown horses and other animals that roamed the Ice Age landscape. In ancient Egypt, umber was used to paint the skin of female figures in tomb paintings, while the Ancient Greeks and Romans developed sepia ink from the ink sacs of cuttlefish. This ink, a fine reddish-brown liquid, was used by masters like Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael to create the subtle tones of the Renaissance. The Romans even associated brown clothing with the lower classes, calling the urban poor pullati, or those dressed in brown, distinguishing them from the bright dyes worn by the elite. The color was the uniform of the earth, the clay dug from Umbria and Siena that would eventually become the foundation of Western art.
The Robes Of The Poor
In the Middle Ages, brown was the color of humility and poverty, worn by monks of the Franciscan order to signal their rejection of worldly wealth. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were legally required to wear russet, a coarse homespun cloth dyed with woad and madder to produce a subdued grey or brown shade. While the wealthy wore bright reds and blues, the common folk were bound to the earth tones of their daily labor. Dark brown pigments were rarely used in medieval art, as painters preferred the distinct bright colors of red, blue, and green. It was not until the late 15th century that artists began to embrace brown, with the arrival of oil painting allowing for the use of raw umber and raw sienna. Giorgio Vasari, the Renaissance painter and writer, noted that these dark pigments were considered rather new in his time, marking a shift from the bright, flat colors of the Gothic period to the deep, realistic shadows of the Baroque era.
Common questions
When was the word brown first used as a color name in English?
The first recorded use of the word brown as a color name in English appeared around the year 1000. This usage described a dusky wave in a translation of Boethius.
What pigments did prehistoric artists use to create brown paint in 40000 BC?
Prehistoric artists mixed iron oxide and manganese oxide to create umber around 40000 BC. These natural clay pigments were ground and mixed with animal fat to paint the walls of the Lascaux cave.
Why did the Franciscan order wear brown clothing in the Middle Ages?
Brown was the color of humility and poverty worn by monks of the Franciscan order to signal their rejection of worldly wealth. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were legally required to wear russet to produce a subdued grey or brown shade.
What is Cassel earth and how was it used by Rembrandt Van Rijn?
Cassel earth, also known as Cologne earth, is a natural earth color composed of over ninety percent organic matter such as soil and peat. Rembrandt Van Rijn used this new brown pigment to create chiaroscuro effects and added umber to the ground layers of his paintings to promote faster drying.
When did the Nazi Party adopt brown as the color of their uniforms?
Brown became the uniform color of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1920s. The Sturmabteilung paramilitary organization known as the brownshirts wore these uniforms, and the seizure of power in 1933 was called the Brown Revolution.
Why is brown considered the least popular color in public opinion surveys?
Public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States showed brown to be the least popular color, the favorite of only one percent of respondents and the least favorite of twenty percent. Despite this, it remains the color of the earth and the solid ground upon which civilization is built.
The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed the greatest use of brown, as masters like Caravaggio and Rembrandt Van Rijn used it to create chiaroscuro effects where subjects emerged from the darkness. Rembrandt added umber to the ground layers of his paintings to promote faster drying, and he began to use a new brown pigment called Cassel earth, or Cologne earth. This natural earth color was composed of over ninety percent organic matter, such as soil and peat, and was used by Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Van Dyck brown, as it later became known, was a rich dark brown made from decayed vegetal matter that was widely used during the Renaissance to the 19th century. However, the pigment was highly unstable and unreliable, leading to its abandonment by the 20th century, though the name continues to be used for modern synthetic pigments. The French impressionists of the 19th century generally hated brown, preferring bright pure colors, with the exception of Paul Gauguin, who created luminous brown portraits of the people and landscapes of French Polynesia.
The Biology Of The Brown Eye
With few exceptions, all mammals have brown or darkly-pigmented irises, and the majority of people in the world have dark brown eyes. This color results from a relatively high concentration of melanin in the stroma of the iris, which absorbs light of both shorter and longer wavelengths. Dark pigment is most common in East Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. In humans, brown hair is the second most common color after black, caused by higher levels of the natural dark pigment eumelanin and lower levels of the pale pigment pheomelanin. Brown skin, ranging from honey to coffee, is caused by melanin produced within cells called melanocytes, evolving to regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin. While white and black are commonly used to describe racial groups, brown is rarely used because it crosses all racial lines, as seen in Brazil where the word pardo refers to multiracial people.
The Uniforms Of War And Politics
Brown has been a popular color for military uniforms since the late 18th century, largely because of its wide availability and low visibility. When the Continental Army was established in 1775, the first Continental Congress declared that the official uniform color would be brown, but this was unpopular with militias wearing blue. In 1779, George Washington made the official color of all uniforms blue and buff. In 1846, Indian soldiers of the Corps of Guides in British India began to wear a yellowish shade of tan known as khaki, which became the standard camouflage for the British Army in the Abyssian Campaign and the Boer War. In the 1920s, brown became the uniform color of the Nazi Party in Germany, worn by the Sturmabteilung paramilitary organization known as the brownshirts. The color was chosen for convenience, as large numbers of war-surplus brown uniforms from Germany's former colonial forces in Africa were cheaply available. The national headquarters of the Nazi party, in Munich, was called the Brown House, and the seizure of power in 1933 was called the Brown Revolution.
The Color Of Commerce And Culture
In the 20th century, brown became a common symbol in western culture for simple, inexpensive, natural, and healthy things. Bag lunches were carried in plain brown paper bags, and brown bread and brown sugar were viewed as more natural than their white counterparts. The United Parcel Service adopted brown for its trucks in 1916, a color that was the epitome of luxury and class at the time when used on Pullman rail cars. The company has filed two trademarks on the color brown to prevent other shipping companies from using it if it creates market confusion. Public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States showed brown to be the least popular color, the favorite of only one percent of respondents and the least favorite of twenty percent. Yet, it remains the color of the earth, the soil, and the solid ground upon which civilization is built, appearing in the uniforms of sports teams like the Cleveland Browns and the Hawthorn Football Club.