Originally imported from the Golconda region of India, Indian red was a highly purified iron oxide with exceptional opacity and tinting strength. It has been a staple of portrait painting for centuries.

Indian red is the colour of shadow on warm skin — dark, slightly purple-red, deeply grounding. It is a foundational colour for portrait painters, the shadow tone that gives depth to flesh without going grey or muddy.

Sargent kept Indian red on his palette consistently. In Indian classical painting (Rajput and Mughal traditions), iron oxide reds were fundamental. In Japanese lacquerware, a similar iron red (bengara) has been used for centuries.