True Colours
Solferino, a purplish red colour favoured by painters, comes from the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy on June 24, 1859. Forty thousand men dead and wounded in a day. The dye for the colour represents how the battlefield looked. Herr Henri Dunant (1828 -1910), a Swiss activist, witnessed such profound suffering in the engagement, it led to his founding of the Red Cross and, over time, to the Geneva Convention and the Red Crescent. In 1901, Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize and his work is the foundation for modern humanitarian law. He was, however, not without serious international scandal.