The pear breeding programme at INRA Angers-Beaucouze is partly devoted to screen for red skin colour from mutants derived from European pear cultivars. These mutants were selected around 1950 in the USA from 'Doyenne du Comice', 'Williams' and 'Beurre Hardy'. Several combinations involving these red mutants and also cultivars including 'Lombacad' and 'Red Satin' were studied for the inheritance of red colour in the leaves after scoring in the greenhouse. In the field, vigour and tree habit of the seedlings were appreciated and compared to the green seedlings. The hypothesis of a genotype C/c for red leaves is confirmed for 'Red Comice' and 'Royal Red Hardy' as in 'Max Red Bartlett'. Three classes of architecture: standard-spread, erect, and compact, were clearly distinguished according to the genotype at the locus C. The red flesh character of the fruit is also under investigation and the red colour of the hypocotyl is proposed as an early putative marker for this trait.