  Intrinsic color profiles of a sample of nine Brightest Cluster Galaxies
(BCGs) are recovered from the observed color profiles by evaluating spurious
gradients introduced by errors in the determination of the sky levels and by
different seeing conditions between the observations. Isophote shapes and
surface brightness profiles are presented for the four newly observed BCGs.
Three out of nine BCGs show color gradients of the order of 0.10 mag per decade
in radius. Five BCGs do not possess any color gradient larger than 0.01 mag per
decade in radius. We do not see any correlation between the presence (or the
sign) of a color gradient and the BCG morphology (slope and shape of its
surface brightness profile), or the cluster richness. This argues against a
strong and recent influence of the environment on the BCG morphology. The slope
of the BCG surface brightness profile is correlated to the cluster richness,
posing a constraint on the initial conditions, or on the physical mechanism
that is responsible for the present BCG morphology. Finally, only one BCG can
be a cD despite visual classification as such of all studied BCGs.
