Just What Color is Feuille Morte

[Terry37]

The color Feuille Morte is a fairly common color in the 17th and early 18th century, and has always been one that I struggled with trying to determine exactly what the correct color was. I have a Danish reference that shows it as a bright yellow-ochre, and there is a French figure in the osprey MAA 203 “Louis XIV’s Army”, plate C figure 2 which shows a more brownish-orange. I have looked on line and studied more than a few pictures with this being the best results.



However, I was trying to understand why such a wide variety of color choices for Feuille Morte? But there is one great opportunity for studying this subject - it is late fall and the leaves on the tree in our front yard was well underway of the leaves changing color and dropping for the winter. So, I got my camera, my paint chips and went outside to gather leaves and just see what paints best matched. I use the Methuen method of matching colors, so I gathered what I found were the three basic colors of leaves. After first taking a picture of the leaves on the tree, I then gathered three primary examples and after matching possible paint choices, here is what I came up with.



Anita Moccasin Brown 11080


FolkArt Yellow Ochre 917


CreamCoat  Autumn Brown 02055




The bottom line is that there are several choices for representing this color, depending upon which color you prefer to use. And, for me I feel I now have a better understanding of what painted to use for the color Feuille Morte. I hope others of you who may have struggled with this color mind also find this little exercise of help.

Terry

[has.been]

Interesting exercise. My wife used to be a teacher. Armed with a large
supply of card samples (of paint shades) & small cheap rolls of Sellotape
would take her class into the woods, OK a patch of rough ground behind the
School. The pupils were tasked to find leaves, twigs etc. to match the  colurs
on the cards, then stick them down with the tape. Hours of studious work.

As to the colour of 'Dead Leaf' isn't a bit like 'Sky or sea Blue', 'Slate Grey' 'Skull
white' etc. etc. ??

When I first tried my hand at 7YW one of my friends found one French
regiment whose cuffs & turn-backs were, 'The colour of the underbelly of
a fawn'

[Terry37]

Oh yes, I absolutely agree - what color is the one actually used is truly wide open, and then you have to add the effects of climate, sun, water, dirt, etc. to it. I've had one gamer tell me that the madder red suggested for British OR uniforms actually turned a more pinkish shade after being the in the field for awhile - but I'll stick with a nice red. He based this on his reenacting days.   All said, I do like having something to reference for my choice, so this little exercise was worth it for me.

Terry

[John Boadle]

Some British regiments in the early C18 had their facing colour as "philemot yellow". Obviously "philemot" is an anglicisation of Feuille Morte, but the fact that it's described as yellow indicates that in this context it was at the lighter end of the range of "dead leaf" colours. Very close in fact to what we would now call yellow ochre, or Shade 1 on the chart. This doesn't mean something like yellow ochre was always meant by the term. In another case it could be an orange-tan (Shade 2), or anything in between of course. I don't think they would mean the red-der Shades 3 or 4. They would come under one of the many terms used to describe shades of red in the C18.