French Colonial Prints

[Major Weenie]

So,
In an effort to discover the exact shade of khaki worn by French troops in North Africa  before they started wearing British & American togs I rummaged through my book of H. Large water color prints, and found some possibly useful colonial images.

Chasseurs d'Afrique 1935 - 1940


Tirailleurs Sahariens 1935 - 1940


Tirailleurs Algeriens 1935


Tirailleurs Marocains 1935


Hope that these prove useful to someone.
Regards,
MW

[chicklewis]

WOW !  Those are just fascinating, Major Weenie !

Got any of Italian Colonial subjects? 

Chick

[Major Weenie]

Chick,
(insert secret Bengali handshake here)
No Italian materials for me.  The prints by H. Large are all French, with only a few colonial subjects.  However, they do seem to run from the 1820's on to (some) images from 1940.
What I find most alarming is the color selection for the ordinary French infantry just before W.W.II  the uniforms are a very dark green, and I was under the impression that the 'real' color was a dark brown.  So when there's a drawing of a Foreign Legionaire circa 1935, with green trousers and puttees, I wonder if this really means that they are the same color as the ordinary French uniform, and are thus brown?
So if I can get someone to produce a color image, and by that I mean a reliable color image, of a Chasseur d'Afrique circa 1935 then I can infer that all the H. Large uniforms that match the shade of his Chasseur would match the 2nd color photo.
Pretty crafty, yes?
Regards,
MW

[Mors]

I love those type of prints. I expect you know but if you dont i suggest you visit this site
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?collection=UniformsandRegimenta&col_id=206

click on collection contents

[fairoaks024]

very useful chaps,

thanks very much

regards

jim

[Major Weenie]

Thanks to everyone,
And especially "Mors"  I went and had a look at your link.  Very interesting, and there was some 'French Colonial Khaki' in some of the prints.  It didn't have enough of the yellow/green in it to make it British Khaki Drill, but was more in the line of a light tan.  However, just like the prints from H. Large, one now wonders if this tan was the real color, or just a sort of 'representational color' which would be considered 'good enough' by a French print maker.
Along those lines, this past summer I visited a local museum with a travelling exhibition of paintings by David.  The center piece was his 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps.'  The flyer had a very interesting bit explaining why everyone thinks that the lining of Napoleon's cape was red, instead of the sort of yellow/orange in the actual painting.  Seems that the very first set of prints made of the painting somehow used red instead of the more difficult/accurate color.  And since then subsequent prints, illustrations, etc. have been based upon previous prints, and not the actual painting.
Sort of a high art version of the 'what color khaki' problem that I'm haveing.
Thanks,
MW