Mike, thanks very much for the colour chart. You have to see the colours because you can't guess from the name, who would have thought that capucine was an orange-red? I would have guessed it was brown, after coffee and the monks. And quite wrong I would have been. As for Ventre de Biche (Doe's belly- thank you Google translate!) when was the last time you had a chance to examine the colour of a deer's belly? There's another version of the Lucien Rousselot colour chart on the Metal Modeles website. Most of the English language pages have the link "Figurine Kit Guide" on the top right, when you're on the page follow the link for "Nuancier des coleurs d'Armee Francaise". It even has a colour chip for my bete noire, amaranthe. Only here it looks like a shade of lipstick.
My internet rambling over amaranthe led me to this site
https://antiquites.clostermann.org/la-poesie-perdue-des-couleurs where the author, Pierre-Alain Closterman yearns for the poetic colour names of the 18th century like nez-de-renard, fleur de seigle, triste-amie, ventre de biche etc. It would seem that there is a traditional French hunting costume of a jacket of ventre de biche with amaranthe facings. Here, it looks like the facing fabric is velvet so the amaranthe colour is rich and saturated.
I have now concluded that amaranthe is a light crimson colour, a lighter colour than cramoisi or, in plain English, crimson; the uniform facing colour as used by many regiments including Napoleon's guard Polish lancers. In many surviving, contemporary illustrations these colours look much lighter, almost pink. I believe that could well be down to the artist using fugitive colours such as Alizarin crimson which are known to fade over time. Colours like Magenta or Prussian blue were developed much later in the 19th century.
Trying to read French websites stresses my inadequate language skills and I wish that I had worked harder at school. I used to read Liliane and Fred Funken books instead of doing my French homework and believed that, because they were written in French, I would absorb the language naturally. It didn't work, you can look at Liliane and Fred's pictures for as long as you like but you won't be improving your French irregular verbs. Anyway, let's see what Liliane and Fred had for the Neapolitan army:
And here's another example found on Pinterest:
What would you say? A lighter, pinkish version of crimson? You can only paint something when you know what it looks like and whenever I have to ask the question "what did cowhide backpacks look like?" or "what colour were chasseur uniforms?" then I try this website,
https://en.empirecostume.com which other PF friends have recommended. These guys are suppliers of historic uniforms to modern re-enactors and the photographs on the site are a real eye-opener. I could not find any amaranthe examples but here's a Polish lancer:
The blue and crimson are much darker colours than you usually see depicted. And here's Lefebvre Desnouettes of the Guard Chasseurs:
Look at that gold braid! Such bling, he looks more like a matador in his "Suit of Lights" than a chasseur. We usually see gold braid in contemporary oil paintings or in surviving uniforms where it has darkened and tarnished with age. When it's new and regularly cleaned it is much brighter. I actually prefer the subtle old-gold version which most miniature painters depict. But this is what gold braid actually looks like and chasseurs wore dark, bottle green uniforms. Horror!
Meanwhile I still have to find some paint for my amaranthe. I like to paint in oils because I find it very satisfying and whilst the good practice theory of oil painting says that all you need is around 10-12 tubes of colour which you then use to mix any colour you need I have a problem. I can't stop buying paint. I love buying paint. I am a paint groupie. Please can I have some more paint?
My current oil paint favourite brand is Michael Harding. Michael's paints are wonderful and I own several tubes (surprised?) My original plan to get some Rose Madder paint was abandoned when I saw how expensive it was so I got some Quinacridone Rose instead. Michael's prices are quite reasonable but the cost of the pigment drives the selling price. For example, a 40ml tube of blue Lapis Lazuli is GBP 61.00, whereas Ultramarine Blue is GBP 6.20. Here's the Rose:
I think that we can do an amaranthe very nicely with this one, the real paint looks much better than the picture here. Now I am starting to realise that the entire amaranthe thing was just an excuse to go shopping for more paint. Shopping at my favourite art shop, Cornellisen in Great Russell St, London WC1.
Don't visit London just to go to Cornelissen, it's not that good. But if you live in London and you've never been then it's time you went. Cornelissen is a good, old fashioned shop with creaking, wooden floors and it's stuffed full of paints, mediums and brushes. They have everything the painter needs and the staff are very friendly and helpful. I was looking in the window the other day and a complete stranger said to me "I love this shop". I said to him "So do I".
We decided that we did not need to buy anything but we were going in anyway. I bought some brushes and a tube of paint that I did'nt need. Pretty soon I am going to stop playing with my paints and start painting those Neapolitans which are still in their packets.
