The Colors of Napoleon's Army

The Colors of Napoleon’s Army 1807-1815

The goal of this four-page painting guide was to authenticate the color Imperial Blue used on all French infantry and artillery uniforms. Thanks to the assistance of the Musée de l’Emperi in Salon-de-Provence, France, and private collector Jean Brunon, we had the opportunity of handling First Empire uniforms. These were checked against cloth samples in other museums and institutions to provide cross-references.

We do not claim that the colors presented are the only “true” colors worn by Napoleon’s soldiers. However, we made a concerted effort to obtain or examine the best existing samples of First Empire uniforms and nearly all of our visual color matches were made using interior surfaces of garments, behind linings, where colors were most likely to remain consistent over the past 200 years.

The printer used actual samples of cloth to match the colors presented in this painting guide.