The colour palette of Richelieu's houses...

a house near the place du Marché

a side door to the church in ochre paint

the tuffeau masonry of the fausse porte

a house from the early 19th century

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Autumn in the parc de Richelieu, October 2015 - green goes russet!

The orangery surmounted with the green god Vertumnus

the duc's cellars surmounted with Bacchus

leafless

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"Painting the town red"

16 Grande Rue gets the treatment

On the Saturday, 7 September 2013, a large number of volunteers descended on the cité ideale of Richelieu to 'bring the good news' of ochre-based paints to the scruffy old buildings and their grand doorways.  The 'Association' of Terres et Couleurs was formed in 1995 by the manufacturers of ochre-based architectural paints, who seek to re-introduce these ancient products that have, until recently, been eclipsed by 'modern' paint technology.  While these 'modern' paints may have many merits for new construction, the qualities of these older earths-based paints have come to be overlooked.  In the same way, the merits of several lime-based building products had been smothered in the race to newer, cheaper, high-technology methods of building.  

So a group of architects, historians, building experts, and painters and manufacturers have come together to encourage the revival and use of these products.  In the UK, SPAB, the society formed by William Morris a hundred and fifty years ago, encourages the revival of 'ancient' construction practice, particularly that of lime-based mortars, in the very country where 'Portland' cement was invented.  Damp, non-porosity, mould, garish 'modern' chemical colours have all come to be seen as the problems of these newer construction methods.  This is of importance in protected historic towns such as Richelieu, whose buildings were all constructed 400 years ago.

The association's volunteers arrive in a new location (Richelieu is the 20th town chosen) for a day-long team effort to clean-off and re-paint doors and other chosen timber architectural features.  In this way the viability of the paints is demonstrated, while the old fabric gets a good 'wash and brush up'.  The paint itself and the volunteers' labour are supplied for nothing, while the building owners must prepare the base woodwork for the process. According to their condition, many doors  in Richelieu were sand-blasted clean of the former grime and coatings before the day started.

All the doors on the Grande Rue (save one, for witness of the former condition!) were painted in the same 'bull's blood' colour, while the town's ancient gates were coated in a 'yellow ochre' colour.

The project had the support of the Townhall - their own doors were repainted too! - and commanded the intellectual and historic support of Bâtiments de France.  That 'bull's blood' - a high ferrous oxide pigment colour - was indeed  an appropriate tint is shown by its widespead use at the Château de Thouars (also by Jacques Lemercier), and by some existing buildings in the domainal park of the cardinal-duc.

the brochure title page of terres et coleurs

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terresetcouleurs.com

16 Grande Rue after

Polychromy+Tuffeau

The town of Richelieu is built of the staple materials of the 17th century in Touraine; chalky fieldstone rubble, tuffeau - a very soft whitish limestone, barely more than compacted chalk - and various pierres dures - hardstones - for use in locations where tuffeau's water absorbtion is a problem.  This problem is mainly in foundation work and the first couple of courses above ground level, as can be seen in a change of stone work at low level on all but the humblest constructions.  With slate or tile roof on a oak or chestnut timber charpente, this forms the materials palette of the provincial 17th century.

However (and obviously) the town lived through the aesthetics of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries too, and some of their favourite styles can be found in adaptations to older buildings.  Here, in the dappled light of a hazel nut tree, is a typical piece of 19th century polychromy.  Tuffeau blocks interchanged with five red-brick courses, all embedded in  a much older rendered rubble wall of a rear extension building.

Often the results of this stylistic mélange seem very pretty.....

It may be a motif that is more eighteenth century than nineteenth, as one can see the idea illustrated at the fantasy farm created for Marie-Antoinette at Versailles in the 1780s.

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The newly restored façade of 16 Grande Rue

The newly-restored façade of the corner hotêl particulier,16 Grande Rue, has emerged from its scaffold.  The yellow ochre render that has been used is in contrast to the more muted palette that has been the norm in recent Richelieu restoration projects.  This colour echoes that used in the restoration of the Cour des Offices at Fontainbleau.  This metropolitan project was illustrated on this blog last year.

The woodwork will be painted in a mid warm-grey rather than the more normal gris de perle or even the even lighter reflets de perle.

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The colours of Touraine - 2

The buildings are all made of whitish tuffeau limestone that has a faded yellow-grey tone.  Windows, shutters and doors are usually painted one of many mid-greys, and general lack of maintenence adds an antiquing effect that sludges these somber colours further.  Roofs are of grey slate. Rooflights - lucarnes - are built of untreated greyed-out oak. This shop front first floor, jammed up against the stone wall of the village church at Bourgeuil - famous for its AOC wine - exemplifies this grisaille* colour palette, the background to life in Touraine, precisely.

In the market place, the colours of the soap stall however do the opposite; a riot of waxy soapy tints.

*grisaille noun; in art, a method of painting in gray monochrome, typically to imitate sculpture; a painting or stained-glass window in this style.

ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: French, from gris ‘gray.’

The architectural colours of Touraine - 1

One of the most characteristic qualities of the buildings of Touraine is the consistency of the 'colour palette'.  With a sky often cloudy or overcast, a truely delightful aspect of the area occurs when the many 'greys' are lit up by sunshine falling on the ubiquitous greeny-cream 'tuffeau' stone work.  This little building shows off the traditional palette well - it is a gatehouse at the château of Azay-le-Rideau.

• whitish tuffeau stonework around windows doors and at the corners
  
• pinkish rendering to the coursed rubble walls between
• grey 'ardoise' slates
  
• flat grey-painted windows and doors
  
• grey shutters, often left closed
• overhanging stone cornices in tuffeau
• french grey painted oak dormers
• zinc rainwater pipes with a characteristic Touraine gutter design
• whitish hard stone setts
• decorative ironwork, in this case in faded blue paint
• sandy gravel ground surface
• a few patches of rising damp in the render at ground level - very typical too!