Belgian Force Publique Uniforms (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

I ordered one of the sets below from Mike and was curious about the color of the soldiers' pants. All the photos and uniform prints I had seen showed the pants dyed the same blue as the shirt. As a professional researcher I decided to see if I could shed some light on why Hiriart painted them white. The New York Public Library has an excellent online illustrated database of uniform prints.

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=206

Among the collection I found a Belgian print from 1896 showing the blue shirt/white pants combination. (see below) So this particular set more likely portrays the BFP from the 1890s rather than WWI. The BFP had a number of uniforms as can be seen from the Osprey illustration from Armies in East Africa 1914-18. Mike and I have ordered additional sets in the uniform worn by figure 2. If you want the WWI parade version which was all dark blue, then Hiriart can do the set that way.