"This 18th century portico is that of the old property where Louis Guingot (1864-1944) lived in Custines (54). This painter from the School of Nancy invented military camouflage in 1914.
Little is known about this portico:
In 1917, the Guingot family left Nancy and moved to Custines in the Winstel house, behind which stretched a beautiful park.
This large park has long housed a curious monument built in the 18th century style: a freestone portico adorned with two female busts and a seated Neptune, forming an elegant ensemble.
No one knows who commissioned this monument or who built and sculpted it.
The 1944 bombardment having slightly damaged it, it was offered in 1950 to the City of Nancy by that of Custines to save it.
The portico is located on the edge of the Rose Garden in the Parc de la Pépinière.
Please note, on the maps located at the entrances to the Nursery, it is called the "Custines portal".
It was in 1936 that the municipality of Custines bought the home of Louis Guingot, who was then 71 years old and who moved to Lau-Saint-Christophe in the old tile factory." (Translated with Google Translate from (
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"Camouflage By Cécile Coutin
A technique of concealment and protection, a means to deceive but not kill, camouflage was significantly developed during the First World War. The technique enabled many artists to put their talents at the service of their countries.
A New Technique for Saving Lives
Camouflage was invented by two French painters mobilised in the 6th Artillery Regiment: Lucien Victor Guirand de Scévola (1871-1950) and Louis Guingot (1864-1948). As early as August 1914, they hid their guns under branches and canvases painted in hues matching their natural surroundings so as to avoid detection by the enemy. They had artillery-men wear earth-coloured coats that allowed them to blend into the landscape. The new coats thus concealed their blue tunics and trousers (a rather less conspicuous uniform that the one of the infantry, blue and red, whose sad consequences in the early stages of the conflict are well known).
Following the experiments and demonstrations carried out by a small group of artists, the minister of war was convinced of the technique’s effectiveness and officially established a Camouflage Section on 14 August 1915. Scévola was appointed commander in chief and Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931) inspector general. The section was allowed to use workshops in order to make the equipment requested from all across the Western Front. Painters and sculptors representing all artistic genres participated in the workshops. However, set painters and stage decorators, who were well-practiced in trompe l’oeil painting, and cubist artists, who had mastered the art of breaking down objects’ true shapes, were particularly well represented among the artists.
The Workshops and Their “Art”
In Paris, the workshop on the Buttes-Chaumont, directed by Abel Truchet (1857-1918), trained over 200 artists. The other workshops were divided between the various army groups: Amiens (transferred to Chantilly in 1917), Châlons-sur-Marne, Nancy and Epernay. Secondary workshops were set up in Bergues, Noyon, Bar-le-Duc, Belfort, Soissons, Epinal, etc. They required a large number of personnel, including carpenters, sheet-metal workers, mechanics and plasterers.
Organised in small specialised teams, camouflage artists reconnoitred the terrain or works to be concealed and supervised the installation of the camouflaged objects or machines. Fittings and raffia netting were installed on artillery pieces and batteries. Observatories were set up in sentry boxes called “molehills,” built into the parapets of trenches, in armoured replica trees (installed overnight in place of real ones), or in fake extensions of genuine ruins. Periscopes were inserted into wooden posts or shrubs. Canvases and hedges concealed roads, buildings, locks, railway tracks and sometimes entire villages. Camouflage artists also painted trompe l’oeil and set up fake positions, dummies and various lures. They also did not hesitate to move real landmarks in order to misdirect the enemy.
Painting irregular patterns onto artillery pieces, railroad equipment, trucks, gunboats and other machines disrupted their true lines and deceived the enemy as to their actual nature. According to this principle, camouflage was also applied to the air force and the navy. Both observation and combat planes were painted in hues that made them less conspicuous to the eye of an observer. Ships’ hulls were painted in large, motley strips of gradated shades and oblique lines, creating an optical effect that tricked the enemy into misidentifying the ship.
The British, Belgian, Italian, American and German armies also established workshops and formed teams of camouflage artists working on their own fronts.
Physicists, engineers, chemists and architects brought valuable help to the development and the effectiveness of deception techniques, thanks to their knowledge of the structure of materials, optical effects and light incidence. However, it was artists who – thanks to their imagination, their sense of the subtleties of colour, tone and matter, and their ability to draw on the spot or from memory – made the greatest contribution to camouflage’s success.
Cécile Coutin, Bibliothèque nationale de France " (from (
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"Louis Guingot was born in the Vosges in Remiremont in 1864. Painter, he began his career as a chief stage designer. From 1901, he was a member of the steering committee of the École de Nancy. In collaboration with a Russian chemist friend, he perfected a weather-resistant fabric painting process and filed for a patent.
It was in 1914, at the start of the conflict with Germany, that Louis Guingot, together with Eugène Corbin, director of the Magasins Réunis, implemented a camouflage jacket intended for the soldiers of the French army, still dressed in madder red pants. 1870.
The two men want to offer an alternative to this uniform which exposes the French infantryman to all dangers. Eugène Corbin provides Louis Guingot with a canvas jacket made in his workshops in Nancy. On this jacket, Louis Guingot is inspired by the work of impressionist painters and pointillists to create the patterns intended to hide the troops in the surrounding landscape. The prototype of the “Leopard” jacket was born. He was sent to the Army service in Paris with an explanatory letter. A piece of clothing was taken to accompany an administrative file, which explains the presence of a sewn piece on the jacket. Unfortunately, this outfit was not chosen by the General Staff.
The First World War nevertheless saw the birth of camouflage. The French army adopted this strategy in 1914 to conceal military equipment. Large canvases were painted for installation on artillery pieces. The first aerial observation test of the camouflaged artillery was carried out at Fort Domgermain in Toul. This conclusive experience gave birth to the first camouflage team formed in Toul in October 1914. And it was not until 1915 that a "horizon blue" uniform was adopted, more discreet than madder pants. " (translated with Google Translate from (
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Another resource about early French camo may be found at (
visit link) (entirely in French, but with great illustrations of early camo ideas).