In a previous post, we noted that in late 1889, a new color “chaudron red” had been created with the name “Eiffel Red” in honor of the newly built Eiffel Tower. Essentially, it was a rich deep shade of chaudron-red and as such described the original color that the Eiffel Tower was painted when it was first erected for the Paris Exhibition of 1889. The original paint was meant as a protective coating and had a copper-red color because of its active ingredient, iron oxide, which gives the paint its protective quality, preventing rust to the steel that made up the Eiffel Tower’s construction (even to this day, iron oxide paint is used for treating steel beams). So what did this look like? Probably something like this:

To give an idea how it might have looked like, at least through artistic eyes, is this illustration:

Georges Garen, Embrasement de la Tour Eiffel, 1889; Musée d’Orsay, Paris

It must have been a magnificent to have seen this back in 1889. 🙂