Does anyone know of any reliable contemporary painting depicting a French warship from the 1680-1690 era showing the color of the masts and spars? I am looking for source of information on the what colors the masts and spars of the Soleil Royal could reasonably be.
Previously, I worked from a number of contemporary painting from the Anglo-Dutch wars. Those painting generally depict both English and Dutch ship with muddy, brownish colored spars and masts, suggesting the masts and spars were either left in naturally wet and weathered wood color, or perhaps varnished. Since the new French Navy under Louis XVI initially followed Dutch Practices by and large, I assumed that Soleil Royal would have sported nature wood colored masts and spars, at least at the time of her construction around 1670s.
But I discovered a newer painting of the Swedish 90 gun first rate Konung Karl, done in 1684, which appears to show masts and spars painted in a light color, perhaps white. Since at the time the French Navy has become preeminant in Europe, and French ship design exerted a heavy influence on the Swedish (Konung Karl herself was designed by the French), I thought this suggests that the French may have originated the practice of painting masts and spars white sometime between the Dutch wars and the 1680s.
I am just looking for confirmation.