Les guerriers élégants - British military portraits by Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet, 1831-34

 

 Sergeant John Hawkins, 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards.

Private John Flynn, 17th Lancers. "Fire."

Private John Burnside, 2nd Life Guards. "Royal Salute."

Lance-Sergeant Donald Cameron, 92nd (Highland) Regiment of Foot.

Kettle-Drummer George Augustus Lüdewig Rüngeling, Royal Horse Guards.

Major-General Sir James Cockburn, Bart, KCH, Paymaster and Inspector-General of Royal Marines.

Private Joseph Bednal, 12th (The Prince of Wales's) Royal Lancers.

Drummer William Cann, Scots Fusilier Guards. "Night Rounds."

Lieutenant-General The Marquess of Londonderry, GCB, GCH, Colonel, 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars.

Cymbalist Jean Baptiste, Scots Fusilier Guards.

Pensioner Joseph Burgin, Royal Hospital Greenwich. "Trafalgar."

Triangle-boy John Sheay, Royal Military Asylum.

 Corporal John McCain, 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards. "Left Cut."

Seaman Charles Hiches, Royal Navy.

Yeoman Clark, The King's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard.

Prince George of Cumberland, GCH, Colonel of the Hanoverian Guard Hussars.

Trumpeter Thomas Jagger, 1st Life Guards.

Drum-Major John McDermott, Royal Military Asylum. "Royal Salute."

Colour-Sergeant Joseph Miller, Rifle Brigade.

Lieutenant and Captain the Honourable Thomas Ashburnham, Coldstream Guards.

 Colour-Sergeant William Maundrell, Coldstream Guards.

Troop Corporal-Major Robert Goldie, Royal Horse Guards.

Private Alexander Ritchie, 79th Regiment of Foot (or Cameron Highlanders). "Receiving Rounds."

Regimental Corporal-Major John (or Corporal Robert?), Winterbottom, 1st Life Guards.

Colour-Sergeant Alexander McDonald, Scots Fusilier Guards.

 Corporal Jonathan Cory, Coldstream Guards. "Fire."

Private John Godfrey, Scots Fusilier Guards. "Who Comes There?"

Private Samuel Bowden, Royal Horse Guards. "Return Swords."

Sergeant Benjamin Gilliece, 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards.

Captain George Elliott Baldchild, Royal Marines.

 First Lieutenant Wilbraham Spencer Tollemache, Rifle Brigade.

Private Owen Sweeny, 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment of Foot. "Receiving Cavalry."

Sergeant John Dixon, Royal Horse Artillery.

Unknown, The Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners. (The only one of this group posed not on rough ground, but on carpet.)

Pioneer-Corporal William Swiffling, Coldstream Guards.

Captain Henry Keane Bloomfield, 11th (North Devonshire) Regiment of Foot.

Private John Kernan, 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards. "Handle Cartridge."

Major John Charles Hope, KH, Rifle Brigade.

Sergeant Alexander Jameson, 2nd (or the Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot.

Captain James Edward Alexander, 42nd (The Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot.

Private William Cooper, 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. "General Salute."

Prince George of Cambridge, GCH, Colonel of the Hanoverian Jäger Battalion.

In-Pensioner Joseph Peaty, Royal Hospital Chelsea. "Holland Expedition... 1799." (I didn't notice the hook replacing his left hand for quite some time.)

Colour-Corporal Joseph Smith, Royal Military Asylum.

Private John Wallace, 2nd (Royal North British) Dragoons. "Fire."

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Routledge O'Donnell (1796-1870), 15th (The King's) Hussars.
Yes, I purposefully left for last the dashing Lieutenant-Colonel O'DONNELL. I wonder how we're related...?

During the period of European peace following the Napoleonic Wars, increasingly elaborate - and often quite impractical - military attire was devised, particularly by George IV in Great Britain. By the time his brother William IV succeeded him in 1830, uniforms had become much too expensive and were consequently simplified and adapted once again, the result of these changes being codified in the 1831 Dress Regulations. Around that time, French portraitist Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet was commissioned by William IV to paint a series of one hundred pictures illustrating the uniforms of the British Army; the Royal Collection retains most of this series. The paintings were intended as a visual record of the recent changes to military dress, but their value is not merely historical. It is also aesthetic, as Dubois-Drahonet produced lively, expressive figures - nearly all elegantly elongated - presented in characteristic and dramatic poses. Even more, almost all are named portraits, the particular format dictating that the models are treated equally, regardless of status, from prince to private.

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Across the Channel, the newly-minted "Citizen King" quickly decided to follow suit, commissioning a similar series from the artist. Illustrating French military uniforms, the group may have been been intended for inclusion in Louis-Philippe's grand project, the establishment of a history museum at the Château de Versailles. The French series was completed by Paul Lecomte after Dubois-Drahonet's death in 1834.

Un jeune officier de la garde nationale.

Garde Municipale à cheval.

Garde Nationale à cheval - Trompette.