SIR DAVID DUNDAS BY ROBERT DIGHTON APRIL 1810

$175.00

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Item Code: 1133-09

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This is an elegant portrait of the British “commander in chief of the forces” from 1809 to 1811 in bicorne hat and blue trimmed red officer’s coat with epaulets, sash, sword at his left side and cane at his right, wearing a pair of tall tasseled Hessian boots with a large star on his left breast. This is captioned at the bottom, “Sr. David Dundas, KB, Commander in Chief,” and in the lower margin just above: “Drawn, Etch.’ & Publ. April, 1810, by Dighton N.4, Spring Garden, Char’ Cross.”

Dundas (1735 to 1820) served as Commander in Chief from 1809 to 1811, replacing the Duke of York, whose ex-mistress was revealed to have been selling commissions, exchanges and promotions under the table during their affair from 1803 to 1806. Dundas had fought in the Seven Years War and wars of the French Revolution. In the 1780s he authored several manuals intended to reform the army, which many thought had sunk to a new low, in the quality and abilities of its officers and men, though his tactical reforms favored Prussian style drill for line infantry, putting on hold the trend toward light infantry resulting from experience in America. It is somewhat ironic that when he became Commander in Chief, he was the Colonel-in-Chief of the 95th Regiment, the rifle regiment. Nevertheless, his reforms and those of the Duke of York are thought by some to have laid the groundwork for British victories in the Napoleonic wars and the print captures something of the man one biographer characterized as, “perhaps not as graceful nor as polished as some of his contemporaries, but he was as sound as oak and utterly reliable.”

Print making and print selling ran in the Dighton family. Robert Dighton, Sr. (c.1752-1814) is perhaps the best known of the family. His father, John, was a print seller and Robert, Sr. exercised his artistic talents in acting and singing as well as print-making, selling prints based on his watercolor caricature portraits of actors, actresses, lawyers, military men, and others from his shop in London. His sons Robert, Denis, and Richard worked with him at points and produced their own portraits. He also sold prints made by others and, at least once, owned by others- the British Museum in particular. As a result, he laid low in Oxford from about 1806 to 1810, where he produced portraits of academics and country gentlemen, before returning to London to reopen the shop. Artistic talent extended to his grandsons as well, two of whom also worked in photography.

Excellent condition. Framed and ready to hang. About 17 by 20 overall, double-matted with opening about 8 by 11.  [sr] [ph:L]

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