Simkin R. The 30th. Foot Storming of Badajoz, 6 April 1812

Watercolour, Signed  (Bottom Right)  titled on mount, matted, glazed, gilt-wood frame
8 3/4 x 10 1/2" ( 22.2 x 26.2 cm) Frame: 14 1/2 x 19"

The siege was one of the bloodiest in the Napoleonic Wars and was considered a costly victory by the British, with some 4,800 Allied soldiers killed or wounded in a few short hours of intense fighting during the storming of the breaches as the siege drew to an end. Wellington is reported to have wept at the sight of so many casualties.

The 2nd Battalion, 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot embarked for Portugal in March 1809 for service in the Peninsular War. It fought at the Siege of Badajoz in March 1812: the battalion's losses were 6 officers including the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Grey, and 132 other ranks. It also saw action at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812; at Salamanca, Ensign John Pratt, a junior officer in the battalion, captured the French Imperial Eagle of the 22nd Regiment de Ligne. It went on to fight at the Siege of Burgos in September 1812 before returning home in December 1812. The battalion subsequently landed in Holland and fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras and the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

Ref. 632  RY16 (179)/AOL /r.ando>VOL    PRICE CODE  D

 

 

 

SCOUTS

10th. Lt. Dragoons in the Peninsula, after William Barnes Wollen, 1905.
Chromolithograph  Published E.S & A. Robinson Ltd. Bristol. Non-glare glazing, Set into heavy gilt-wood and gesso frame.
 Image size 29 1/2 x 22" (74.9 x 55.9 cm.)   Frame 36 x 28 1/2".

Ref.  CB9 (186)/ALN/ a.anan >VNN     SOLD     PRICE CODE  C

10th Light Dragoons, later to become ‘The Royal Hussars’ – was an elite British cavalry regiment under the command of Lord Paget, that played a significant role during the winter retreat to Corunna  (1808-9) and other engagements during the Peninsular war. Here, Wollen has depicted the sensitively captured moment when two of their number spot five mounted enemy emerging from the trees on the opposite side of the ravine.  The horses stop in their fresh snow tracks, behind two large trees, hooves poised (note the bloodied bandage on the right front hock of the lead horse) and ears pricked forward. The silence is palpable as the sergeant hand signals his companion to halt. Wollen exhibited the original painting at the Royal Academy London 1905.

William Barnes WOLLEN, Born Leipzig, Germany 1857; died London 1936.   Along with Woodville and Hillingford, Wollen may be regarded as one of the most prolific illustrators and artists of battle pictures of the late Victorian/early Edwardian era.

With the end of the Boer war, Wollen returned to painting retrospective battle/campaign pictures such as Scouts (The Royal Hussars) showing a patrol of the 10th Light Dragoons in the Peninsula, Wollen was also an active illustrator and painter in water-colours, exhibiting many pictures at the various London exhibitions.

Provenance:  Parker Gallery London 1975
Private collection Mississauga  1975- 2020