A Pair of Equestrian Portraits, 1884

A Pair of Equestrian Portraits, 1884.

Each overall: 36cm (14.1in) x 41.2cm (16.2in).

Oil on board. The first, an officer of the 18th Hussars in review order, comprising black sable cap with blue busby bag and red and white egret plume, heavily braided Hungarian style ‘attila’ or shell jacket decorated with gold lace and Austrian knot sleeve decoration indicating subaltern’s rank, regulation sword and crimson sabretache of regimental pattern, pantaloons with gold lace stripe, a knee boots; his charger equipped with swallow tailed shrabraque and red over white throat plume. Signed lower right ‘J Mathews 1884’ for John Edward Chapman Mathews. Board size: 20cm (7.8in) x 25cm (9.8in). Contained in period gilt frame. The second, depicting 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays) Mounted and Dismounted Officers, 1884. Overall: 36cm (14.1in) x 41.2cm (16.2in). Oil on board. Two officers of The Bays in barracks, the dismounted officer in pillbox cap and frock coat; the mounted officer in review order, comprising 1871 Pattern helmet with regimentally specific black plume, full dress tunic with white facings and gold lace waist belt and shoulder belt;  sword and undress sabretache; pantaloons of blue cloth with white stripe, and black leather knee boot; his charger with regimental shrabraque. Board size 20cm (7.8in) x 25cm (9.8in). Contained in period gilt frame.

Major John Edward Chapman Mathews (1843-1927), also known as John ‘Chester’ Mathews, was a sporting and military artist who painted an equestrian portrait of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, in the uniform of a major in the 11th Hussars, in 1889 (Royal collection Trust RCIN 401476. Mathews was a Captain in the Middlesex Yeomanry from 1880 and Captain in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars from 1894. He was promoted to an honorary Major from 1895. In 1894 an exhibition of 39 oil paintings depicting the Yeomanry Regiments of Great Britain was held at the Reynolds & Co, St James's Street. This was well reviewed and visited by the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary on Wednesday 19th December. The National Army Museum, London holds a number of works by Mathews and a large painting of 'HRH Albert Edward Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII in Carriage Procession at Brighton', 1880 is at the National Trust property Lanhydrock, Cornwall.

Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance