Napoleonic guard cavalry bridle - general Walther in Levebre's portrait

 Salvete Omnes,

number 13 is considered unlucky so I am  going to post another little thing this days -

and staying within the Napoleonic spirit why not to share this portrait by master portraitist of the era Robert Levebre. 

general Frédéric-Louis-Henri Walther (20 June 1761 - 24 November 1813) was a cavalryman  during the late Ancient Regime and later Revolutionary & Napoleonic wars, one of the most famous Napoleonic commanders and cavalry leaders of the era.

he enlisted in the Bercheny hussars in 1781, became officer in 1792, fought in the wars of the First and Second Coalition, and subsequently in the war of Third Coalition, Ulm campaign, and battle  of Hohenlindenm, 

Under the emperor he commanded 2nd  dragoon division at the battle of Austerlitz and was wounded there,  made commander of the Guards' grenadiers a Cheval(mounted grenadiers of the Imperial Guard)  in 1806, in the subsequent campaign of 1806-7 was in the forefront of the action, his command and he were among those 10,000 horsemen  that charged under Murat at Eylau. 

and so on, commanded and fought as cavalryman at many engagements, below as a colonel of the Guard grenadiers a Cheval regiment at Essling 1809 - painted by Victor Huen.  Commanded the guard cavalry at Wagram. Commanded the Guard's light cavalry during the tragic and epic  1812 campaign, During the 1813 campaigning general Walther was the commander of the Guard cavalry seeing action at all the major battles:  Lutzen, Dresden, 2nd Kulm, and Leipzig.   His last battle was to be Hanau in October 1813.  Thus Frederic-Louis  Walther served in the cavalry  more than 32 years as  cavalryman.  How many horses he could have had and ridden to their untimely end, God only knows, how many he loved and how many he cherished and treasured, we'll never know, unless we obtain a Time machine.   

and the bridle detail in this Robert Levebre's painting - horse appears to be of the high caste, noble breeding, Arabian perhaps? 

valete

Charley Russell - historical pen and ink illustrations from Back-Trailing...

 Salvete Omnes,

a very fine Polish historian passed away yesterday - rather young prof. Jaroslaw Centek of Torun University History Department - pacem aeternam. 

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and my quick post of today, I was able to 'corral' some better quality scans of the plates  :
Charley Russell had drawn these  illustrations  for newspaper stories  published in various American daily newspapers, and The Cheely-Raban Syndicate published  a 14 stories in a book titled 'Back-Trailing on the Old Frontiers' in Montana, 1922. Book is available on Archive world library for reading and download.

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Valete

Paul-Emile Leon Perboyre - Napoleonic soldiers in art

 Salvete Omnes,

the film director Ridley Scott, of UK, directed and produced a brand new epic movie about Napoleon -  see the wiki entry. It is worth noting that Ridley Scott started his big movie career with a fine cavalry-themed Napoleonic epic - The Duelists in 1977.

I still thing his movie Kingdom of Heaven sucked and was full of ahistorical nonsense and propaganda, but many were fine works of entertainment. I hope this Napoleon will be rather finer that not, but we will not see that until end of November  2023.

So in the spirit of Napoleonic wars soon to be seen again on the screen, I would like to bring your attention to the works of this one Frenchman.

general Drouot at Wagram

Paul-Emile LeonPreboyre (1851-192) - a Frenchman who was born near Colmar, Alsace region of France (Alsace taken from France by newly created German Empire in 1871, returned in 1919, taken again in 1940 and returned in 1945 'till present), a disciple of finest portrait painter of the era Leon Bonnat, and specialized in military themes. Preboyre began to exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1881, and in 1909 became the member of the prestigious Society of French Artists. He also exhibited in UK and presumably other continental galleries etc. 

Augereau at Castiglione 

Augereau at Jena

Napoleon orders advance at Jena - horse artillery moving with the chasseurs a cheval screening the Emperor

Napoleon with his cavalry - cuirassiers, chasseur a cheval, hussars  etc 

inspection before the battle - cuirassiers in the foreground

cuirassiers at Essling 

enjoy ,

ps
and in the link under Preboyre name there is a Artnet gallery of more than 200 works of this artist

Valate

Red Cloud - an autobiography to... borrow from Archive world library

 Salvete omnes,

I would like to point your horses to two books on  Archive World Library , namely to two books on the well known historic leader of the Oglala Lakota - Red Cloud (1821/2-1909)
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First one is a feast - edited by R. Eli Paul  - Red Cloud's autobiography, the war leader of the Oglalas -  as told to his friend  Sam Deon(French-Canadian, known as Foot among the Lakota), who in turn told the stories to Charles Allen, Pine Ridge postmaster in 1893, who wrote them down into an manuscript. it took almost a century to edit and publish the manuscript (1997).
This narrative starts, after a short story of the Lakota,  and their divisions ( Red Cloud was a member of  Bad Face band of the Oglalas), with Red Cloud's first war path, taken against the Pawnee, continues with many  raids against Crows, Omahas, Ponca, Shoshones, Ute, Arikara, and even Arapahoes etc, trails and tribulations among the  powerful of the Lakota, including mayhem and murder of head chief Bull Bear. We watch his raise in status as blotahunka or war leader and eventually as a member of the chief echelon of the Sioux society(but the  principal headman of the Oglalas was Man Afraid of His Horses  and then his son Young Man Afraid of His Horses/ Tasunka Kokipapi family)

 Nota bene we learn that the Lakota Sioux elite possessed Hawken rifles  in 1840s -like in the Tavernier's painting -  and that they preferred it to the other firearms. The storytelling ends with the last major raid against the Crow, when a noted Lakota warrior The Sword was killed in this fight, and Red Cloud proceeded to tell the story of his funeral, involving the buying back of Sam Deon's horse from the relatives of the fallen hero (perhaps 1861 or 1863). Red Cloud made no accounts of the war with the US goverment and the Army. Therefore the narrative deals with the pre-1864 conflict in the Powder River country et al. 

Second , the album with commentary by Frank Henry Goodyear - a compilation of portrait photos of Red Could, ranging from the 1870s through last days in his homeland.

enjoy

Valete

Tavernier & Frenzeny -views of the Great Plains

 Salvete Omnes,

a quick entry - let's the images speak for themselves

Red Cloud encampment 

in 1873 two European-born illustrators and painters - Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier - took a job of illustrating America from the East Coast to the West, working for the Harper's Magazine. 
Tavernier even traveled to Red Cloud (named after the famous Oglala Lakota leader and goverment chief)  Agency in Nebraska ( in fact he traveled there with military escort from Fort Robinson, a military post next to Red Cloud Agency, home to many thousands of the Lakotas, Cheyenne and Arapahoes. There Tavernier attended the annual  Sun Dance ceremony, drew his vision of the ceremony and later on it was reproduced in Harper's in 1875(see below)
First some Great Plains paintings by Tavernier

Joint works by Tavernier and Frenzeny

the description of the Sun Dance ceremony and Tavernier journey to the Red Cloud Agency can be found in this article

Frenzeny's works

Valete