The Madras Army, and Troops Under the Government of India
Circa 1888
Chromolithograph on paper
Print size: 13.5 x 17.75 in (34 x 45.4 cm)
Sheet size: 15 x 21.25 in (38 x 53.8 cm)
A superb costume plate of thirteen different ranks identified with descriptive text in the bottom margins. below.
Front row, left to right: Governor of Madras' bodyguard / Queen's Own Madras sapper in field uniform / Queen's Own Madras officer, review order; Madras pioneer / Sowar bodyguard of the Governor of Madras; Central India horse, Russuldar, (Sikh) / No 4 battery Hyderabad contingent, drill order / 1st infantry Hyderabad contingent, subadar major / Central India horse, trooper in field service kit / 1st Hyderabad contingent, cavalry, jemadar. Back row, left to right: 1st Madras lancers / Camel orderly, 3rd cavalry, Hyderabad contingent / 2nd cavalry, Hyderabad contingent.
Alfred Crowdy Lovett (1862-1919), the son of James C and Ellen H Lovett. was a military artist best known for his watercolours and other images of the varied uniforms of the different armies of British India. When this lithograph was published, he was shown with the rank of Lieutenant, but as his work continued over the next several decades, this designation would change, right up to Colonel and then Brigadier General. This image certainly captures the spirit and colour of the Indian Army at the height of the Empire. This early full-colour chromolithograph was made during an era when images in the illustrated journals were strictly black-and-white wood engravings. Then, just a few years before this image was made, several British journals began to distribute full-colour lithographs in one or two issues a year (work on these had to be begun months in advance, and very often their production had to be contracted out to one of the few firms capable of producing the quality of coloured images needed). This chromolithograph was distributed as a Supplement of The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, July 7, 1888.
This work will be shipped unframed
NON-EXPORTABLE