In 1832 French portraitist Alexandre-Jean Dubois Drahonet was commissioned by William IV to paint one hundred pictures illustrating the uniform of the British Army. The Royal Collection retains most of this series. A photograph of the Equerry’s Room at Windsor Castle taken in around 1900 shows some of these paintings hanging together, framed in groups (RCIN 2935700).

During the period of peace following the Napoleonic Wars, increasingly elaborate (and often quite impractical) military attire was devised, particularly by George IV. By the time William IV came to the throne in 1830, uniforms had become too expensive and were simplified and adapted once again. The result of these changes was codified and promulgated in the 1831 Dress Regulations. These paintings were intended to provide a visual record of the recent changes to military dress. Their value is not only historical, however, but also aesthetic: Drahonet produces lively, slightly elongated figures, capturing their facial expressions and setting them in a variety of organic poses.

Each painting in the series depicts a single figure against a neutral background. Although their uniform and accoutrements are the focus, the sitters are often identified by name, as well as regiment and rank. Shown here is Cymbalist Jean Baptiste of the Scots Fusilier Guards, an infantry regiment granted the title of ‘Fusilier’ in 1831. Jean Baptiste was born in Guadeloupe in 1791, before coming to London in the 1810s and enlisting in the regiment. The inclusion of Black soldiers in musical and ceremonial roles had been common in the British Army since the 18th century.

As Drahonet illustrates, the Scot Fusilier Guards dressed their percussionists in a Western interpretation of ‘exotic’ Turkish costume: Jean Baptiste, captured in the moment before clashing his cymbals together, wears an elaborately embroidered jacket, voluminous trousers synched with a cummerbund, and tan-and-black boots. His plume-topped headdress combines qualities of the turban and the military shako.