Thomas Henry Hull, Portrait of an Officer of the 14th Light Dragoons, 1798–99

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “Thomas Henry Hull, Portrait of an Officer of the 14th Light Dragoons, 1798–99,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 3, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1434.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “Thomas Henry Hull, Portrait of an Officer of the 14th Light Dragoons, 1798–99,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 3, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1434.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This miniature by Thomas Henry Hull presents an officer in a plumed hat set against a sky background. Although the sitter’s identity remains unknown, a gold monogram on the reverse of the case with the letters “JC” may hint at his identity.¹ While Hull rarely dated his work, he typically signed “Hull” near the sitter’s left shoulder. Here it appears instead at the viewer’s left. Also typical of Hull are the orange-tinted sky background and crosshatching around the sitter’s face and hair. Hull’s usual palette of soft gray and cream tones takes on much more brilliant hues in this miniature, owing in part to the sitter’s boldly colored uniform, which offers further clues to his identity.²

The uniform’s silver cords and helmet identify the sitter as an officer in the 14th Light Dragoons.³ The jacket is also adorned with at least seven rows of buttons down its face, linked with lace. Delicate orange piping surrounding the silver shoulder chain scales emphasizes their color contrast. Several details help refine the date of the miniature. On the sitter’s left breast is a silver cord tie atop a hidden curl of lace, a style not seen in uniforms after 1799.⁴ While the cording and lace suggest elements from a 1784 uniform, the hussar-style jacket originated in the mid-1790s.⁵

One of the most distinctive elements of this officer’s uniform is his headgear. He wears a Tarleton helmet, distinguished by a peach-colored turban and a red plume. Named for Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who popularized the style, the helmet is recognizable by its bearskin crest, rimmed helmet, and tall plume.⁶ In the 1790s, these plumes transitioned from the regimental facing color to the national colors of white with a red base. It is particularly rare to see a Tarleton helmet with an orange turban and a solid red plume.⁷ The bust-length composition cuts off the full height of the bearskin crest but includes an inscription on the helmet’s title ribbon. Viewed frontally, the title ribbon would have displayed the sitter’s regiment, “XIV LIGHT DRAGOONS,” partially visible in the miniature as “GOON.”⁸

On July 26, 1798, the 14th Light Dragoons Regiment changed its title to the “14th (Duchess of York’s Own) Light Dragoons,” and the uniform’s facings changed from yellow to orange.⁹ The regiment adopted a significantly more ornate uniform by 1800, with additional rows of buttons and silver lace.¹⁰ This allows us to refine the date of this miniature to a brief moment between 1798 and 1799.

Notes

1. According to a March 19–23, 2018, conversation with conservator Carol Aiken, the case does not appear to have been opened before. Therefore, it is possible the case is original, but there is not enough evidence to prove this. See NAMA curatorial files.

2. Miniatures by Hull are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For an example of his softer palette, see Thomas Hull, A Lady, watercolor on ivory, oval, 2 13/16 in. (7.1 cm) high, sold at Bonhams, London, “Portrait Miniatures and Silhouettes,” February 19, 2008, lot 176, https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/15895/lot/176/.

3. My thanks to Christopher Bryant and Richard Warren, whose input confirmed the uniform identification as that of the 14th Light Dragoons and helped narrow the date to 1798–99, based on the Light Dragoons’ uniform history. Bryant to the author, December 2, 2019; and Warren to the author, November 20, 2019, NAMA curatorial files.

4. Regimental uniforms included curls of lace and dependent ties as late as 1799. While the cord tie does not immediately seem to serve a purpose, it could attach to the sitter’s helmet in case it fell off while he was on horseback.

5. Bryant provided clarification on different components of this uniform, including its cord ties, chain links, and plumed bearskin helmet; Bryant to the author, December 2, 2019, NAMA curatorial file. For an example of the earlier style of uniform, see Frederick Buck, An Officer of the 14th Light Dragoons, watercolor on ivory, oval, 2 9/16 in. (1.4 cm) high, sold at Bonhams, London, “Fine Portrait Miniatures,” May 24, 2006, lot 111, https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13752/lot/111/.

6. John Mollo, Uniforms of the American Revolution in Color (New York: Macmillan, 1975), 211; Anthony Scotti, Brutal Virtue: The Myth and Reality of Banastre Tarleton (Berwyn Heights, MD: Heritage Books, 2019), 13. Banastre Tarleton was the leader of the British Legion and first wore the helmet during the American Revolution. In a 2021 conversation with military specialist Andrew Cormack, he pointed out that it is unusual that the helmet does not include a neck strap.

7. It is possible Hull intended the color to resemble the orange facings, or the red plume may be a regimental peculiarity of the time. Bryant to the author, December 2, 2019, NAMA curatorial file.

8. For another example of a helmet’s turban and title ribbon, see Officer’s Tarleton Pattern Helmet, Light Dragoons, ca. 1806, National Army Museum, Chelsea, 1966-09-39-1, https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1966-09-39-1. “IX LIG” can be seen on the right side of title ribbon, and “OONS” can be seen on the left.

9. Richard Cannon, Historical Record of the Fourteenth, or the King’s, Regiment of Light Dragoons (London: Parker, Furnivall, and Parker, 1847), 18, 57; John Farmer, The Regimental Records of the British Army (London: Grant Richards, 1901), 47. The regiment was renamed in honor of Princess Frederica Charlotte Ulrica Catherine of Prussia (1767–1820), who married the Duke of York in 1791. On July 26, 1830, King William IV renamed the regiment the “14th (the King’s) Light Dragoons” and changed the orange facings to scarlet. Per Bryant, no other known uniforms of the British light dragoon regiments included orange facings; Bryant to the author, December 2, 2019, NAMA curatorial file.

10. Warren provided insight on this in a 2019 conversation. For an example of the 14th Light Dragoon’s uniform from 1800, see a miniature by Samuel Shelley, An Officer, of the 14th Light Dragoons, 1800, previously in the inventory of Ellison Fine Art, London (present whereabouts unknown).

Probably Mrs. Helen Carew (d. 1951), by October 15, 1951 [1];

Purchased from her posthumous sale, Objects of Art and Vertu: Fine Gold Watches and Boxes and Miniatures, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, October 15, 1951, lot 37, as Portrait of a Military Officer, by Franklin, 1951 [2];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] “Mrs. Carew gave from the Farquhar Matheson Collection twenty-five snuff-boxes in gold, enamel, and other materials, and a group of objects of silversmiths’ work,” according to Victoria and Albert Museum, Review of the Principal Acquisitions During the Year (London: H.M. Stationary Office, 1920), 57. Basil Long mentions a Carew in an article on Richard Crosse: “The largest existing collections of miniatures by Richard Crosse are probably those belonging to the Rev. W. E. Crosse Cross and Mr. Charles Robert Sydenham Carew. The latter inherited his collection from the late Rev. Robert Baker Carew, of Collipriest, near Tiverton [. . . ] the remainder of Mr. Charles Carew’s collection, including numerous miniatures by Crosse and a full-length portrait of a Miss Crosse, is at Collipriest.” Basil Long, “Richard Crosse, Miniaturist and Portrait-Painter,” The Volume of the Walpole Society 17 (1928): 65. Charles Robert Sydenham Carew (1853–1939) married Muriel Mary, who died in 1939. None of his siblings were named Helen or married a Helen, and none died in 1950 or 1951. Another Helen Carew (née Wyllie) was close friends with author Oscar Wilde, but died in 1928 at the age of 72.

[2] The annotated catalogue for this sale is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Miller Nichols Library. The annotations are most likely by Mr. or Mrs. Starr (although lot 37 is not annotated). Franklin bought the miniature for £15 15s.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 162, as Unknown Officer.

Objects of Art and Vertu: Fine Gold Watches and Boxes and Miniatures (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, October 15, 1951), 7, as Portrait of a Military Officer.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 162, p. 56, (repro.), as Unknown Officer.