Frank Holl (1845-88)
Frederick, 1st Earl Roberts, VC (1832-1914) Signed and dated 1881
Oil on canvas | 69.8 x 57.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 407485
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Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born in India and had a distinguished military career in India, Afghanistan and South Africa. He won the Victoria Cross for saving the life of a loyal Indian soldier and capturing a rebel standard at Khudaganj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, in January 1858. The pouch he wears slung round his neck in the portrait had saved his life during the siege of Delhi in 1857. He recalled the incident in his autobiography: 'I suddenly felt a tremendous blow on my back ... I had been hit close to the spine by a bullet, and the wound would probably have been fatal but for the fact that a leather pouch for caps, which I usually wore in front near my pistol, had somehow slipped round to the back; the bullet passed through this before entering my body, and was thus prevented from penetrating very deep'. It was the only wound he received in his career. The Sam Browne strap across his right shoulder had been developed by a British army officer who had been injured in 1858 and lost his left hand. The additional shoulder strap to his belt held his scabbard in place and enabled him to draw his sword. It soon became part of the standard uniform.
Signed and dated: Frank Holl / 1881. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and the sitter and the date, 1881.Provenance
Painted for Queen Victoria
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
69.8 x 57.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
97.0 x 83.6 x 7.1 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)