Lot 126: Robert Collinson , b.1832 fl.1854-1890 ordered on foreign service oil on canvas, arched top

signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Robt Collinson/ London 1863; inscribed on an old label attached to the stretcher: no. 1 A finished study for 'Ordered on Foreign Service'/ Robert Collinson/ 20 Hereford Square/ Old Brompton oil on canvas, arched top

measurements note 30.5 by 22 cm.; 12 by 8 ¾ in.

Sotheby's, Pictures from the Collection of Sir David and Lady Scott, 2008, pp. 112-113.

Miss E. Davison;
Sotheby's, Billingshurst, 31 January 1989, lot 281;
J. S. Maas & Co, London, where bought by Lady Scott, 16 March 1989 for £11,000

Robert Collinson's painting shows a cavalry officer in uniform departing for his regiment overseas (as is indicated by the title of the work when exhibited at the Royal Academy). His wife or sweetheart clasps his hand in tender farewell as the train is about to leave. Behind her the station master signals to the engine driver. Themes in which the patriotism and sense of duty of men in the services were placed in counterpoint with the loving concern for their safety of their womenfolk came to the fore in British art in the 1850s, and were connected with the social impact of the Crimean War of 1854-6, and the Indian Mutiny of 1857-9, each of which called for British regiments to be transported far from home. John Everett Millais' Black Brunswicker (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight), of 1859-60, shows a Prussian officer taking leave of his English lover at the ball given by the Duchess of Richmond the night before Waterloo. Henry Nelson O'Neil's more popular painting Eastward Ho! (private collection), shows troops boarding a ship and destined for the fighting in Bengal. It seems likely that Collinson was remembering the public and personal concern that was felt at the departure of troops in connection with those two campaigns when treating this subject, although of course there remained a constant need for officers and men to be sent out to British garrisons throughout the Empire. Although the present painting was made as a study for the work of the same title, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, it was this sketch that was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864, as is evidenced by the account of it given in the Art Journal: '"Ordered on Foreign Service", is the finished sketch of a well-known composition, commendable for its character, colour and detail' (Art Journal, 1864, p. 161) The other composition had been shown at the British Institution the previous year, being offered for £200.