Comrades, The Last Request

Comrades, The Last Request

RDS_treasures_117_Gibb_Comrades.jpeg

History painting depicting three infantrymen from the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot – known as the Black Watch – during the Crimean War (1853-56). Positioned centre, an infantryman sits injured on the ground, directed left, his gaze directed at a second infantryman, his left leg bent at the knee, his right leg outstretched, his left hand on the ground, his right hand held by another infantryman. To the left, directed right, gazing down, the second infantryman bends over the injured infantryman, in his left hand he holds a musket mounted with a socket bayonet by the barrel, resting the butt on the ground, in his right hand he holds the right hand of the injured infantryman. To the right, a third infantryman stands with a musket in his hands, directed front, gazing right. The infantrymen wear the uniform of the 42nd Regiment of Foot including: caped greatcoat, dark green-and-blue tartan kilt, buff-coloured shoulder belts crossed over the chest, red stockings, buff-coloured gaiters and black bearskin cap with red hackle (the second infantryman wears a black, highland bonnet with red cockade). Each carries a buff-coloured rucksack on his back. In the foreground, the injured infantryman’s musket and bearskin cap lie on the snowy ground; in the background, indistinctly, an infantry marches past in column formation through a snow blizzard; signed and dated lower left Robert Gibb 1878.

RDS Treasures Collection

Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.

RDS Library & Archives

Painting

1878

Oil on canvas

112 x 86 cm