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Lieutenant T Melville VC Battle of Isandhlwana Prints by Bud Bradshaw and Alphonse de Neuville.
PCK2406. Lieutenant T Melville VC Battle of Isandhlwana Prints by Bud Bradshaw and Alphonse de Neuville. Military Print Pack.
Items in this pack : Item #1 - Click to view individual item DHM2686. Melville's Ride to Glory by Bud Bradshaw. Lt. Melvill rescues the British colours from the field at Isandhlwana, South Africa. For this action, he was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. Lieutenant Melville was the adjutant of the 1st Battalion, the 24th Foot. Melville collected the Queen's Colour from the guard tent towards the end of the battle and rode out of camp heading for the Tugela River. Melville arrived at the river, and due to the heavy rains the Tugela was in flood. Melville rode into the river but about half way across Melville came off his horse, still clutching the colours. Lieutenant Coghill, also of the 24th Foot, crossed the river soon after and went to Melville's assistance. The Zulus were on the bank and opened a heavy fire on them. Lt Coghill's horse was killed and the colours swept away. Both officers struggled to the Natal bank where it seems it is likely that both men were killed by Natal natives. The colours would later be recovered from the Tugela River Both officers would be later awarded the Victoria Cross. We have managed to obtain the last 34 art prints in this edition, published in the 1980s. Signed limited edition of 950 prints. Image size 21 inches x 17 inches (53cm x 47cm)
Item #2 - Click to view individual item DHM971. Last Sleep of the Brave by Alphonse De Neuville Scouts find the bodies of Melville and Coghill with the colours nearby. In fact, the Colours were lost in the river and were found later, both men were posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Lieutenant Melville was the adjutant of the 1st Battalion, the 24th Foot. Melville collected the Queen's Colours from the guard tent towards the end of the battle and rode out of camp heading for the Tugela River. Melville arrived at the river, and due to the heavy rains the Tugela was in flood. Melville rode into the river but about half way across came off his horse, still clutching the colours. Lieutenant Coghill, also of the 24th Foot, crossed the river soon after and went to Melville's assistance. The Zulus were on the bank and opened a heavy fire on them. Lt Coghill's horse was killed and the colour swept away. Both officers struggled to the Natal bank where it seems it is llikely that both men were killed by Natal natives. Open edition print. Image size 15 inches x 23 inches (38cm x 58cm)
Website Price: £ 195.00
To purchase these prints individually at their normal retail price would cost £260.00 . By buying them together in this special pack, you save £65
All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling
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| Artist Details : Alphonse de Neuville | | Click here for a full list of all artwork by Alphonse de Neuville | Alphonse de Neuville
The son of a banker, Alphonse was born in Saint Omer, Normandy, on the last day of May, 1836. As a youngster, he yearned to be a soldier but his family insisted that he study law. Although he completed his law degree in 1857, he showed more interest in art and approached Adolphe Yvon and Hipployte Bellange about his idea but both discouraged him so he entered the studio of Francois-Eduard Picot where he started work with another pupil and future military artist, Berne-Bellecour. The great painter Delacroix also took the young painter under his wing. In 1859, the artist showed his first military painting at the Salon. The Fifth Battalion of Chasseurs at the Gervais Battery, Malahoff for which he won a medal. A commission to paint Garibaldi taking Naples was received the following year and de Neuville went to the place to sketch first-hand. While there he witnessed the siege at Capou. He received a second-class medal for another painting of the Crimean War shortly after. Throughout the 1860s he busied himself with various large canvases depicting events from the Crimean War and Italian War of 1859, but it was to the events of the war with Prussia in 1870-71 that De Neuville was to gain his reputation as a painter of the 'incident' rather than the event. At the age of 35, the artist found himself as an officer of auxiliary sappers near Paris, and participated in the battles at Le Bourget and Champigny. These experiences enabled him to embark on a series of remarkable paintings chronicling the suffering of the French soldiers in the war. In 1872 appeared The Bivouac before Le Bourget but it was his picture of the following year, The Last Cartridge which really brought his name to prominence among the art critics of Paris. In this powerful and pathetic picture, a small group of French chasseurs await their fate in the upper room of a shot-riddled house having exhausted their ammunition. To achieve the reality of the moment, the artist painted the scene in a room which had been riddled with bullets and wreaked of powder. His 1875 piece entitled Attack by fire upon a barricaded house at Villersexel was regarded by many as his finest picture to date, but this was soon overshadowed by the immensely popular Le Bourget painted in 1878 showing a few French soldiers filing out of a church into the arms of the victorious Prussians. During the next few years, his reputation before him, he found employment in England with the Fine Art Society painting scenes from the various colonial campaigns in Zululand and Egypt resulting in his pictures of Rorke's Drift and Tel-el-Kebir but he soon returned to the subject he was most at home with, the war of 1870. Pictures for the 1880s include the famous Cemetery of St Privat and two panoramas of the battles at Champigny and Rezonville painted with his pupil, Edouard Detaille. His premature death at the age of 49 in May 1885 shocked the art world but his numerous pictures were a lasting testament to his greatness and sensitiveness to the sufferings of the common soldier.
More about Alphonse de Neuville
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