Overall: 48.5cm (19.1in) x 64cm (25.1in)
Watercolour. Coldstream and Grenadier Guards assembled in the Colour Court, St James’s Palace. The spear shaped colour finials indicate a date prior to the introduction of the Royal crest colour finials in 1858. Signed lower centre right ‘A. De Prades’. Image: 38.5cm (15.1in) x 54cm (21.2in).
Alfred Frank de Prades (1825-1885) was a French painter working in working in England, best known for his paintings of horses and military subjects. In 1882 he received a royal commission from the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) for a painting of his racehorse ‘Fairplay’, winner of the 1882 Household Brigade Cup at Sandown. Unmarried, Frank de Prades lived in lodgings around the Covent Garden, but travelled widely in Britain carrying out his commissions from the landed classes for portraits of themselves and their horses. He died suddenly as a result of a fall from a hansom cab, fracturing his skull outside his home in London at 8 Southampton Street.
He was a regular participant in shows at the British Institution, and the Royal Academy as well as at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool). His work is held by the National Army Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and the Royal Collection.